A decade ago, I found a heavily discounted version of the Gourmet Cookbook on a bookstore shelf and immediately took it to the register, figuring that I had beat the store in realizing its mistake.
In the years since, I have made a few recipes from the cookbook, which probably ensures the cookbook was worth what I paid for it, but it's rarely my first turn for any type of recipe. On a whim, I changed that approach when I had a bounty of delicious summer cucumbers in my fridge.
While I have made a few Chinese cucumber recipes in the past, this recipe intrigued me because it involved cooking the marinade before pickling the cucumbers.
The recipe seemed pretty easy to construct, so without much thought, I started the preparation process. First, I cut, salted, rinsed and then drained the cucumber slices.
The pickles got a light coating of sugar and vinegar after they have drained, while I then cooked the marinade. I used slightly less sesame oil than the recipe called for because I find sesame oil has such a strong flavor, and I also used 4 broken-in-half Indian dried red chiles.
Unfortunately, following the 3-hour pickling process, I found these pickles to be "ok." None of the flavors were that strong, and while the hot spice flavor was there, it was more of an undertone than a main feature of each bite. As the days went on, the pickles became spicier, but remained underwhelming. I wish I added garlic or something else that would give these cucumbers sharper flavor.
Oh well, at least I had an excuse to reacquaint myself with this otherwise great encyclopedia of cooking!
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