Mangalorean Cucumber Dosa/ Easy Cucumber Cake
Mangalorean Cucumber Dosa/ Easy Cucumber Cake
Mangalorean Cucumber Dosa is a recipe that evokes fond memories. Every summer, we cousins would gather at our Grandparents house in Dakshina Kannada (a district in the state of Karnataka, South India). The best part of the holiday was the traditional food we got to eat made by our grandmother and aunts with timely help from the kitchen maids.
Breakfast was always something to look forward to and we enjoyed eating the different dishes every morning, especially the Mangalorean Cucumber Dosa.
Mangalore Cucumber Dosa is something like idli. However it is not fermented. The rice is soaked and ground with cucumber, jaggery and coconut to a smooth paste. It is then poured into a large, well oiled platter and steamed for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into it comes out clean. Cool, cut into squares or wedges and serve dripping with home made butter. Just thinking about it makes me drool. 
I played around with it as my children never liked traditional Mangalorean food when they were young. The usual response was ‘ yuck.’
So I added baking powder, raisins and nuts and baked it. And they loved it. I made it recently as I was thinking about the good old days and to celebrate the awesome women in our family who passed on the tradition of good food to us.
The Recipe For Mangalorean Cucumber Dosa/Easy Cucumber Cake:
1 rice cooker cup basmati rice, wash and soak for 3 hours; 1 large cucumber, wash and remove skin; 1 rice cooker cup jaggery powder ( it’s so easy to cook nowadays); 1 rice cooker cup grated or desiccated coconut; 1 tbsp raisins (optional); 1 tbsp broken cashew nuts (optional); 1/4 cup home made ghee; 1 tsp cardamom powder; 3 tbsp almond meal ( this is my addition and not there in the original recipe); pinch of salt; 1 tsp baking powder
Instructions For Mangalorean Cucumber Dosa/Easy Cucumber Cake:
Chop and grind cucumber and coconut to a smooth paste without any water. Add rice, jaggery, pinch salt and 1/4 cup water and grind again to a cake consistency. Pour mixture into a mixing bowl. Whisk in 3 tbsp almond meal, baking powder ( this is my addition again), cardamom powder and the ghee. Pour into a 9 inch oiled and lined round cake pan. Scatter raisins and cashew nuts on top if desired. Bake in pre-heated oven (10 minutes) at 180 Celcius /350 F for 40 minutes or until skewer inserted in centre comes out clean). Serve hot for tea or for breakfast with home made butter. It’s all right to indulge once in a while.
NB: 1. Please note that every oven is different. So it may take 5 or 10 minutes more or less the above mentioned time.
2. It can also be steamed in an idli steamer. Sometimes I do that.
3. You can also ferment the ground mixture overnight in which case there is no need to add the baking powder. This was the traditional way it was made in my grandmother’s time.
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