Recipes for making lightly salted crispy cucumbers have been known in Russia at least since the 17th century. People of different walks of life liked them. I can only guess if recipes used by peasants and royal chefs were different. Now we eat them as an appetizer or with main dishes. They go together well with potatoes cooked different ways.
To salt, choose small, hard, thin-skinned, young cucumbers "with pimples."
Traditionally, there are three main types of salting cucumbers: 1) which you can store for long, 2) eat in a couple of days, 3) eat next day or even "immediately".
The important thing to remember: for salting, you must use coarse rock salt, not fine salt.
For long storage (type 1) cucumbers must be canned (in a big glass jar after preservation) but after staying for 2-3 weeks they will become ordinary pickled cucumbers, not lightly salted.
The most traditional way to salt cucumbers is very easy and needs only cucumbers, garlic, salt, some dill umbrellas and cold boiled water. It is my favourite. It can be related to Type 2, which means that you will get the result in 2-3 days.
But today I decided to try something different.
INGREDIENTS
10-12 small cucumbers
3-4 cloves of garlic
5-20 peppercorns
some dill umbrellas, cherry and black currant leaves
salt - 2 tablespoons per 1 liter of water (for my cucumbers - 1 spoon)
sugar - 1/2 teaspoon (optional, many people do not add it)
white mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
some horseradish leaves or root (I have leaves) - they provide the cucumbers with a firmness and crunchy texture.
Step 1.
Cut each cucumber at both ends.
Step 2.
Put the cucumbers in a container and pour some drinking water into it. The water should completely cover the cucumbers. By doing that, you get an exact amount of water you need.
Step 3.
Pour this water into a large saucepan in which you will make the brine. Add sugar and salt, stir. Heat it on a stove until it almost boils, then cool it to 50° C.
Step 4.
While the brine is cooling down, put half the leaves and dill umbrellas, garlic cloves cut into halves, peppercorns, horseradish and mustard seeds on the bottom of the container. Put the cucumbers and cover with the remaining leaves and dill.
Step 5.
Pour warm brine into the container. Put a flat plate (or a wooden circle) and some oppression on top. It can be a carefully washed stone or a glass jar with water (in my case).
Step 6.
Cover everything with a clean towel.
Leave the cucumbers at room temperature for 1 to 3 days (depending on how much you want them to be salted (so, this recipe can be related to Types 2 or 3).
You can use different varieties of greens but horseradish is essential.
Now lets leave my cucumbers to get ready and then I will tell you about the different ways to enjoy eating them - in my next posts.