Home-garden Lemon Cucumber Pickle

 

Lemon cucumbers, unlike the name suggests, are not lemon flavored or lemon-sized. They can get larger than 3 inches in diameter, sport a stripey thin yellow skin, have a muted watery cucumber flavor, and have quite a crunch. 

 

Starting as a prickly little fuzzy thing, they tend to retain some of those spiny hairs as adults which wash off easily. 

I like to stuff them and make Oi-Sobagi style spicy pickles. Or, slice them and make Sunomono. Sometimes they make it into yogurt-based Raita or a simple Oi-Kimchi.

This time, I made a vinegar-based cucumber, peppers, chilies pickle with some salt, sugar, and lots of black pepper for adding a spicy bite.