Cooking inPickling adds piquancy to cucumbers, writes Hugo Arnold
Garlic and yogurt are partnered with cucumber in dishes from Greece to Turkey and into India. In eastern Europe they like to scoop out the seeds and stuff cucumbers with meat, serving them with soured cream. In France they lightly cook them when they've been diced or cut into julienne strips, which further enhances the texture. The British have traditionally sandwiched thinly sliced cucumber between thinly sliced white bread and eaten them for tea.
If cucumber soup sounds a tad boring, just think how refreshing it can be in the middle of a hot summer's day, when it has been heavily laced with mint or dill.
Sweet-and-sour pickled cucumbers are good, too, but the sourness has to be dominant. These are good with lamb stew, to cut the richness, and they enhance most sandwiches. Find them in ethnic shops - Polish ones particularly - where they seem to understand the need to underplay the sugar.
If your preference is for very thinly sliced cucumber, a mandolin may well be a sound investment. The good ones are expensive but seriously effective - and time-saving.