Persian cucumber

And then I did a Greek salad with a bunch of produce I got from McCall's, which was quite good.

Uh, just really loving those Persian cukes right now.

And then, um, Caroline did a nice spaghetti with a green peppercorn caper.

Okay.

If you cannot find a Korean variety, you really have to look for alternatives that mimic that dense, low seed anatomy.

Persian cucumbers are an outstanding substitute.

They are small, reliably crisp, and have a very minimal seed core.

English cucumbers can also work beautifully in a pinch.

So there's a quick pickle and we're actually making that in Kids Cooking Club tonight.

We're gonna do thinly sliced Persian cucumbers and it'll be an Asian style pickle where we warm up rice vinegar and just season that with sugar and salt.

And then within the time that our class period is happening, about 20 minutes later, it just needs to cool down a little bit and it's ready to go.

So that's a quick pickle where you use vinegar to make it sour.

Yeah, I brought in a cucumber salad recipe because it's really easy and it's fairly inexpensive.

So you just get some Persian cucumbers and I chose Persian cucumbers.

In Korea, you actually use Korean cucumbers, which are kind of like Kirby, but they're harder to find.

I think Persians are pretty close.

And then you slice it to about half an inch.

Do you peel them? No, you

He stays out of the seed oil wars entirely, sticking mostly to olive oil and a little butter.

Wait, didn't he joke about being called Cucumber Boy in college? Yes! He still eats Persian cucumbers every day.

It's that kind of stubborn consistency that defines his whole philosophy.

His morning routine follows the same pattern.

The good news is that home cooks outside Korea have excellent substitutions available.

The absolute best alternatives are Persian cucumbers or mini cucumbers.

Persian or mini cucumbers.

Why those specifically?

It comes down to their physical structure.

If you try to use a standard, thick-skinned, western-slicing cucumber, the entire production just falls flat, the skin is too tough to chew delicately, and the water content in that heavy seed core, it'll turn the final product into a soggy mess.

Yes, absolute mush.

So once the Persian cucumber is secured, the rest of the ensemble needs to be assembled.