The water in cucumbers is about 95%, and the middle with seeds is the most liquid part in the vegetable. For some dishes, excess moisture is useless, so cucumbers for their preparation need to be cut in a special way.
Cucumbers for rolls without core
Cucumbers cut into strips are often used to make rolls, this method of cutting allows you to remove seeds and excess liquid from the vegetable. Prepare a clean and dry cutting board, a sharpened knife, and long cucumbers ahead of time. It is advisable to take thin vegetables, since the seeds are smaller in them.
Rinse the cucumbers thoroughly and cut into pieces that are slightly wider than your palm. Trim the ponytails, but do not throw them away, they will still be needed. If you are preparing vegetables specifically for rolls, check that the length of the pieces is half the length of the nori leaf. Shorten long cucumbers, and too short leave them as they are.
The blade of a vegetable knife should be noticeably longer than the cucumber slices so that you can immediately cut the pulp in a circle. From a vegetable from which the middle has been removed in parts, neat, even straws will not work.
Take one piece of cucumber and cut the skin two to three millimeters in a circle. Likewise, separate the pulp from the pith with seeds. Please note that if you cut cucumbers for rolls, you cannot use the middle for this dish in the future.
As a result, you should be left with pulp, rind, core and tails. Put the cucumber pulp on a board and cover with a peel on top, carefully cut these two layers into thin strips. Cutting this way is faster, but if you are afraid that you will not be able to cope with two pieces at once, you can repeat this separately for each part of the vegetable. If you decide to use the seed portion for another dish, cut it up as well.
How to cut cucumbers into strips with the middle
Some thin greenhouse cucumbers do not have a characteristic center with large seeds. They do not need to be dismembered. These vegetables should be cut into pieces that are half the length of a nori leaf. Then, in order for the straws to be beautiful and even, you need to divide the segments into layers. These leaves are about 3 mm thick and need to be cut into long, even pieces.
You can also use an easier method by simply cutting the cucumbers in half and thinly trimming them to length. The same can be done with a whole short cucumber by simply slitting it thinly along the length until you get an even straw. These vegetables will not look perfect as they will have different colors and compositions. Some of them will consist only of a loose core, while other straws will turn out to be striped - from the skin and pulp.
