How to cook salted cucumbers in mineral water?
Many people like pickled cucumbers. However, few people know that they can be cooked even with mineral water. This allows them to be crispy and tasty. How to prepare an appetizer at no extra cost, will be discussed further.
Peculiarities
The preparation of lightly salted cucumbers on mineral water is different in that you do not need much time for this method. At the same time, the effect of salt is short-term, which distinguishes this type of salting from other pickles. These cucumbers always taste good. The recipe itself is called daily, although in different cases it takes a different time for the cucumbers to pickle. For example, in some recipes they can be consumed as early as two to three hours after salting, in others it is necessary to wait 12 hours, sometimes almost a day.
To make salted cucumbers crispy, you need to choose dairy and hard fruits for pickling. It is desirable that their size is small, and the seeds inside are small.
Of course, greenhouse vegetables can also be used for this, although the best are those that grow in open ground on a personal plot. It affects the taste and the time of year in which salting is performed.
As a rule, the taste of cucumbers is better in summer. Those that we buy in winter do not have such juiciness and taste. Before purchasing vegetables, it is worth considering that for any recipe for lightly salted cucumbers, firm and even fruits of approximately the same size are needed.In addition, you need to buy medium or highly carbonated mineral water for brine. It is due to its composition that conservation will require less time.
What do you need to know before cooking?
There are several nuances that determine the quality of finished cucumbers.
- If you use mineral water without gas, you can not count on the crunch of the finished product. In addition, it is this water that will cause the brine to become cloudy.
- It does not matter the manufacturer of mineral water. This does not affect the final result. It is more important that it contains as much gas as possible.
- None of the mineral water recipes provides for boiling the brine. Otherwise, the color of vegetables, their taste and appearance are lost.
- The amount of salt used for such recipes should be less than for regular salting for the winter. Contributes to the reduction of its quantity and the presence of mineral water.
- Not every type of cucumber is delicious. It is undesirable to take for such salting those with yellow sides.
- To give a spicy taste, various components can be added to the brine. For example, clove buds, oak leaves, cherries, currants, and even green apples are good additions to these recipes.
- Regarding the ingredients, it is worth considering: it is preferable to take winter garlic, because it is more tender. Salt should be without iodine (sea salt will do).
- It is not necessary to use a metal lid in this case.
Recipes
Since the recipe for lightly salted cucumbers is quite extensive, it is worth giving some of the most successful methods that experienced housewives prefer. Each method includes a step-by-step recipe for quick, delicious and crunchy cucumbers that are perfect as an accompaniment to a variety of dishes.
Quick salting
This recipe resembles salting with cold water, instead using highly carbonated mineral water of any brand.
The main ingredients needed to work are:
- 1 kg of cucumbers;
- 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt;
- 1 liter of mineral water;
- 1 dessert spoon of coriander seeds;
- dill umbrella and its greens;
- 4-5 garlic cloves;
- 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar.
The components are washed and, if necessary, cleaned.
To make cucumbers pickle faster, they can be cut lengthwise. In this case, we must not forget to cut the ends by about 1 cm.
These manipulations will contribute to the early saturation of the fetus with marinade. Garlic in this case is not peeled: it can be crushed with a knife until a crack appears and left unpeeled. It is enough to rinse and shake the umbrella, the dill greens must be cut. Coriander seeds need to be crushed in a mortar so that they saturate the brine with a pleasant aroma as quickly as possible. After all the ingredients are ready, start salting. At the bottom of the jar put half of the garlic cloves and 1⁄2 of the dill, as well as an umbrella.
After that, without ramming, cucumbers are tightly laid, then covered with the remaining garlic and herbs. For the marinade, they take a mineral water, dissolve salt, sugar in it and add coriander. It is important that both salt and sugar dissolve. Next, the cucumbers are poured with the resulting brine, the jars are closed with lids and left for 2 hours. After the workpiece can be removed in the refrigerator for 7-8 hours. After this time, the snack can already be enjoyed.
in a saucepan
This method is used in the absence of jars of the desired size or a conventional wooden tub. It is important to choose a pan with an enamel coating, otherwise the metal can oxidize the food.
