Battered Cucumber

Here is my father's attempt to use up some cucumber, specifically the larger ones that don't have the best flavor. He decided to make a batter and fry up some of the cucumber. He sliced it, then dipped it in a batter mixture he made up based on several different recipes. He used an egg, some milk, a pinch of baking powder, a pinch of salt, and a lot of flour to make the batter. He fried the cucumber on a griddle, the one we use for pancakes (I think this was because we had pancakes earlier that day, and the griddle was already set up). The result were some pieces of cucumber that were not crisp and crunchy from the garden, but not soft and tender from cooking either. I think they needed to be cooked a little longer, because the batter on the outside wasn't very brown and crispy either. Speaking of the batter, it reminded me very much of pancakes. Whether this was due to the cooking method or the batter itself (or both), I don't know. I like cucumbers and I like pancakes, but together I don't really care for cucumbers wrapped in pancakes. Actually, at first I thought it was cucumber wrapped in mozzarella cheese, because that's what it looked like to me. Oh well, I applaud the effort, and it wasn't too bad of an attempt to use up cucumber (hey, it got us to eat some, didn't it?). However, i think a breadcrumb coating might be better. Or a thinner batter with some more flavor to it - add some spice to it. Maybe the cooking method wasn't quite the right choice either, deep-frying may have given a better texture with slightly more flavor. Even shallow frying, which is just using a little oil in the bottom of the pan, would have worked better too. Oh well, you can't discover anything until you experiment. Maybe next we will try cucumber wrapped in mozzarella cheese, I have had that combination before and it is pretty good.