I grew up eating sliced cucumber salad but we called it agurke salat (a-gorka sal-at) which is the Danish name. My mother being a dane would serve it to us as a side dish or on open faced sandwiches called Smørrebrød. Just writing about these sandwiches is making my mouth water.

Here’s a photo of what the opened faced sandwiches called Smørrebrød look like. This photo below is from http://www.copenhagenet.dk/. Smørrebrød sandwiches are as much art as they are a delicacy. I remember my mor mor (mother’s mother or grandmother) taking her time to assemble a plate of these delicate sandwiches for lunch. And when I was just a kid visiting her in Denmark, we would go to Tivioli Garden where there was a shop that sold them individually. She would let me pick out my favorites and then we would go sit somewhere in the park and dine. I can’t wait to take my kids there when they get older. Some of these sandwiches used agurke salat as one of the ingredients.

When I tell friends about my Danish cucumber salad, I’m often told they know it but call it by another name native to their own ethnicity.  I’m guessing it is a popular dish to all the northern Scandinavian countries and their neighbors.

Agurke Salat

There are two important steps when preparing this cucumber salad. First, slice the cucumbers paper thin. Second, salt them to remove, as my mother would say, “the burp” from them. Other than that, the rest is easy.

I like to make a big batch at a time and eat them all week long. I even use the vinegar mixture a second time and just slice and salt some more cucumbers.

Ingredients

3 large cucumbers
Table salt
1 cup of white wine vinegar
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
salt & pepper, to taste

How to Make Sliced Cucumber Salad

I leave the peel on but you can peel them if you like. I find it makes them too flimsy if you cut them paper-thin. I used a food processor to slice them but you can use a mandolin or if you have a lot of patience, slice them by hand but be sure they are paper thin.

Next I lay them out on some paper towels and sprinkle them with salt. I’m not sure if it is true, but my mom says the salting helps remove whatever is in the cucumbers that make them repeat on you. Let them sit there for about 10 minutes.

After they have been salted, put them in a colander and wash all the salt off with cold water. If you don’t get most of the salt off, the final result will be way too salty. Gently squeeze the sliced cucumbers in your hands to get rid of as much water as possible. You can let them drain in the colander while you make the vinegar mixture.

Prepare the Vinegar Mixture

In a medium sized bowl that you are going to serve the cucumbers in, add the vinegar with the water, then the sugar and coriander seeds. Mix well until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the cucumbers and coriander seeds and mix together with your hands or spoon if you don’t like to get your hands dirty. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours so the cucumbers pick up all the flavor of the sugared vinegar.

This is really simple to make and goes especially well with pork.

If you are looking for a great summer side dish to serve with just about anything, I highly recommend you try this recipe. My wife’s sister served this salad to us over the weekend twice. Once with steak and the next night with grilled salmon. It was even better the second night.

She used Patricia Wells’ wonderful cookbook, At Home In Provence, (a cookbook I now need to go and buy) but made a few changes of her own including substituting tomatoes and adding small pieces of fresh mozzarella cheese.

Tomato, Mozzarella & Green Bean Salad
Adapted by Aunt Judy from Patricia Wells’ At Home In Provence
Makes about 8 servings

Ingredients

Dressing

1-tablespoon sherry wine vinegar (good quality)
Salt, to taste
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 shallots, minced

Salad

½ pound baby heirloom tomatoes instead of 1 firm medium sized tomato
sea salt
1 pound tender green beans
1 egg of fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into bite sized pieces
4 tablespoons fresh cilantro (coriander)

Prepare the Dressing

Whisk together the vinegar and salt in a small bowl. Add the shallots and combine. Slowly drizzle in the oil while whisking vigorously to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt.

Tomatoes – my sister-in-law used delicious, sweet tiny heirloom tomatoes. If you use a regular tomato, you’ll need to core, seed, chop it. Patricia Wells says to peel the tomato too, but I’m not sure I would add that extra step to the process. Your choice.

Prepare the Tomatoes

If using a regular tomato, you want to drain all the liquid out of the tomatoes so place the cut up pieces into a fine-mesh sieve or colander and sprinkle with a little salt. Set them over a bowl to drain. Judy used the small but sweet grape tomatoes so she ignored this step and the salad was fine.

