Acar Timun/Pickled Cucumber

Cucumber, how i missed the pale skin ones , they are so crunchy and not so much seeds. They are so suitable for pickles/acar, unlike the green cucumbers sold in our supermarkets, which has very thin flesh and a very hard skin which is not edible. Besides english cucumber, kirby is my other choice.

Another cucumber which i missed also is the 'old cucumber'. I wonder why isn't there any in this part of the world. My sister, who is in Sydney, commented that she has not seen 'old cucumber' sold. All you readers who are in Malaysia or Singapore, should try and cook 'old cucumber' soup at least once fortnightly cos this soup will remove toxin from our system.

Ingredients:

1 english cucumber or 10 kirby cucumbers

1 tsp salt

2 - 3 tbsp oil

1 big knob fresh tumeric, thinly sliced and sun dry for 1 hour or 1 tsp powdered tumeric

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt or to taste

1/4 cup vinegar

1/4 cup water

5 - 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced and sun dry for 1 hour

3 red peppers - seeded and cut into big strips

3 green jalepeno - seeded and cut into big strips

Method:

Split the cucumber into lengthwise and core, but do not peel. Cut into 1 inch lengths and 1/4 inch thick. Season cucumber wih salt and drain in a colander. Sun dry for 1 hour.

Heat the oil in a wok to fry the tumeric until the oil turns yellow. Turn off heat and discard tumeric slices and leave oil to cool slightly before adding the sugar, salt, vinegar and water. Stir to mix and set aside to cool completely.

Place the sun dried cucumber and garlic, and red and green peppers in a glass jar and fill with the pickling solution, making sure that the vegatables are completely submerged.

Allow to pickle for at least 2 days before serving.

Note:

Sun drying the cucumber, garlic and tumeric is to rid of moisture so that cucumber wll be crunchy and with less moisture, pickle will have less chance of turning bad fast.

Serves