My Mother-in-law's Konkani recipe: Instant cucumber dosa

When my wife agreed to marry me, I was over the moon! Not only is she intelligent, wise, and sensible, she also shares my taste in food! What can a man ask for more in a life partner! However, that wais not the only advantage of marrying her!

A little background: I am a Marathi speaking person from Maharashtra and her mother tongue is Konkani. Konkanis, like all the awesome coastal folks, have their own cuisine that is rich in taste, flavours and life! To add to my fortunes, my mother-in-law is an Annapurna - she loves to cook and feed us, and the food is always amazing!

When we had our son, my MIL came over to help us out in the initial few weeks. During that time, I was treated to some amazing dishes, and the memories still haunt me!

One dish that I particularly liked was dosas made using cucumber! I am a big fan of dosas as such, and cucumber is an ingredient I never expected in one! Let me share the recipe with you.

The legendary cucumber dosas!

This dish is made in various styles. The Mangalorean style is much different from the Tamil style of preparation. my MIL's style is heavily influenced by the Mangalorean style of making the dosas. Needless to say, all the styles are loved by kids!

The beauty of this recipe is that you do not need to ferment it overnight. All it needs is a 3-4 hours of soak and the batter is ready! What more, it can be made from the ingredients found in every desi kitchen, and requires no fancy stuff!

Without stretching it too long, let me get to the recipe

Ingredients (to serve 4)

• Idli rice/regular rice (2 cups)
• 1 big cucumber
• Grated coconut (4 tbsp)
• Green chillis (1-2)
• Coriander (for taste and colour)
• Jeera (1 tbsp)
• Dhania powder (1 tbsp)
• Salt (for taste)

Recipe

1. Wash and soak the rice in water for 3-4 hours.
2. Cut the cucumber. Leave the skin on of it is not thick.
3. Grind the cucumber, coriander, jeera, coconut, dhania powder, green chillis and salt to a fine paste. Don't add water as the cucumber would provide the necessary moisture.
4. Add the rice to the paste and grind again.

From here, you can make two types of Dosas-thick ones and thin ones.

Read on to find out more!

Thin crispy dosas

1. Add water to the ground paste of all the ingredients so that the batter is runny.
2. Heat a tava. Add a few drops of oil to it.
3. Pour the batter and even it out to form a thin layer of dosa
4. Remove once the side is crisp

Thick dosas (my personal favourite)

1. The paste would be thick. Add a little water so that the resultant batter has the consistency of Shrikhand.
2. Add a few drops of oil to the tava.
3. Make a small cake of the batter. Flatten it out on the tava while it is still warm. Spread it so that it is as thick as an Uthappa.
4. Increase the heat slightly and let it becomes crispy.
5. Flip the side and let the other side become crispy as well!
6. (Bonus) You can also make idlis with the thicker batter!

Enjoy both the recipes with chutney or butter. The kids would love this recipe and so would your in-laws!

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(Image courtesy: Smitha Kalluraya)