Nettle hummus and grandma's cucumbers

Grandma's cucumbers / Mummon kurkut in a bit different way as usual

In Finland there is an art of preparing cucumbers which we call grandma's cucumbers. I don't know if this term also exists somewhere else. For the basic recipe you should take 1 part of vinegar (e.g. apple or white wine vinegar), 2 parts of sugar and 3 parts of water. The cucumber for the this recipe is not the normal cucumber but some thing we call "open field cucumber" / avomaankurkku. Here in Switzerland I have always bought Gurke Nostrano which is more or less the same thing as avomaankurkku. 

So, if you are a grandma, you will mix the above mentioned ingredients, add the peeled and sliced cucumber. One thing is not to be forgotten: dill. To the traditional grandma's cucumbers you should always add some minced dill. When ready place the cucumbers in the fridge and let them stand over night for the good flavour. This cucumbers are a flavour from my childhood. My grandma would always in summer have some homegrown cucumbers prepared like this.

Well, I'm not a grandma :D so I made my cucumbers a bit differently. I heated up the water do dilute the sugar better. After removing the pot from the stove I added the vinegar, chili, mint, white pepper and ginger. I poured the liquid on the cucumbers in the jar and let it marinate over night. I find this type cucumbers great on a dark bread or served with smoked fish.

Nettle hummus and chili "puff pastry futes" / Blätterteig-Flûte

I wanted to make more experiments with nettles and the ravioli filling from last week gave me the idea of hummus with nettles. Now I luckily have a blender with more power than last time I made hummus. Last time the motor over heated and boom...smoke...no more blender. Now I'm using the KitchenAid blender, which so far has been the best out of all the "home" blenders I have tried. And the hummus...it became very delicious indeed and I served it with some chili flavoured puff pastry flutes. I had some puff pastry dough leftover from the strawberry slice used that for the flutes.

Nettle hummus:

nettles, blanced

chickpeas, cooked

lemon juice

cumin

coriander

salt, sugar

olive oil

(vegetable bouilloin (for thinning))