@vodkadimas & @oliahercules x #CookForUkraine 🇺🇦 "The sunflower has been Ukraine's national flower for a long time, but it has swiftly become a worldwide symbol of solidarity for the country and its people since the Russian invasion began 🌻🇺🇦💙💛🙏🏻" Swipe for the recipe from Olia 🇺🇦💙💛🥒 "Every year, my son would spend half the summer in Ukraine with my parents. He has a ritual: as soon as he wakes up, sun glaring and white-hot at 8am, he runs into the garden, straight to the cucumber plant. My mum taught him how to twist them at the stem gently, so as not to pull on the whole plant, and how to embrace the sharp ends of the prickles on his soft palms: a quick polish and the spikes come off, leaving it safe for nibbling with abandon. We only use one word for cucumber in Ukraine – ogirky – which refers to them in all their forms – fresh or pickled, and whatever variety. British cucumbers (those rather watery 15cm-long behemoths!) are different to the smaller, spiky kind I grew up with. As a student shopping at the Warwick University branch of Tesco, I made do, and luckily, now I can get more compact and flavoursome varieties in London, although I don’t think they’ll ever make up for the gherkins we enjoy in Ukraine. Ukraine gets very hot in summer and the gherkins we get are rather dry – in a good way. They are dense, extremely fragrant and sweet. Picked while still warm, they are an absolute flavour bomb. Come early autumn, when the sun calms down a little and the cucumbers are not watered as much, they become even more intense. This is the time to start pickling. Not with vinegar, but by letting lacto bacteria do its job. My mum and I love long-fermented gherkins – salty, strong beasts, almost olive green, the ones that make you wince, but still reach for another. (I call them “nuclear” gherkins.) My dad, however, loves a gentle one- or two-day ferment. Malosolni ogirky (literally “little-salted gherkins” – those that are quickly pickled) are incredibly easy and a good introduction to fermentation. All you need is some good water (no chlorine as it kills bacteria) and organic produce, salt, some flavourings and a maximum of two summer days." 🇺🇦