Sautekaayi saasve (raw cucumber curry) - cooking a delicious dish without actually "cooking"

She gets up at the crack of dawn, takes a bath and enters the kitchen. The kitchen is her work shop where the artist and the scientist in her compete and collaborate with each other to bring out the best. It is a large family that she has to feed and the demands are varied. A husband who goes off to work in the morning and doesn't return until evening, he doesn't carry a lunch pail with him so the first meal of the day has to be nutritious and sustainable (add fibers, lentils or pulses that digest slowly and release energy over time), an older daughter who always rushes out in the morning (what is it with college kids and getting up late in the morning:-)) without time for a sit down breakfast (make something that is quick and easy to eat, and no there were no cereal bars available at the time), oh she needs a lunch box too as she doesn't get home until late in the evening (something that is not too dry nor too watery to carry easily on the bus). And then there are 3 younger ones in different grade schools that need to be fed nutritious meal as well(in goes vegetables, some ghee to make it rich and healthy). All taken care of? well not really, this dish was made just last week and this vegetable was in 2 meals ago, the same old, same old is not going to cut with this family..

Sounds familiar? I am sure it does ring a bell with most of you reading it. I try to close my eyes and imagine this routine of nammamma for decades. At the beginning of her married life, she was part of the larger, joint family with parents in laws, sister and brother in laws that she took care of and towards the end it was the extended family of sons and daughters in laws and the grand children. The routine kept changing shape like boggarts do depending on the phase of life she was in but the busy schedule itself didn't change much. There were hardly any back up plans or substitutes for her work and much was taken for granted..

I was probably the pickiest of all her children. While the rest of the family was happy eating what was prepared, I would be the one troubling her to make 'something else' but never telling her what I really wanted :-). Her immediate reaction whenever I said I was hungry was to make something and feed me, I get it, I am a mom now and that is a very easy to idenitfy with 'mommy nerve'! After a long day of being in the kitchen, all she probably wanted to do was to sit back, have some 'me' time and read a book. The moment one of us started the hunger siren she would be scrambling to get something infront of us. Even with my nitpicking, there were always a number of favorites that I would never say 'no' to and she knew the trick very well :-). Spicy dishes have been my weakness and if she offered me something from that genre, I would immediately back off my protests and sit down to eat. I think that was the beginning of reverse psychology moms so effectively use on kids :-)

This Sautekaayi saasve is one such dish I never refused. The recipe is unimaginatively simple. There is no cooking involved - chop the vegetable, grind a spice paste with all raw ingredients, mix the two together. You have a tantalizing side dish/salad ready to eat in a matter of minutes. This recipe is from the heart of Malenadu/Malnad (known for its simple, homely and mouth watering dishes with a big emphasis on fresh coconut  and mostly sweetened with jaggery:-)). Malnad cuisine is a great example of food made with easily available ingredients and the vegetables are almost always from the backyard as the region is blessed with abundant rains and fertile soil. The food is saatvik, onions and garlic are rarely used.

Saasve is the Kannada name for mustard. The dish is also called saasve in this case as mustard is the central flavor in it. Coconut and roasted gram add body and taste to the curry while mustard elevates it with a unique flavor. Since there is no cooking involved (if you discount the seasoning ofcourse), this is also called hasi (raw) gojju (curry). I like to eat it as a 'dressed up' salad but it is great to mix with rice or have with rotis.

What do you need to make Sautekaayi saasive? 
1 big cucumber (I used the English cucumber which are tender and hardly have any seeds)
To Grind:
small key lime sized tamarind
1/2 Tsp jaggery
3/4 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp roasted chana/kadle
3/4 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp cumin
1-2 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup grated fresh coconut

Seasoning: 
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tsp mustard
1 dry red chili (broken into pieces)
pinch of asafoetida
2-3 curry leaves

How do you make Sautekaayi saasive? 

• Wash, pat dry the cucumber. 
• Peel and chop into tiny pieces (see picture for to get an idea of the optimum size, smaller or bigger is your choice :-))

• Take all the ingredients listed under 'To Grind' and grind to a smooth paste. 
• Mix the ground paste with the chopped cucumber. Add water if needed to bring to your desired consistency. Remember cucumber leaves additional water when mixed with salt, so start with a slightly thick gravy. 

