Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Pickled Cucumbers

My mother's grandfather immigrated to the United States from Sweden.  When I was in junior high school, my mother decided to connect with her Swedish roots, and one of the ways she chose to do this was through food.  One of her favorite recipes was Pickled Cucumbers, or Inglada Gukor, as it says in the Swedish cookbooks.

Pickled Cucumbers

1 Cup cane sugar
1 1/2 Cups cider vinegar
1 large or 2 medium cucumber
salt
pepper
fresh minced parsley

  1. Dissolve sugar in cider vinegar. Add a little salt, pepper, and some parsley for color. 
  2. Peel cucumbers. Score the cucumbers lengthwise with a table fork, all the way around. Cut the cucumbers in thin slices. The marks from the fork will make a pretty scalloped shape. 
  3. Put the sliced cucumbers in a 1 quart mason jar (or you can use a casserole dish, but my mother always used a mason jar). At this point I added some thinly sliced red onion to add a little color, but that is not original to the recipe.
  4. Pour the vinegar mixture over the cucumbers. Put the lid on, and refrigerate for 2 or more hours before serving. (Some of the cucumbers will float out of the liquid, so I shake the jar every so often to make sure all the cucumber slices get in the brine.


Usually, we just had pickled cucumbers as a refreshing summer side dish. But they are also fun on a sandwich. Here is my new favorite lunch. This is toasted french bread, topped with hummus and sliced tomatoes, sprinkled with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Add sliced pickled cucumbers, and garnish with microgreens. 

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