Cucumber Fish - garnish

Wow !  This fish looks amazing , isn't it? You will be more surprised to know where I learned it from.  Every Friday we get the flyers delivered to our home. One Friday, while I was going through the flyers to find some good deals... a colourful flyer caught my attention .  It was a new Chinese restuarant flyer  offering some new opening deals.  It was full of attractive pics of  beautifully presented food.  I don't know how their food tastes like, but I was impressed by their food presentation at the first glance. One of the pics was beautifully carved fish made out of cucumber, was placed on a platter of fried noodles. Noodles are the regular feature of the Chinese cuisine, but the fish made it more attractive.  This gave me an idea to try out the carving..I figured out how they made it and how they presented it... there you go !... I mastered it and ready to share it with you...It looks good on any kind of platter, either on salads,  vegetable platter, fried food platter or to make it as a centre piece for your table. The best part is, you can eat this fish raw !!

You need:
Fresh English cucumber.
Piece of carrot
flower cookie cutter or any shaped
sharp pairing knife

Method:
Wash, pat dry the cucumber.
Cut a piece of cucumber to make it stand firm. This makes the belly side down.
Using the piece of  cucumber, carve out  the fins and tail as shown in the pic.
Prepare small piece of carrot for the eyes and half circle carrot for the mouth,
Make carrot flower using cookie cutter, for side garnish.
Now make a slit and cut out a small piece at the tail end, to create room. Insert the carved tail piece.
Make two slits one on each side for the fins and insert the carved fins.
Make the marks on the body of the fish. Cut out thin strips.
Create a vaccum for the eyes and fix the eyes.
Carve out the mouth and insert the half circle carrot piece in it.
Place the cucumber fish on your favourite dish and serve.