Cooking Simplified is Fun!!!

Video Recipe - వీడియో రెసిపీ

Ingredients:

• Yellow Cucumber – 900gms

• Red Chillies – 13 Or To Taste

• Tamarind – 1tsp

• Fenugreek Seeds – 5

• Black Gram – 3tsps

• Mustard Seeds – 1tsp

• Asafoetida – 1/4tsp

• Turmeric Powder – 1/4tsp

• Salt – To Taste (2 1/2tsps)

• Chopped Coriander – 2Tbsps

• Oil – 5Tbsps

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Preparations :

First we need to roast the yellow cucumber on flame. One can roast the cucumber on gas stove flame or on charcoal fire. We need to roast the cucumber till the skin turns black in colour. Here we will learn to roast cucumber on charcoal fire. Here I have taken a barbecue charcoal oven. This oven has a tray with holes in it and a grill stand to place the things we need to roast on it. It also has an ash collecting tray beneath. Take some coconut fiber and separate with fingers and spread in the holed tray. Above the coconut fiber spread charcoal evenly. Place this tray in the frame of the charcoal oven. Place this unit in a big tray or a big plate to save the tiles on the floor so that hot ash falls into the tray. Crumble few newspapers and place them in the ash tray and light them with a match stick. Papers burn and through the holes coconut fiber catches fire and it burns. Blow air using a folded newspaper or a plate so that charcoal burns with the fire of coconut fiber. If there is a blower at home this job becomes easy as charcoal catches fire quickly when air is blown. Once the charcoals are sufficiently lit place the yellow cucumber on fire and roast it. Observe the crackling sound of the burnt cucumber skin. While roasting, turn the cucumber to evenly roast it. Take the help of long handled forks or ladles to turn the hot cucumber. In between blow air with blower or a newspaper to increase the fire and roast the cucumber turning sides. Be aware and observe the charcoal which turns to ash. Then carefully remove the cucumber and mix the charcoals with the ladle to separate ash and then fill the tray with new charcoal. Blow air to increase fire and roast the cucumber till it turns black. To roast the underside of the cucumber place it upright on fire and roast it. Once the cucumber skin turns black, carefully remove it from fire and place it on a plate. Cover the roasted cucumber with a bowl so that the heat trapped in the roasted cucumber makes it soft from inside. To put off fire of the burning charcoals sprinkle some water on them. Then spread the wet charcoals in a plate and cool them completely so that we can use them once again. After 5 minutes remove the bowl and see that the cucumber is still warm. Carefully peel the burnt skin on the cucumber. Though this is a messy job, the taste of the chutney made with this roasted cucumber excites one to do even this messy job. One can also peel the skin using a spoon. Just scrape the burnt skin using a spoon and the peel comes off easily. It is okay if some burnt portions are left on the cucumber even after peeling properly. But if one wishes to clear even that take a wet tissue and wipe the peeled cucumber to remove even the traces of burnt skin. Place the cucumber on a chopping board and cut it horizontally. Cut a small portion of the cucumber and taste it to check for bitterness. Similarly take some seeds using a spoon and taste them to check for bitterness. Here the seeds are bitter so I have separated them using a peeler and discarded them. If seeds are not bitter just separate them and keep them in a bowl. Now chop the cucumber into small pieces and place them in a plate.

Take red chillies and remove stalks and break them into pieces and place them in a plate.

Method:

Take a bowl and place a strainer in it and keep it nearby.

Heat a pan and add oil and heat oil. When oil is sufficiently hot add fenugreek seeds and black gram and fry stirring with a ladle. When seeds start changing colour add mustard seeds. Fry the seeds till mustard seeds start spluttering…by then the black gram turns golden in colour. Then switch off flame and add asafetida and red chilli pieces and stir well to fry evenly. As oil is hot chillies get fried well without turning dark in colour. Immediately transfer the fried ingredients to the strainer in the bowl and observe that fried seeds remain in the strainer and oil gets collected in the bowl below. Transfer that oil into the pan again and heat oil. Add the roated cucumber pieces into the oil and add turmeric powder and salt. Mix all the ingredients in the pan well so that salt and turmeric powder coats evenly on all cucumber pieces. Place the tamarind between the cucumber pieces and cover the pan and cook on medium flame for 3 minutes. Then stir once and if the cucumber pieces are not fully cooked, cover the pan and cook them on low flame for 5 minutes. Test by pressing a cucumber piece in pan with the ladle---if it cuts easily then they are cooked well. Then switch off the flame and transfer the cucumber pieces into a plate and spread them to cool fast.

Take a mixie jar and transfer the fried ingredients in the strainer into it. Take the cooked tamarind from the cucumber pieces and add it to ingredient in the mixie jar. Grind the seasoning and scrape the sides using a spoon. At this stage add the seeds of cucumber if they are not bitter and grind using PULSE button. As the seeds are bitter in my case I have added few cucumber pieces and ground the mixture. Grind the mixture coarsely only to get the texture---one should be able to see the crushed cucumber pieces in the chutney. Transfer the ground chutney to the pan and similarly grind the remaining cucumber pieces. Add some coriander leaves and mix the chutney well. Transfer the prepared chutney into a bowl and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve this chutney with hot plain rice and ghee. Mix dal with plain rice and eat this chutney as a relish. So eat this chutney with curd rice. One can also serve this chutney as a dip with salads. Make this tasty chutney at home and enjoy the joy of eating homemade food.

Points To Observe:

Select firm cucumbers for this chutney.

Roasting gives the smoky flavor to the chutney. Unlike brinjal the cucumber does not get cooked when roasted to a soft texture. So after roasting the cucumber we need to cook the cucumber pieces.

If desired add a combination of green and red chilies or can also be made using only green chilies too----taste may differ slightly.

See that red chilli pieces do not turn to dark colour or else the taste and colour of the chutney changes. So be careful and immediately transfer the fried ingredients into the strainer so that they stop getting further fried in the hot oil.

Do not burn the seasoning ingredients by frying them for long time and also do not under fry them so that they remain raw. Frying seasoning is an art and that brings the taste to the chutney. So be mindful and fry the seasoning to right texture to get better results.

Adding a small piece of tamarind gives a silent taste to the chutney---however if cucumbers are sour there is no need to add tamarind.

While grinding crush the pieces but do not grind to a fine texture. The coarse texture gives a special taste to chutney. If possible grind using a stone grinder (ROLU).

Add ghee to hot rice and mix the chutney and eat to get the full taste of this dosakaya kalchina pachhadi.

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