Polish-style Cucumber Salad

Name: Polish-style Cucumber Salad (Mizeria)
Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients: 2 medium cucumbers; 2.5 ml/½ tsp salt; 120 ml/4 fl oz/½ cup sour cream; juice from ½ lemon; 2.5 ml/½ tsp sugar (optional); 1.5 ml/¼ tsp ground black pepper; 15 ml/1 tbsp chopped fresh dill or chives, to garnish; 15 ml/1 tbsp chopped fresh dill or chives, to garnish

Mizeria

Preparation info

Serves
4-6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Food and Cooking of Poland

By Ewa Michalik

Published 2008

About

According to legend, this simple salad was a favourite dish of Queen Bona Sforza, an Italian princess who married the Polish king Sigismund I in the 16th century. Homesick for her native Italy, the dish made her cry, hence its Polish name, derived from the Latin for “misery”.

Ingredients

2 medium cucumbers
2.5 ml/½ tsp salt
120

Europe
Poland
Gluten-free
Vegetarian
Eastern Europe

Method

Peel the cucumbers, slice them thinly and place in a sieve (strainer).
Sprinkle over the salt, leave for a few minutes, then rinse to remove the salt and pat dry with kitchen paper.