Cucumber (Dosakaya) Chutney

Is it just me or have others noticed that the Oprah Show has morphed into another celebrity show these days. It is stopped being a show that imparted some good information for women to being another celebrity focussed show. So I rarely watch the show anymore. The other day while channel flipping I landed on the show which was about "How we treat the animals we eat" well represented by folks from factory style animal raising and free range. It was pretty informative. Seeing animals being raised in pens that are only slightly bigger than the size of the animals was disturbing. California has a ballot initiative to decide the issue while for the rest of us the only way to do it is buy responsibly at our respective grocery stores.

The fresh dosakayas that my neighbor gave was made into dal, it was tasty but nothing to crow about but the chutney was another matter altogether, it was delicious. I googled for a recipe, once I knew the Telgu name it was easy, like Sra pointed out pretty much all Andhra blogs had a recipe for it. Sra I am sure you'll be glad to know that yours was number 4 on the list when I searched for dosakaya chutney. I gave the recipe to my mom, with a few slight additions she had some delicious lip smacking chutney. The texture reminded me of coconut and would serve as a good substitute.

Ingredients
1. 2 Indian Cucumbers, skin removed and chopped roughly
2. 6-8 shallots chopped
3. tamarind a small grape sized
4. 2 red chilies
5. 1 tsp channa dal
6. 2 tsp urad dal
7. 1 tsp coriander seeds
8. 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
9. 2 cloves garlic
10. salt
11. seasonings - curry leaves and mustard seeds
12. 1 tsp of oil

Method
1. Heat a tsp of oil and brown the dals, coriander and cumin seeds. set aside
2. saute the red chilies and set aside
3. now add the shallots and garlic and saute till translucent
4. towards the end add the tamarind and remove and cool
5. add salt and the dosakaya pieces and blend to a paste
6. now heat oil in a pan, crackle the mustard seeds and curry leaves. pour over the chutney.

Tastes excellent with rice.