• Heat oil on medium heat, add items under 'seasoning' and let mustard pop. Switch off the stove.
• Add the seasoning to the gravy, mix and let it sit for 10 mins before serving. 

• How easier than this can making a curry get :-))

Notes: 

• If you are using regular cucumbers that are mature, remove the tiny bits from both ends, peel and remove the seeds before chopping it. 
• Soak tamarind in a couple spoons of water to soften it up before grinding. 
• I like to refrigerate this for about an hour before eating since I mostly eat it by itself as a salad. The resting time helps the flavors mingle together. 
• This curry needs to be a balanced on all the tastes - sweet, sour, salt and spice. Feel free to adjust to suit your palate. 

Kosambari, easy breezy salad - light on the stomach, good for the spirit

It has been a while since I wrote here, I really wanted to say 'Thank you' to all you wonderful people that stopped by and made things easier for me with your thoughts and prayers. You may not realize it but your act of kindness has meant a lot to me. I am overwhelmed and grateful by the love I have received from so many people, most of whom I have never even had a chance to meet in real life. Life is very pleasantly strange. So again, a big Thank you to all of you, your thoughts are very appreciated.

Past few weeks have been rough and although the ride is definitely not over yet, I feel like we are doing the best under the circumstances. Nammamma seems have reached a balance of comfort and happiness which is a blessing. I realize that the act of cooking, eating, feeding & writing makes me a happy person and I don't want to let go of something that easily is one of the things I enjoy, as does my other favorite activity of reading. Here is something (Mankutimmana Kagga by D.V.G) from one of my favorite Kannada poets that I have been rereading for a while now..with an extremely light translation attempted by me.

Baalkeyali noorentu todaku tinukugaluntu
kelke maankegaligavu jaggavondinisu
golkaredarenu phala? guddaalenu phala?
palkiridu taalikolo Mankutimma
(You encounter many hurdles & difficulties in life, these will not go away at your asking, there is no use crying over it and no use fighting it. Just grin & bear with patience what life dishes out to you)

We (most of USA) did a Spring forward today with clocks getting reset to adjust the hour we gained earlier in the Fall. While it is not good to lose an hour of sleep, Spring holds its promises to look forward to. My rhododendrons are perking up and I can see buds becoming fuller by day in the Camellia bush underneath the window. I will get ready to transport the Jasmine and other flowering pots outdoors in a couple of weeks. So I am ok with the lost hour :-).

Today also happens to be Maha Shivaratri, a celebration to remember and practice self control and apply a little bit of oneself to something bigger than oneself. Unlike many other Hindu festivals, Maha Shivaratri is not about food, it is a day of living simply and self reflection. In the spirit of the day, I made this very simple salad called Kosambari or Kosambri in Kannada. This is one of the very popular versions of the kosambari Nammamma made on most festivals. As the weather gets warmer, this salad makes a wonderful lunch, protein rich with the lentils, citrusy with the lemon juice, taste enhanced with coconut and not at all heavy on the stomach.

What do you need to make Sautekayi(cucumber) Kosambari?
1 medium sized tender cucumber - about 2 cups finely chopped
1/2 cup moong dal/hesaru bele/pesara pappu
1/2 cup grated coconut - preferably fresh, but frozen works well, see notes below
1 Tsp salt
1 Tblsp lemon juice
1 Tblsp chopped cilantro
Seasoning: 
1 Tsp oil
1/2 Tsp mustard
1-2 green chilies - chopped small
1/8 Tsp asafoetida

How do you make Sautekayi Kosambari?

• Soak moong dal for 45 minutes - 1 hour or until it plumps up. 
• Rinse and wash the soaked moongdal, drain the water and keep aside.
• Wash, peel and chop cucumber in to small pieces, you can use the entire cucumber if it is tender, else remove the seeds and use only the flesh part. 
• Mix soaked moong dal, chopped cucumber, chopped cilantro, salt, lemon juice and grated coconut together. 
• Heat oil in a pan, add mustard and chopped chilies and let mustard sizzle. Add asafoetida when the mustard starts to pop, switch off the stove and pour it on top of the dal and cucumber mixture. 
• Mix well and enjoy as a salad or a light lunch. 

