Cucumber Sweet & Sour Chutney (Keera Dosakaya Pachadi)

Blogging Marathon# 25: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Cooking from a Book
Dish: Cucumber Sweet & Sour Chutney (Keera Dosakaya Pachadi)
My theme for week 2 of BM# 25 is "Cooking from a Book". Like a lot of you reading this post, I have a ton of cookbooks that I have bought over the years. I find a million reasons to buy a book and I see myself cooking through the entire book before buying. But once the book comes home, it sometimes gets neglected.  I have to say I do refer to my cookbooks when I'm in a rut to make something.

So for this week's theme, I decided to try some Indian dishes from my Indian cookbooks. For the first day I made "Cucumber Chutney/ Keera Dosakaya Pachadi" from "Cooking with Pedatha" cookbook. Keera dosakaya or salad/ english cucumber is rarely used in cooking in my household. It's generally used in raitas or for salads, so this dish is a delicious variation for us.

Ingredients:

English Cucumber - 2 medium, peeled and thinly sliced into 1" long pieces or ½" cubes

Sambar powder - 2tsp

Tamarind Pulp - 3tbsp

Jaggery - 1tbsp

Roasted Sesame powder - 2tsp
Turmeric - ½tsp
Salt - to taste
Coriander leaves - 2tbsp, finely chopped

For Tempering:
Urad dal - 1tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1tsp
Red Chilies - 2-3
Green Chilies - 2, slit
Curry leaves - 8
Asafoetida (hing) - ¼tsp

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a pan, add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add chopped cucumbers and cook for a minute.
• Add the tamarind pulp, turmeric, sambar powder, jaggery and sesame seed powder. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes or until crisp tender.
• Add salt just before switching off the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with rice and a curry for a complete meal.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked up today for BM# 25.