{"id":18289,"date":"2016-01-15T12:30:40","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T11:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=18289"},"modified":"2016-01-15T12:30:40","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T11:30:40","slug":"winter-salad-with-salt-brined-cucumber-leek-and-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=18289","title":{"rendered":"Winter Salad with Salt-Brined Cucumber, Leek and Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18290\" src=\"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/leek_cuc_saladp.jpg\" alt=\"leek_cuc_saladp\" width=\"650\" height=\"488\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/leek_cuc_saladp.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/leek_cuc_saladp-420x315.jpg 420w, https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/leek_cuc_saladp-624x468.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/>Somehow, even though\u00a0lettuce\u00a0is\u00a0available throughout the year, I rarely have\u00a0it\u00a0in winter (while I can have prepare a green salad\u00a0sometimes every other day in the summer!). At this time of the year I often\u00a0need\u00a0more crunch, more texture\u00a0in cold side-dishes\u00a0and this one is a good example. This salad is based on\u00a0one of the many\u00a0versions of the Polish salt-brined cucumber and leek salad, usually prepared during\u00a0cold months. Vinegar-pickled cucumbers can be used here too, but\u00a0I prefer\u00a0salt-brined ones which are a typical source of vitamin C in the winter and have\u00a0less &#8220;violent&#8221; flavours. The super light sauce is barely perceptible, but I think a good dose of freshly ground black pepper is an important taste improvement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">TIPS: Some people find eating raw onions or leek difficult. If it&#8217;s your case, after slicing it, sprinkle with salt, rub with your fingers and leave for about 15 minutes and then rinse. It should make it milder.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Salt-brined cucumber can be found in Polish, Russian\u00a0or\u00a0Ukrainian shops, but I regularly buy it also in Germany (in an organic shop), so look for it in organic shops too. The visual difference of the jar is that vinegar-pickled cucumber&#8217;s brine is clear while the salt brine is a bit muddy at the bottom and not perfectly clear.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you cannot find salt-brined cucumber, you can use vinegar-pickled, but rather the milder ones\u00a0which have a low vinegar content (more sugar and more water). I&#8217;m not sure if the amount shouldn&#8217;t be cut down in this case&#8230; it depends how strong they are.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If you have fresh dill or parsley, they suit this salad, but are not very important.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Since salt-brined cucumber is already salty, I don&#8217;t add any more salt, but you can add it of course to the sauce if you wish (or if you use vinegar-pickled\u00a0cucumber).<\/p>\n<p><em>Preparation: 10 minutes<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Ingredients (serves two-three as a side-dish):<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>1 big apple (I prefer rather the tangier varieties)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>1 medium leek (the white and light green part only)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>3\u00a0big salt-brined cucumbers<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Sauce:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>2 tablespoons good quality oil (it can be any neutrally tasting oil or olive oil)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>1\u00a0tablespoons lemon juice or white wine\/cider vinegar<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>freshly ground pepper<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>(fresh dill or parsley leaves)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Cut the leek in half lengthwise and then slice it.<\/p>\n<p>If you have problems with raw leek, sprinkle with salt, rub with your fingers and leave for about 15 minutes. Rinse it. (It should make the taste\u00a0milder.)<\/p>\n<p>Cut up the remaining vegetables, coat in the sauce and season with freshly ground pepper just before serving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Somehow, even though\u00a0lettuce\u00a0is\u00a0available throughout the year, I rarely have\u00a0it\u00a0in winter (while I can have prepare a green salad\u00a0sometimes every other day in the summer!). At&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[69,183,133,18],"tags":[45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18289"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18298,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18289\/revisions\/18298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}