The idea of putting sliced cucumbers and onions into a brine of salt and sugar must be a good one, because it is featured in cuisines from Denmark to China. The variety I like adds hot peppers. I usually use sliced jalapenos, but I happened to have some red Thai peppers for the batch in the photograph. Much of the heat of the peppers is in the seeds, so wimps are advised to leave them out. Any type of cucumber can be used, peeled or unpeeled. Japanese cucumbers are crunchy and work well.

The mixture does not need to sit for long. As little as four hours will do, although overnight is a better. Concentrated marinades will do the job in an hour or two. I recommend serving it up in separate small bowls. That keeps the vinegar to itself.

Recipe? A recipe for this dish stifles the spirit of creativity-under-time-pressure that it really deserves. It works well with a large range of ingredients and proportions so long as you have cucumbers, onions, and vinegar in there somewhere. However, if you insist, start with

2-3 medium or 2 large cucumbers
1-1/2 cup white vinegar
1-1/2 cup water
2 tsp salt
2 tbl sugar
2 sliced jalapenos or 6-8 Thai sliced chilis
1 medium sweet onion, chopped

Variations leave out the peppers and use tomatoes or dill. Many have no added water. Cooks.com has 782 recipes that feature cucumbers and onions in vinegar. Our custom search engine finds even more varieties. You can add more ingredients, like dill or parsley, to the search engine description to narrow the search.