Pickled Cucumbers

 At a luau in Hawaii last week we were served a salad of pickled cucumbers and papaya -- along with fresh pineapple, a seaweed salad, and lomi lomi salmon...those were just the salads (pictured at bottom). I'm not sure exactly what was in the luau's pickling marinade, but this (below) is a very basic sweet and sour pickling recipe that I 'grew up on' -- mostly for cucumbers. It's easy to play around with by using different vinegars, adding dill (with less sugar usually), garlic, thinly sliced red onion (for flavor and color), chile peppers if you want hot pickled cucumbers... I may try to recreate the luau salad, but even this basic recipe is good...a light, fresh pickled salad or side dish. (And thanks, Galina, for the cucumbers from your garden!)

Ingredients
2-3 medium cucumbers
1 C sugar
1 C apple cider vinegar
2+ C water
salt & pepper

Directions
Peel (optional) and slice the cucumbers into an air tight container. Add the remaining ingredients, stirring to dissolve all the sugar. You can heat it (just the brine, not the cucumbers!) to dissolve the sugar, but I've not found it to be necessary. Season the brine to taste with salt and pepper. If needed, add a little extra water so that all cucumber slices are covered. Refrigerate 8-10 hours (overnight is best) before serving so cucumbers are well marinated in the brine.