What to do With a Bitter Cucumber

So a lot of folk wisdom I've learned in our 6+ years of living here has been a tad on the crazy side... Don't chew gum while you're pregnant or the baby will get stuck inside you. Don't walk with your hands behind your back because that means you're hiding an evil spirit. You get the idea. So when a friend told me a little old lady had shared a trick for getting bitter cucumbers to taste good, I wasn't holding my breath. But wow.... it actually works!

If you get a cucumber that tastes bitter, this is what you need to do... chop off the end and rub it in a circular motion against the rest of the cucumber for about 2-3 minutes. You'll start to see a white foam appear around the edges of the cucumber...

The foam will build - keep going until it seems to have stopped. At this point your cucumber should look like this....

Rinse off all the foamy stuff and repeat the whole process. If very little white appears, you're good to go. Rinse it again and eat it. (You can also cut a slice and taste it to see if you're satisfied.) Totally changes the way the cucumber tastes!

So there's your cooking tip from my little corner of the world. Maybe this isn't such a great secret and all Americans know how to turn a bitter cucumber sweet, but I had to travel 12,000 miles to learn it. :)