 July 10, 2005 |
 | Major C2C Forum Upgrade | | Recent News on the Chef2Chef News Desk | | Recipe Club: Cool as a Cucumber | | Visit our Newest Market Place Vendors | | What we Know About Cucumbers | | Recipe of the Week: Cucumber Salad with Spicy Wasabi Dressing | | Today's Top 10 Discussion Forum Threads | | LOTS OF NEW Jobs at Chef2Chef.Net! |
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Major C2C Forum Upgrade
After many late nights, we finally rolled out our new forum software on July 6th. In all of the changes we kept the navigation features as close to the original as possible to make an easy transition for our users. There are too many new and useful features to mention , so please take a look at our new Forums at forums.chef2chef.net today! Create your Private Calendar with important family dates and personal reminders. You can set the events to automatically recur each month or each year and they will be visible only to you.
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 Recent News on the Chef2Chef News Desk!
A New Oil and Trans Fat Alternative
CulinArte Annouces New Chef
Sizzle-N-Sauce
Dirona Honors Restaurateur
J&W Honors 3 Distinguished Visiting Chefs
Emeril's Shrimp - Good Stuff!
2nd Annual C2C/Chimney Park Fund Raiser
Celebrate the Sensual Pleasures of Food
ACF Announces 2 New Certified Master Chefs
Big City BBQ Opens New Restaurant in Mesa
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This Week's Recipe Club: "Cool as a Cucumber
Date: July 11, 2005 - July 15, 2005
Guest Host: Chef David Nelson
Theme: Cool as a Cucumber - Monday: Chilled Tomato, Red Pepper and Cucumber Soup; Cucumber and Feta Cheese Salad; Cucumber Dill Dip for Fresh Veggies.
- Tuesday: Chilled Cucumber, Yogurt and Mint Soup; Chinese Radish-Cucumber Salad; Grilled Halibut with Tomato, Cucumber, and Lemon Sauce.
- Wednesday: Ernest Hemingway's Cold Cucumber Soup; Crab and Cucumber Rolls; Salmon-Cucumber Paté.
- Thursday: Cucumber Filled with Avocado Pesto; Cucumber, Potato, and Smoked Salmon Salad with Mustard Maple Vinaigrette; Cucumber-Stuffed Trout.
- Friday: Cucumber Salad with Spicy Wasabi Dressing; Ginger Peanut Pasta Salad; Cucumber-Apple Fresca.
Not a Member Yet? Click here Recipe Club to sign up today and start receiving these recipes on Monday!
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Passion & Technique mixes one part conversation with two parts inspiration, featuring The FCI’s Founder and CEO Dorothy Cann Hamilton... Deans Alain Sailhac, Jacques Pépin, André Soltner and Jacques Torres... Alums Bobby Flay (Chef-Owner of Mesa Grill and Bolo), Melissa Murphy (Chef-Owner of Sweet Melissa) and Wylie Dufresne (Chef-Owner of wd~50)... and Marcus Samuelsson (Chef-Owner of Ringo and Aquavit).
Passion & Technique. Get a taste of what The FCI is all about.
Visit our Newest Market Place Vendors!
The next time you are looking for specialty foods, beverages, kitchenware, uniforms, services and more, please remember to support the sponsors who fund Chef2Chef.net. They make all this possible. Thank you. The team at Chef2Chef.  | ClubSauce.Com Prepare all your soups, sauces & recipes with demi-glace & classic stock reductions including veal, lobster, lamb, venison, chicken, seafood, & veggie. |
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Win a copy of our "Chef of the Month", Jacques Torres cookbook, Dessert Circus Winners picked July 15th.
Winners:
Vanilla.com Rachel Rowley and Dora Bruno have won copies of The Vanilla Chef, and Melissa McCaffrey has won a copy of Vanilla: The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and Fragrance. Congratulations winners; we hope you will enjoy learning even more about vanilla!
David Best and Bob Hogan were the winners of last month's Chef of the Month cookbook drawing, - ZOV: Recipes and Memories from the Heart.
June winners from TempGun are Maxine Borcherding, David Cahn, Andrew Miller, and Rik Skelton. Congratulations!
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What we know about Cucumbers
Another fruit is going crazy in my garden right about now! My cucumbers are coming on fast and furious. Did I say fruit? Here is the story.
The difference between a fruit and vegetable depends largely on your perspective. From a botanical perspective, a fruit is the mature ovary of a plant, such as an apple, melon, cucumber, or tomato. From the common, every day "grocery store perspective," we tend to use the word fruit with respect to fruits eaten fresh as desserts - apples, peaches, cherries, etc. - and not to items cooked or used in salads. So, tomatoes and cucumber tend to be lumped in with vegetables because of the way they are used (cooked and in salads), but botanists will call them fruits because they develop from the reproductive structures of plants. The California legislature once passed a law declaring tomatoes a vegetable in order to impose a tariff on Mexican imports! Hopefully Arnold will put an end to this type of nonsense!
The cucumber is a gourd in the same family as pumpkin, zucchini, and other squashes. There are basically two types of cucumbers, the pickling varieties and slicing varieties. Pickling varieties, such as the gherkin, the American dill, and the cornichon (a small French pickle), are all relatively small. The gherkin and the cornichon are rarely more than 2 inches long, the American dill rarely more than 4 inches. All of the varieties have dark green skin with knobby warts or spines.
Slicing cucumbers may be either outdoors varieties with seeds or greenhouse varieties, such as the long, thin-skinned English cucumber, which has very few seeds. Outdoor varieties have a smooth, dark green skin and are usually about 8 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. In your store the skin is often waxed to prolong shelf life. Greenhouse varieties, such as the English cucumber, are about 12 to 15 inches long.
Cucumbers have a crisp texture, a moist, cool flesh, and a mild flavor. Pickling cucumbers are appreciated for their crisp, firm texture; slicing varieties for their refreshing, juicy flavor.
Cucumbers add a crunchy texture and cool crisp flavor to salads and sandwiches; they may also be steamed, sautéed and eaten as a vegetable. Cucumbers, hot or cold, have a particular affinity for fish and are often used to garnish salmon dishes. In Japan, chefs use cucumbers in sushi and cold salads, and in England, tea wouldn't be tea without cucumber sandwiches.
Slicing cucumbers are available all year but peak season is in the summer months. Most pickling cucumbers are sold only during the summer months. Choose firm cucumbers without soft spots. With the exception of lemon cucumbers, they should have a solid green color without signs of yellowing or puffiness. Keep cucumbers in refrigerator crisper for up to one week. Sponsored by  |
Today's Recipe: Cucumber Salad with Spicy Wasabi Dressing
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 1/2 teaspoons dry wasabi (or to taste)
2 cucumbers
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon black or toasted white sesame seeds
Preparation:
Mix the wasabi with 1/2 teaspoon warm water in the bottom of a mixing bowl and let it stand for 5 minutes.
Peel the cucumbers, cut each one in half lengthwise, and use a melon baller or spoon to scoop out the seeds. Cut the cucumbers widthwise into 1/4-inch crescents. Add the vinegar and sugar to the wasabi and whisk until smooth.
Whisk in the sesame oil, salt and pepper. Just before serving, add the cucumbers, green onion, and sesame seeds to the dressing and mix well.
NOTE: Rice wine vinegar is milder than most Western vinegars. If unavailable, mix 2 parts distilled white vinegar with 1 part water. Sponsored by  |
Today's Top Ten Forum Discussions Men Only!!
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July 2005: Chef June Jacobs, CCP
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