For such preservation you will need:
- 1 kg of small cucumbers;
- 2 large spoons of coarse salt;
- 1 teaspoon of sugar;
- umbrella and dill;
- a small sheet of horseradish;
- 3 garlic cloves;
- 3 leaves of currant and cherry;
- a small spoonful of coriander seeds;
- liter bottle of mineral water;
- a little carrot and sweet pepper (to taste).
If the cucumbers are not quite juicy, you can pre-soak them in cold water for several hours. Then they are taken out, cut off the tips on both sides. Large fruits are cut in a crosswise manner.
Spices can be divided in half to make a kind of pillow out of them and put on top of the fruit.
When everything is ready, proceed to the formation of the pickling "pie". To do this, greens and spices are laid at the bottom. If desired, you can crush the sheets of horseradish, currant, so that in the allotted time the brine is saturated with them to the maximum extent. Then they act according to the standard scheme: they lay cucumbers, cover with the remaining spices on top and pour prepared brine.
The marinade is prepared in a similar way to the previous method. Salt and sugar are dissolved in a mineral water with gas. Coriander seeds are crushed and sent there. After mixing, pour the cucumbers, cover with a lid for a couple of hours, and then put them in the cold, leaving the salt there overnight. By morning, cucumbers gain flavor, become crispy and spicy.
Salted in a bowl
This recipe allows you to cook salted cucumbers in just 15-20 minutes.
The ingredients for this recipe are:
- 1 kg of small cucumbers;
- 2 bunches of dill;
- a few garlic cloves;
- horseradish root or its leaf;
- 1 bay leaf;
- 2 basil leaves;
- 1 piece of hot pepper;
- 1-1.5 tablespoons of salt;
- 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Bulgarian pepper can be added to the main components of the composition, if desired, to give salted cucumbers a piquant taste. To improve the taste, you can add a couple of tight tomatoes here. Use a glass bowl as the container for this recipe. Dill branches, a leaf of horseradish or its crushed root are placed on its bottom. After that, cucumbers are placed in a bowl, laying them out tightly, but not back to back.
After laying out the first layer of vegetables, they are sprinkled on top with prepared garlic, dill and horseradish. Then, a second layer of vegetables is laid on top of the spices and again covered with a portion of spices on top, as well as basil, bay leaves and hot peppers are added. The "vegetable pie" is left and the brine is taken care of. To do this, add salt and sugar to the mineral water, stir and pour cucumbers with the resulting marinade. They are covered with a lid and cleaned in the cold at night. In the morning they will be ready to eat.
What else to consider?
When preparing pickled cucumbers on a mineral water, you need to stir the salt and sugar in the liquid very quickly. The fact is that, according to any recipe, it should not lose carbon dioxide. To do this correctly and quickly, you can pour a small part from a liter bottle (a glass with a capacity of 200 ml is enough). Then the liquid is combined and then the vegetables with spices laid in rows are poured with it. In other recipes, it is allowed to fill cucumbers first with diluted liquid, and then with the one that remained in the bottle.
Whatever the container, it must be filled completely (almost under the very lid). Immediately it should stand for at least two hours at room temperature.
Even a plastic container can be used as a container in the absence of glass jars and enameled dishes.The main thing is to try to lay the cucumbers in such a way that they are completely covered with the marinade.
Reviews
According to the available comments left on the Internet, pickled cucumbers in mineral water are a favorite dish of many households and an excellent snack. As a rule, they eat them quickly enough, and in a short time the vegetables have time not only to salt, but also to become elastic and crispy. The recipe is different for different owners. According to their opinions, it is not at all necessary to cut cucumbers, since a day is enough for them to feed on brine.
Others, on the contrary, prefer to cut vegetables into rings so that they are saturated with the marinade as much as possible. Each hostess tries to add something of her own to the classic recipe, which ultimately allows you to get new recipes that are characterized by a special flavor note of cucumbers. Women are also experimenting with containers, pickling vegetables even in ordinary plastic buckets. At the same time, they note that salted cucumbers do not have time to disappear, they are eaten much earlier, praising the skilled hostess for the excellent taste and crunch of pickled vegetables.
You will see more about the process of preparing salted cucumbers in mineral water in the next video.