Mizeria: Polish cucumber salad in sour cream with dill
The simplest salad of a Polish summer and the one most often got wrong: watery because the cucumber wasn't salted and squeezed, or bland because the acid was missing. Here the cucumber sits in salt for a quarter of an hour, and the sour cream gets lemon, sugar and plenty of dill.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Slicing 5 min
- Cucumber releases water 15 min
- Dressing and mixing 5 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneSlice the cucumbers thinly
Wash the cucumbers (long greenhouse ones need no peeling; peel ridge cucumbers). Cut into very thin slices, best on a mandoline or a cucumber grater. Thick slices don't take up the dressing.
Ingredients: 2 pcs long green cucumbers · 1 tsp salt · 150 g sour cream, 18 % · 1 bunch dill · ½ pcs lemon, juice · 1 tsp sugar · ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Paper-thin, translucent slicesSalt and wait
Put the slices in a colander, sprinkle with salt, toss and leave for 15 minutes. They release a lot of water. Then squeeze gently in your hands, without wringing.
TipThis step is the difference between mizeria and cucumber soup. Don't skip it.
A quarter of an hour in salt, water drainingMix the dressing
Stir the sour cream with the finely chopped dill, lemon juice, sugar and pepper. Taste: it should be distinctly sweet-and-sour, because the cucumber will soften it.
Sour cream with dill, lemon and sugarCombine
Add the squeezed cucumber to the dressing and mix. Add salt only if needed; the cucumber is already salted.
Cucumber in the dressing, doneServe at once
Mizeria is best fresh, within the hour. Later the cucumber keeps releasing water and the dressing thins.
Beside a pork cutlet and potatoes
Before you start
Yogurt instead of sour cream
Thick natural yogurt works; lighter and sharper. Skip the lemon then.
With onion
Add half a small onion cut into thin slivers and scalded with boiling water so it isn't harsh. In many homes it is a must.
Making ahead
No. Slice and salt the cucumber ahead and make the dressing separately, but combine just before serving.
