Project 166: pickled cucumbers

It seems that all I am doing nowadays is cooking!  Summer is producing in our sunny country, and I am pickling, cooking jams, and trying to preserve whatever my garden, my friends garden, my friends friends garden, my brothers garden and whoever else's garden produces!

I have made bottles and bottles of baby marrow pickles, as it became a family favourite by now.  Over the weekend I made pickled cucumbers as my brother sent me a whole box full all the way from the Caroo......My sister and her hubby came to visit again, as my mom spent some time with them, and she needed to come home again.  The car was loaded with all sorts of goodies from their gardens, and venison from the farm.....what a blessing!

So I did not plan to pickle cucumbers......I got a whole box full!  We had fresh cucumber salad, mixed salad with cucumbers in it.......and polished the first two bottles of pickled ones as well!  They were just so good, we had to taste it!

Slice 12 cucumbers of about 10cm ea into thin slices.  Mine were much larger, so I estimated...2X15cm cucumbers make 3X10cm.....Then slice 6 small onions into thin slices.....Here again I used 3 larger ones....use whatever you have.

Add 100 grams of coarse sea salt, cover your container and leave it in a cool place(not in the fridge) overnight.

The next morning drain your veggies, and rinse it with 500ml of fresh water.  Drain again.  Now add 125ml sunflower oil, 500 ml white vinegar, 30 ml of white sugar and 60 ml of mustard seeds.  The original recipe asked for 5ml of celery seeds, but I could not find it anywhere, so I just omitted it.  When I do find it at some stage, I am definitely going to buy it straight away, as this is so good, I have to try it with the celery seeds.

Mix everything through lightly, and bottle it in sterilised jars, sealing it immediately.  Allow to stand for a day or two in a cool place before eating.....if you can!  We tried it just after bottling it!  I have an open bottle in the fridge and my one son is into the bottle every now and then eating the onions!