Blanch the Green Beans

Bring a large pot of water to boil. While the water is coming to a boil, wash and trim the ends of the beans. Then cut up the beans into 1-inch lengths. Don’t forget to get the ice-cold water bath ready to quickly stop the cooking process after the beans are blanched. Just fill up another bowl with water and ice.

As soon as the water comes to a boil, add a couple of teaspoons of salt and then the beans. Bring back to a boil and cook until the beans are “crisp-tender”. This should take about 5 minutes. Quickly drain the beans and place them into the ice cold water bath for a couple of minutes. Drain and dry them with a kitchen towel.

Dress the Salad

Put the beans in a serving bowl, add the oil and vinegar dressing and stir everything together. Now’s good time to taste and adjust seasoning. Add the drained tomatoes, mozzarella, and cilantro and toss until well mixed.

Serve it up individually or family style in a big bowl.

101 Ways to Make Chicken Salad

Making chicken salad on a hot summer night couldn’t be easier especially if you have leftover roasted chicken from the night before. Whether you roast the chicken yourself or buy a rotisserie chicken at your local market, one of the best ways to use up leftovers is cut it up to pieces and make chicken salad.

There must be 101 ways to make chicken salad depending on what you have on hand to toss into it. I’m sure everyone has a favorite recipe from his or her mom or great aunt but in our house, we usually go with what’s on hand or in the refrigerator and get creative.

Basically, chicken salad is chicken, chopped up vegetables; some sort of fruit and a dressing that typically has mayonnaise associated with it. A classic chicken salad could be just chicken, celery, mayo and salt & pepper. That’s it. That simple.

Instead of giving you exact recipe with measured out ingredients, I’d wanted to give you some ideas as to what you can try in your own recipe. I’m not giving you measurements because I never make the same chicken salad twice and really don’t have them. I suppose if you come up with the most amazing homemade chicken salad recipe ever, you may want to write it down so you can make it again some time.

This list is by no means exhausted but it’s a good start. I encourage you to experiment with all your favorite ingredients and if you come up with something special, add it to the comments below.

A Few Simple Suggestions

1. Don’t add too many additional ingredients. – Sometimes less is more. You want to combine various ingredients that work well together but don’t completely overpower the flavor of the chicken. They are there to add flavor, color and texture but if you put too many of them together, it will really confuse your taste buds.
2. Prepare all the non-dressing ingredients together separately from the dressing ingredients. – You want the chicken, vegetables and fruit to be balanced just like you want the dressing to be balanced. If you are simply using mayonnaise, the task is easy, but if you start adding other ingredients to the mayo, it gets a little trickier.
3. Don’t add all the dressing to the chicken mixture at one time. You don’t want to overpower the chicken with dressing. It is easier to add more than try to remove excess dressing and remember nothing is worse than an over dressed salad.
4. Customize the mayonnaise by adding ingredients that you like and will work with the rest of the ingredients.
5. Check for seasonings at the end especially salt and pepper.
6. Chicken salad makes great sandwiches, you can also serve it with a salad or on a bed of lettuce. – The art of making a great chicken salad sandwich has as much to do with the type of bread you are serving it on, but that’s a subject for another blog. Since my wife isn’t eating bread these days, we typically serve it with a salad. I eat the leftovers on bread the next day if there is any left.

Classic Chicken Salad Ingredient Suggestions besides the Chicken and Mayonnaise

Celery
Onion
Carrot
Peppers
Seedless grapes

Alternative Ingredients

Toasted almond slivers
Capers – drained
Chopped sweet pickles or pickle relish
Water chestnuts
Hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Nuts – walnuts, pecans, cashews, pine nuts, sesame seeds
Fruits- apple slices, pear, raisins, cranberries, craisins, tomato, avocado, olives, mandarin oranges, cherries
Vegetables – asparagus, cucumber,
Cheese – hard cheese, grated or thin slices of soft cheese

Mayonnaise Additions

Herbs – basil, parsley, tarragon, chervil, chives, sage, mint
Spices – ginger, dry mustard, honey mustard, paprika, oregano
Chutney
Jam or preserves
Honey
Citrus juice – lemon, orange, grapefruit
Peanut butter
Vinegar
Soy Sauce
Hot Sauce
Maple syrup
Yogurt

What Are Your Favorite Ingredient Combinations

Let me know how you like your chicken salad in the comments section below.