July 10, 2011

Cooked Cukes and Muffins for Breakfast

My cheap store-brought breakfast.

So, I like muffins for breakfast.
Yeah. I know they're not healthy or anything, but they're filling and comforting. It probably has to do with the fact that all a muffin really is is a miniature, personal-sized cake. In particular, I have a soft-spot for store-bought muffins. You know, those cheap grocery stores that claim they have a bakery, but everything looks like crap? Yeah, that kind.
The downside to muffins for breakfast... they fuck with my blood sugar. A few hours later and I've got the shakes because my body has no energy. So, time for some veggies!
I know I'm crazy here, but this is honestly just an experiment....

Its so pretty!

Around lunch-time (which for me was 1pm), I started wandering around looking for veggies to cook in some fashion or another. I really have no concrete plan when I make lunch. So, what I found were halves of peppers left over from my Rainbow Mock-Fajitas, and a cucumber that I obviously forgot existed (it was still firm enough to be edible).
So I'm standing there with the fridge wide open, wondering why the hell no one ever cooks cucumbers. In this house, you eat them raw with some form of salad dressing, or doused in vinegar... or as a pickle. But they're never cooked. There's nothing wrong with cooking them in my opinion. Yes, they're mostly water, but so are peppers and we cook those all the time.
So, hesitantly going back and forth as to what I wanted to do, this is what happened:

Pepper Saute with Cooked Cucumbers
Serves two.

1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2 cucumber, diced
paprika
ginger
Sriracha chili sauce (still not hot, unfortunately)
grapeseed oil

Directions:
1. Oil pan and set flame to medium heat. Toss in peppers and stir around while debating what to do about cucumbers.
2. Dice and toss in cucumbers once peppers are half cooked. Lower flame slightly.
3. Add paprika and ginger, stirring for even distribution.
4. When cooked, remove from pan and top with Sriracha, stirring for distribution.
5. Be indecisive as to whether or not you actually like this.

This dish definitely has its good points and its bad points and has answered my question.
People don't cook cucumbers because they're morons who don't know how good it is.
Unfortunately, the pairing of cucumbers with ONLY peppers may have been poorly thought out. The dish itself is mildly spicy, but overall generally bland and disappointing.
To those who have eaten out with me (and this is just one person), the spice combination may seem like a poor attempt to make kimchi-ified Yama-esque cucumbers, which I'm incidentally craving. I'm also craving tempura and udon noodles, but that's beside the point.
There is nothing wrong with cooking cucumbers. They are just as delicious cooked as they are raw, and would be well complimented by a nice hollandaise sauce, bechamel sauce, or just ricotta.
I likely will not make this dish again. Like I said, just an experiment. However, given that cooked cucumbers are so good, I feel it necessary to put it out there that its okay to want to cook cucumbers and other foods that are primarily water. People eat grilled pineapple don't they?
Do we have grilled watermelon yet?

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