I was sitting at the table one lunchtime recently, staring idly at the huge bowl full of apple cucumbers from the garden, for which crop I was partly responsible. Now, I'd done my best with mustard pickles, and a kiwi version of tzatziki, and a small bowlful of slices tastefully and subtly garnished with balsamic vinegar - it just takes a smidgeon to poison a pigeon - but I was still feeling a touch responsible, as it were, for ensuring that these small delicacies were not left to wither. I'd even grated them into cole slaw, eaten them raw straight off the vine, and I'd given heaps to the neighbours. All this off two vines.
Inspiration. I'd just read recently about thin-sliced white bread suitable for traditional cucumber sandwiches getting harder to find. I looked at the 15-20mm thick slices of McKenzie's Southern Grain on the table, and I said to myself, "Why not cut the cucumber to suit?"
I surveyed the taste in my imagination and it was still lacking something so I went foraging in the fridge. A half-pack of SR Cow's Milk Fetta seemed about right, so I hauled it out and set about sandwich-making. I cut the cucumber cross wise into 10mm slices, and laid it out on a slice of buttered bread, then laid 5mm slices of fetta across it, applied the other piece of buttered bread and set about an immediate quality check.
What had started out as almost a duty exercise was transformed into a gourmand's (sic) delight: A real man's cucumber sandwich.
Hearty fare, and I can thoroughly recommend it.
