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Cucumbers Sautes, Lyonnaise
Heat in a frying pan one and a half tablespoons melted butter; add a medium sliced white onion; stir well while browning for two minutes, then add two large, peeled and sliced fresh cucumbers. Season with half teaspoon salt and two saltspoons white pepper; toss gently and briskly cook for five minutes, frequently tossing meanwhile; then pour in a tablespoon vinegar, adding a teaspoon freshly chopped parsley; toss them well again while cooking for half a minute. Dress on a hot dish and serve.
A quick sauté that stands or falls on keeping the cucumbers firm. Everything here happens in under ten minutes, so have the onion sliced and the parsley chopped before the pan goes on.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so two of them is half a teaspoon of white pepper. That is a considerable amount for two cucumbers; start with half of it and add more at the end.
- The cucumbersLarge watery cucumbers will steam rather than sauté. Halve them lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon before slicing.
- Draw the water firstThe hinge of the dish. Toss the sliced cucumber with a little salt, let it drain in a colander twenty minutes, then pat dry. Skip this and five minutes of brisk cooking will produce a pale, watery mush instead of lightly browned slices.
- Pan heatUse a wide pan over medium-high heat and do not crowd it. Cucumber releases liquid steadily, so a broad surface and a hot pan are what keep the five-minute cooking time honest.
- Melted butterOne and a half tablespoons is a scant amount for two cucumbers plus an onion. Butter alone will darken at the heat needed here; a teaspoon of neutral oil alongside it keeps the browning under control.
- The vinegarPlain white wine vinegar suits it best. Added off the heat it stays sharp; the half-minute of cooking specified is enough to take the raw edge off without cooking it away entirely.
- YieldProbably enough for three or four as a side dish, and it does not keep. Cucumber continues to soften and weep as it sits, so dress it on the hot plate and take it straight to the table.
Lyonnaise in classical French cookery means simply "with onions" — the style is named for Lyon, a city long associated with onion cookery, and the label attaches to potatoes, tripe, sauces and, as here, cucumbers. Cooked cucumber strikes many modern cooks as odd, but it was entirely ordinary in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European kitchens, where the vegetable was stewed, stuffed, glazed and fried as well as eaten raw.