Pickled cucumber salat with chili, bay leaves and sherry vinegar #16/51
Recipe – Pickled cucumber salat
Ingredients: (enough for about 1 kg of cucumber salat in 5 small glass containers)
1100 grams of cucumbers (about 3 normal size cucumbers)
350 grams of sugar
350 grams of water
350 grams of stock vinegar
10 bay leaves
5 red chili peppers
70 grams of Spanish Sherry Vinegar
Instructions:
- Cut the cucumbers in thin slices about 2 millimeters thick using whatever you got; knife, food processor or cucumber grater.
- Salt the cut cucumbers with plenty of salt and mix it in a bowl to get the salt all around the sliced cucumbers.
- Set the bowl with the salted cucumber slices aside for about 2 hours to let the salt do its thing softening the cucumber, adding flavor and extracting water. This process is needed for making the cucumber salat crispy to the bite which is far more delicious than having a cucumber salat with soft and wet cucumbers as you will get if you skip this process.
- After the 2 hours have passed rinse the salted cucumbers with tap water to get rid of excess salt and filter the water away using a colander.
- Now make the brine used for preservation and spicing by mixing sugar, vinegar, water, chili, bay leaves and Sherry vinegar in a pot.
- Bring the brine pot to a boil and let it simmer boil for 5 minutes or until all the sugar is dissolved.
- Prepare 5 small glasses for storing the pickled cucumber salat. I use refurbished supermarket jam glasses at 400 grams each. To learn how to refurbish supermarket glass containers for a second life see my video #15/50.
- Next distribute the chili and the bay leaves to each glass. Secondly, distribute the sliced cucumber evenly in the 5 glasses.
- Bring the brine to a boil to be sure it is as hot as possible. Pour the brine evenly into the filled cucumber glasses and get the lid on as soon as you are done pouring the brine. The heat from the boiling hot brine will sterilize your cucumber salat so it can last for a very long time without going bad. In my own experience they can easily last a year in a dark place at room temperature.
Important observations:
Do not skip to salting process. The more water you can get out of the cucumber by salting it prior to applying the brine the crispier and fresher to the bite your cucumber salat will be. If you do not like chili you can also use half crushed pepper corns to bring some heat to your cucumber salat. Alternatively, if you got mustard seeds use those to add heat to the salat. Likewise, if you have not got Sherry Vinegar use another vinegar with a taste that you like to flavor your cucumber salat.
Serving suggestions:
Cucumber salat can be served as an accessory to dishes that gain from having an acidic element to it.
One of my favorites is the Danish lunch dish (the Danish cuisine is at its best for its rye bread lunch dished) where you got a roasted slice of Scandinavian rye bread with butter on and a cut warm Danish meat ball on top served with roasted bacon, remoulade and cucumber salat.
For making Scandinavian rye bread see my video https://www.hmexperience.dk/scandinavian-rye-bread-christmas-edition-8-42/
For making Danish meat balls see my video https://www.hmexperience.dk/danish-meatballs-with-bacon-and-capers-9-43/
I will have a video soon about making remoulade.
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