Stuffed Cucumber

Yep, you read that right - stuffed cucumbers!  A couple of Christmases ago, my husband bought me the cookbook The German Cookbook by Mimi Sheraton.  To make a very long story short, his grandmother would cook alot of german food, so I did research and found this cookbook to be one of the best for making german food. 

Anyway, I noticed this recipe for stuffed cucumbers last year and have been meaning to make it.  Well, this past weekend I was at the farmer's market (where I spend every weekend since I am a vendor at two!) and the farmer next to me had the most beautiful cucumbers - and a new adventure was born!!

The recipe calls for 4 cucumbers, I only bought 3 - I really needed that 4th cucumber!  I did have to improvise on the some of the ingredients and I will mark those with an **

Stuffed Cucumbers (Gurken mit Fleischfullung)

Ingredients

4 large cucumbers (I bought long ones - you need thick ones!)
salt
Meat filling
3 T butter
1 cup beef stock
4 T sour cream ** (I didn't have any so I used plain yogurt)
1 T tomato puree ** (I didn't have that either, so I just used ketchup)

Meat Filling:
1 lb ground raw beef ** (I used pork sausage as I thought ground beef would be too bland)
1/2 cup long grain rice
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 T minced parsley
1 slice of finely chopped bacon ** (didn't have any, so omitted)

Directions for Meat Filling:

Mix meat thoroughly with rice, onion, and parsley.  Add bacon if meat is very lean.

Directions for Stuffed Cucumbers;

Peel and slice the cucumbers in half.   Scrape out seeds, watery pulp and sprinkle with salt.

Stuff one half of the cucumber with meat filling.

Cover with the other half of cucumber and tie tightly with kitchen twine.

Heat butter in a deep skillet.  Add cucumber.  Fry and turn to brown all sides.

Add the beef stock, cover the skillet pan and let cook for 1/2 hour (adding more liquid if needed).

About 10 minutes before cucumbers are done, mix together sour cream (yogurt) and tomato puree (ketchup) and spread over the tops of the cucumbers. 

Remove from pan - remember to cut twine!!

This is not the best picture of it - it tasted a lot better than this picture shows!!

Entire Recipe:

Stuffed Cucumbers (Gurken mit Fleischfullung)

Ingredients

4 large cucumbers (I bought long ones - you need thick ones!)
salt
Meat filling
3 T butter
1 cup beef stock
4 T sour cream ** (I didn't have any so I used plain yogurt)
1 T tomato puree ** (I didn't have that either, so I just used ketchup)

Meat Filling:
1 lb ground raw beef ** (I used pork sausage as I thought ground beef would be too bland)
1/2 cup long grain rice
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 T minced parsley
1 slice of finely chopped bacon ** (didn't have any, so omitted)

Directions for Meat Filling:

Mix meat thoroughly with rice, onion, and parsley.  Add bacon if meat is very lean.

Directions for Stuffed Cucumbers;

Peel and slice the cucumbers in half.  

Scrape out seeds, watery pulp and sprinkle with salt
.
Stuff one half of the cucumber with meat filling, cover with the other half of cucumber and tie tightly with kitchen twine.

Heat butter in a deep skillet.  Add cucumber.  Fry and turn to brown all sides.

Add the beef stock, cover the skillet pan and let cook for 1/2 hour (adding more liquid if needed).

About 10 minutes before cucumbers are done, mix together sour cream (yogurt) and tomato puree (ketchup) and spread over the tops of the cucumbers.

Verdict:

I was very surprised by this recipe.  Wasn't sure what to expect, though I was glad I used the pork sausage instead of ground beef.  The sausage added quite a lot to the dish.  This was quite good.  My resident expert (aka my husband) loved it.  I see this recipe being made again in our future, though, as I said above, I will use fatter cucumbers.