Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Cucumber Slices Like My Mom Used to Make Them

We grew up on a small farm in western Iowa. Each year we planted plenty of tomatoes, beans, peas, sweet corn, cabbage, cucumbers, carrots. The potatoes were in a larger area in the nearby field. By fall the cellar would be full of canned vegetables while a large wood bin held the potato crop.

One of my favorite garden foods (along with fresh sliced tomatoes with sugar sprinkled on top) was cucumber slices in vinegar. Oh, Yum!

Today I picked a handful of cukes and sliced them for this delicious treat. If you'd like to try them, here's a simple dish. You will want 2 to 3 medium cucumbers. (I used about five smaller ones.)

First, wash the cukes. Then peel with a parer that peels paper-thin. (If your cucumbers are too mature, they will be seedy. Small immature seeds are okay. The older ones are hard and you will want to remove the seedy core and just slice the leftover flesh. But if the seeds are still tiny and chewable, leave them.)

Slice the cukes thinly and sprinkle with salt. No water. Just sprinkle with salt. About 2 tablespoons or more. Mix the salt in so the salt is dispersed throughout the slices. Let sit for an hour or so while the salt causes the slices to wilt down a bit. They will become juicy.

After an hour, rinse thoroughly to remove as much salt as possible. They will still retain a bit of salty flavor but you do want to rinse them to remove the excess salt.

At this point add a small amount of thinly sliced onions.

Then add the following mixture:

1/4 cup vinegar (I used cider vinegar)
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Mix together. This does not seem like enough liquid for the cucumbers but they will juice up a bit overnight. Put them in the fridge overnight to let the flavors blend. (If you really do need more liquid, just increase the amounts a bit.)

By the way, I love these old pyrex bowls with glass lids. They are perfect for storage in the fridge and I much prefer them to plastic ware.


Today's scripture for your reflection is James 1:17 where James writes this... "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

8 comments:

Debby said...

When you look at all the different foods, and the animals, eggs, flowers...it seems like God not only gave us what we need, but gave us what we need to be joyful.

Tracey said...

oooooo These sound gorgeous.. off in search of cucumbers now >>>>>>

I love anything vinegary xx

Stitchwhiz said...

Thanks for the recipe. My mom used to make these all the time, too.

HisFireFly said...

I always do this with the first cukes of the year from our garden (still waiting). We have so much dill that I use fresh snips of it instead of dried.

As for pyrex.. AMEN!

Daria said...

That does sound so yummy ...

I too was raised on the farm and we loved to cut up the cucs and onions with some salt and vinegar.

Cora from Hidden Riches said...

I was just thinking about cucumbers. . . . I need to get some! My recipe is just about the same as yours, except I added sour cream to mine. and it seems to get better with time.

Thank you for sharing this!!!!

Mariclar said...

Sounds good! I'll try that one. I usually grow a bunch of stuff and don't know what to do with it....but I'm taking notes and learning!

Laurie M. said...

I LOVE cucumbers and my mouth waters looking at you pictures - but they make be bloat up like the Goodyear blimp within minutes of eating them! What's a girl to do?