Dosaavakaya – Madras cucumber pickle

When I sat down to write the post and was inspecting all the pictures clicked while mixing the pickle, I wasn’t happy with the final pictures and the culprit was the chilly powder. I have been using Everest Thikalal for years now. However last year my Brother in law got Byadige Chilly powder ( An Uttara Karnataka variety of chillies ) which is known for its colour and lesser spice levels compared to Guntur chillies.  This spiced up the food just enough but gave a beautiful colour. And this year we used it up for the yearly mango pickle, as my Mother in law could not get her prescribed quota of chilly powder, mustard powder and gingelly oil from a small shop in Hyderabad, which she swears by. It’s been a tradition since decades now, and we definitely see a difference in colour and flavour of the aavakaya. And in the times of lockdown I didn’t have the luxury of choosing the brands especially when shopkeepers were delivering essentials with much lesser staff. So I would just order chilly powder and quantity and hope for the best to land up. So ended up with a brand which I haven’t used earlier and not going to use in future.

I almost gave up the idea of jotting down this recipe, but then I thought, sight is just one of the senses employed for eating. The taste and aroma still are of top notch. So to remember the Lockdown times and value and appreciate what we have decided to go ahead with this recipe with these pictures. Later date when I will make the pickle again I will go ahead and add the perfect picture.

See how looks rule the world, yeah even the gourmet world and may be especially the gourmet world 🙂

This pickle is my husband’s favourite and believe me every batch gets polished off in less than a week. Learnt this recipe from Attaya ( my mother-in-law) and she is an expert in making variety of pickles. One of my friend who tasted the pickles made by Attaya is a big fan and even went to state that she can literally eat anything and everything with the pickle.

Dosaavakaya is aavakaya made from dosakaya. Dosakaya is also called as Madras cucumber or Sambar cucumber. These come from Cucumber family and the local varieties are little sour and the hybrid ones are not. Some of these come in lovely yellow  melon colour while some come in a mixed stripes of green and yellow-orange.  Here I have used the latter variety which aren’t sour hence we had to use little tamarind to impart the sourness.

Too much of blabbering already, so let’s get to ingredients and process to mix up this pickle which is not for the weak hearted. If you fret and faint over the amount of chilly powder and oil used refrain yourself from reading further, but I can promise you will be missing on a great delicacy.  Again, you eat pickle occasionally  and not a main course everyday, so take the leap and check this out.

Ingredients

1. Dosakaya – 1 Medium sized or half of a big one.
2. Salt – 3 Tbsp
3. Chilly powder – 3 Tbsp
4. Mustard powder – 3 Tbsp
5. Tamarind – Small berry sized ball- Optional if the dosakaya isn’t sour enough
6. Oil – 1/2 Cup

Process

1. Wash the dosakaya thoroughly and wipe it dry well.  Like regular cucumbers dosakaya can be bitter too sometimes. So cut a small piece and check for bitterness. Have learnt couple of tips on reducing/ removing bitterness. Learnt these tips from a cousin and  from chefs who cook food during puja at home, which means they cannot taste the food. Have shared these tips at the end of this post. Do check it out,  try and let me know if these work for you.
2. I had a relatively big cucumber , hence used just half of it. Cut the dosakaya into half and scoop out the seeds. Don’t be the perfectionist and try to remove last of the seeds. You may leave some of them as they add good crunch and texture to pickle.
3. Cut the dosakaya into small bite sized pieces.  Don’t chop them too fine. Remember we do this with the peel on,  don’t remove it.
4.  Now mix up equal quantity of salt, chilly powder and mustard powder into a bowl.
5.  Add the mixed spices along with the tamarind to the dosakaya pieces.
6. Mix well to coat the dosakaya pieces with the spice mix.
7. Now add the oil and mix it all well. I have used cold pressed ground nut oil, but its best to mix all pickles with gingelly ( Til/Sesame ) oil. But to be honest, except for yearly mango pickle I always use the regular cooking oil I use daily even to mix these pickles.
8. You may at this point check if the pindi ( Spice mix) is less and add some more.  The consistency shouldn’t be too watery as this may reduce the shelf life of the pickle drastically. I had to add 1 tbsp of each of salt, chilly powder and mustard powder extra apart from what I initially mixed up.
9. Once everything is mixed well close the bowl with a lid and keep it aside to marinate for 1 to 1.5 hours. Oil should float on to the top.
10. Now store this pickle into an airtight glass jar. You can either store it in refrigerator -which I recommend, or store it in a dry place. Whenever you need to serve mix the pickle well to ensure the oil that floats on the top gets evenly mixed up before serving.
11. And the pickle is ready to be savoured with hot rice and ghee. You will end up licking your fingers, its that good. If you are used to eating with spoons , I would insist try to eat all the Indian meals with your hands using your fingers to mix up the food and savour. The texture and the feel of the food also is part of your eating process. I have read this or heard it somewhere, can’t place it exactly, but it is said that the food should first look appealing, the aroma should mesmerise you, the texture of the food when you mix with your fingers should enhance the appetite and finally its the tongue which will the taste the food, an by this time your mouth would have already secreted the required enzymes through saliva and hence we use the expression “mouth watering “. Give it a try.

 

Tips n Tricks

Sometimes cucumbers can be bitter there are multiple ways which help in reducing or removing the bitterness completely.

1. One of the cooks told me that they wash the cucumber pieces in rice washed water which removes the bitterness. However we can use this when we are cooking salads or daals with cucumber. This cannot be used for pickles as the water may reduce the shelf life of the pickle drastically. Since the pickles cooked during functions are used up in a day this works, but not for our regular dosaavakaya which we store for week to ten days.
2. Recently learnt through a video on Youtube channel, that in some regions, people add little chuna ( Edible Limestone used in Paans) which ensures the pickle doesn’t spoil even if there is water content. Then realised that lots of small scale eateries do this to prolong the shelf life of the pickles and use much lesser oil for cost purpose.
3.  Another easier way is to cut a small slice near the top of the cucumber and hold this piece in one hand and cucumber in the other and now rub this piece against the cucumber using circular motion. You will see a white foamy liquid oozing out. Do this for 2 to 3 mins or till you feel the liquid has stopped oozing out. Now wipe off the white foamy liquid and you will see that bitterness is removed almost completely. Check the picture below for reference.