Cucumber Salad

[luckytrim]

Cucumber Salad
2 medium Cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 small white onion, thinly sliced
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon dried dill, or to taste
DIRECTIONS:
Combine cucumbers and onion in a large bowl. Add the vinegar, water and sugar to a
saucepan and cook over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, and pour over the cucumber
and onions. Stir in dill, cover, and chill at least 1 hour.

[Claire]

This is an old family stand-by. Strangely enough, I've had it prepared by both Japanese and European (German, I think) cooks. I put it out as a first course every Thanksgiving, in little bowls with a few boiled shrimp on top, a sort of shrimp cocktail. Probably the only time I do "courses", just to buy myself time to make the gravy. I do use a pinch of salt and a lot of ground black pepper, but it is a very vinegar-y salad, which is good for digestion!

[justplainbill]

No salt? Looks like you might like using a Benriner.

[luckytrim]

no salt - yes, a mandolin, until I took off the tip of my pinky..... gave it (the mandolin) away.

[justplainbill]

Mandolins can be dangerous. My wife has shredded a few safety gloves. They seem to work better if one uses a light touch and stop cuttining whne the item being cut gets too short to maintain a tight grip.

[luckytrim]

I don't need a uniform cut for this dish anyway... Granny didn't need it either;
I remember giving her a "Veg-a-Matic" for her b'day once; figured it would speed up her canning prep......
After she passed, it was found in the attic, un-used, unopened ....
The cukes always get eaten, even with the "rustic" slice.

[CraigC]

Sub some Persian cucumbers if you're not a fan of the large seeds.

[JMediger]

Yum! Tastes of summer! If you drained that brine off and reboiled 2 more times you'd have my grandmother's (and now my) recipe for the refrigerator pickles that get us through the winter.

[Claire]

Originally Posted by justplainbill

Mandolins can be dangerous. My wife has shredded a few safety gloves. They seem to work better if one uses a light touch and stop cuttining whne the item being cut gets too short to maintain a tight grip.

The big thing I learned (on top of having a metal mesh glove) is to not trim the ends of things like cucumbers or squash, just clean and slice/julienne, using the stem end as a handle. When you get close to the end, toss it. I'm thinking, though, that maybe my new food processor will enable me to retire my Bron mandoline, and maybe even my armor plated glove.

[CWS4322]

Originally Posted by luckytrim

no salt - yes, a mandolin, until I took off the tip of my pinky..... gave it (the mandolin) away.

If you have one of those "Norwegian" cheese slicers, it works great for making really thin cucumber slices. I make a similar recipe, only I don't heat the brine and use either fresh dill or French tarragon.

http://www.nordicmaid.com/proddetail...d=Bjork-508-15