Arlene’s Sour Cream Cucumber Salad

Recipe from Charlene Elderkin

For the next in my "Eating out of the garden" series, we'll use cucumbers and sweet onions. There are some dishes that I can only eat the version that I grew up eating - nobody else's tastes quite right. My mother's cucumber salad is one of those. Fortunately my sister Jenni Gile came to my rescue, she actually had this written down. I'd been winging it, which is fine for me, but harder to share with you. The only thing i might add to this is a little dill, if you have that growing in your garder, just snip off some of the leaves -  not the seeds. Save those for pickles

Ingredients:

• 4 med cucumbers

• 1 sweet Vidalia onion (small to medium)

• 1 -2 T salt (Rock or Sea Salt – Coarse)

• ½ c sour cream

• 3 T white vinegar

• 1 T sugar

Preparation:

1. Slice the cucumbers about ¼ inch thick.  Put into a bowl.   Slice onions in thin ½ rings. Put into bowl with cucumbers. 

2. Sprinkle onions/cucumbers with salt.  Add 1-2 c of ice to the cucumber/onion mix.  Weight the bowl down with plate, so that the cucumbers and onions are compact under the plate. 

3. Place in fridge for at least two hours, overnight is even better.  As the ice melts, the cucumbers will lose the retained water.  The ice will keep the cucumbers crisp.  Occasionally drain the water from the bowl to avoid the cucumbers and onions soaking in the liquid.  

4. Remove the cucumbers from the fridge.  Drain any remaining water and remove any remaining ice cubes.  

5. Mix the sour cream, vinegar and sugar in a separate bowl.  Use this ratio of cream to vinegar to sugar for additional dressing.

6. Pour the dressing into the cucumber/onion mix.  Mix thoroughly.
   

Hints:

I sometimes use red onion instead of the Vidalia onion when a sweet onion is not available.  It adds color to the dish.

Make sure the water and ice are completely drained.  Leaving extra water or just one ice cube, can make the dressing become runny and thin.