The McIntyre Girls' Michalski-Family Creamed Cucumbers

The Story

I don't remember many vegetables gracing the table at Michalski family holidays. Gatherings with my mom's family included loud uncles and some great food--fresh polish sausage, fruit salad (with a creamy covering), stuffing, fresh bread, ham or turkey, grandma's amazing banana cream pie--but vegetables were never a priority. Sure, the ubiquitous-Midwest green bean casserole would rear its head every now and then, but the vast majority of our holiday dishes were protein, carbs, and sugar. The one exception was a cucumber dish, and even those cukes were floating in some serious mayonnaise.

A number of years back when we started adding some dishes popular in Eddie's family to our holiday meals, Sarah and I decided to resurrect a few of our own. This was partly made possible when Sarah located a Polish butcher in Tigard (a SW suburb of Portland) that makes fresh polish sausage; it was like finding a bit of childhood in our backyard, and we try to visit Victor's European Meat Market at least one holiday per year. When considering a second family dish, the cucumbers came to mind (maybe because we're not ready to attempt banana cream pie), and we decided to try them out.  After getting the basic recipe from mom, Sarah and I made some changes to the dish: substituting traditional ingredients for favored equivalents (English cucumbers for standard, white onions for yellow), reducing the amount of mayonnaise, and refining the preparation to make the dish less liquidy. The result is a new twist on a traditional family dish, appropriate for all seasons but served only at the holidays in our home. 

What you'll need

• 2-3 English cucumbers (usually individually wrapped in the supermarket), thinly sliced
• 1 white onion, thinly sliced
• mayonnaise (homemade or olive-oil based for the best flavor); my friend Teri recently suggested trying the recipe with sour cream instead, which I night do in the future
• white vinegar (we often use apple vinegar when we have it)
• salt
• pepper (white preferred)
• sugar (small amount)

Preparation

Note: While the soaking process takes some time, this dish is very easy to make and can be done between other cooking tasks.

• Remove half the peel of the cucumbers (more for appearance than necessity) by using a peeler to take off long strips
• Slice the cucumber into discs, as thin as possible
• Immerse sliced cucumbers in a bowl of (very) salty water and let set until cucumbers are visibly reduced due to water loss (usually 1-2 hours or so)
• In another bowl, combine mayonnaise, vinegar, pepper, and sugar. There are no set measurements here, and you should balance the taste based on your own preferences to create approximately 1-1/2 cups of liquid. (Sarah is the master of this stage.) Don't add salt yet, though, as the cucumbers will be salty after soaking!
• Add the onions to the liquid and let stand
• When the cucumbers are less firm and thinner, pour out the water. For best results, squeeze the cucumbers to get more of the remaining liquid out. Sarah and I generally do at least two rounds of squeezing--literally balling up clumps of cucumbers in our hands and squeezing into fists--and sometimes three. This is important so the cucumbers can absorb the liquid you created. (Our Grandma Michalski never had patience for this, so the results were always soupy.)
• Mix the cucumbers into the onion/liquid mix and set aside for an hour or so before serving, stirring regularly; at this stage, you can make adjustments in the balance of sweet and salty, based on your preferences. You can refrigerate them if desired, but I'd recommend pulling them out 1/2 hour or so before the meal for best flavor.

Presentation/Serving

I always like to serve the cucumbers in a floral lidded serving dish that belonged to Grandma Michalski, by way of her mother, my Great-grandmother Wrobleski. Once the recipe becomes a favorite in your household, I'm sure you'll find it deserving of a similar dish of honor.