Notes: 

• If using frozen coconut, keep the coconut outside to thaw and let it come to room temperature. alternatively, you can put the frozen coconut in a bowl and keep it in a wider bowl with hot water. Take care not to have water flowing into the coconut bowl. 
• Kosambari is typically a spicy, tangy mixture. Go ahead and adjust the lemon juice, green chilies to suit your palate. 
• Asafoetida gives a wonderful flavor to the kosambari, do not skimp on it. 
• There is no hard rule about the proportions used in this recipe, we love it with loads of cucumber and the amount of moong dal used is less. Feel free to change it any way to suit your taste. 

Variations: 

• As I said this is our favorite version of kosambari, Nammamma makes it with grated carrots instead of cucumber or soaked chana dal instead of moong dal. I mix & match depending on the menu for the day. 

Soutekayi gojju - curried cucumbers in coconut sauce

I am finally sitting down tonight and dismantling our bommala koluvu and cleaning up all the stuff in the basement. All the dolls will rest cozily wrapped up in papers and inside their boxes until next year. Some will go back to their every day place on the mantle or around the house. I am looking forward to the next month as we have family visiting, it will be busy and fun and no doubt lotsa food.

As I have mentioned before, gojju is a 'very Karnataka' recipe, in a very simplistic description it is curried vegetables and does not have lentils in it. It is a very common side dish for a rice based meal. Gojjus are typically high on their spices (chilies and tamarind) and go well with a piping hot Saaru/rasam on a rainy day.

Cucumber gojju is a very simple and common quick fix as it doesn't involve any cooking. Chop the cucumbers, add the ground masala and the 'hasi gojju (raw gojju)' is ready to eat. I eat it like a heavily dressed salad without really feeling the need for rice, they are good to mix with rice or have with rotis.

One of my doddamma's is a fantastic cook, her gojjus, saaru, uppinakayi are all to really die for, she is the one that eats mosaravalakki on a regular basis for dinner and I have sat in the kitchen waiting for her to drop a handful into my stretched palms :-). She made butter at home and put a dollop on top of the akki rotti or dosa for morning breakfast, I can never forget that taste even after all these years. She is not only an awesome cook but is very artistic and is adept at making things with household raw materials - she had taught me how to make wire baskets, beaded purses, home made winnows by soaking and grinding old newspapers, making clay lamps and many, many more. I only absorbed a tiny bit of her oceanic skills given my artistic limitations. Many of the things she did are either dying art or already extinct and replaced by store bought, plastic stuff.  She is old and frail now and doesn't cook anymore..but for all of us the taste of her cooking still lingers on the tongue.

Cucumbers are chopped very small for this gojju, doddamma used a method called 'kochu' in Kannada, she used the traditional vegetable chopper/coconut shredder and take a whole, peeled cucumber and keep making sharp, an inch and half long vertical cuts all over the cucumber, then turn it around and chop them horizontally to get really small pieces. Repeat this process of alternate vertical & horizontal cuts until you reached the end of the cucumber. This gives the tiniest yet not mashed up cucumber pieces best suited for this gojju and the traditional kosambaris. You can kind of imitate this process with knife or just chop them as small as you can. Choose a cucumber that is tender or cut in half and discard the seeds.

What do you need to make cucumber gojju? 
Serves 4 people as side dish
1 big green cucumber
1 heaped Tblsp grated coconut
1 Tsp crushed jaggery/brown sugar
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
3-4 twigs of cilantro (optional)
To roast in oil:
1 Tsp oil
2 Tblsp chana dal/kadle bele
6-8 fenugreek seeds
1 Tblsp white sesame seeds
4-5 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1X1 inch piece of tamarind
To Season: 
1 Tsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
4-5 fenugreek seeds
2-3 curry leaves
pinch of asafoetida

How do you make cucumber gojju? 

• Wash, peel and chop cucumber into very small pieces (discard seeds before chopping if they are big and hard).
• Heat a Tsp oil on medium heat and fry all the ingredients under 'roast in oil' until chana dal turns light brown and green chilies develop blisters.

• Take the roasted ingredients + coconut + jaggery + salt + 1 Tblsp of chopped cucumbers and cilantro (if using)to your mixer/blender and blend into a very smooth paste. Adding cucumber while grinding lets out water needed for grinding. The paste should be semi solid or a thick chutney. 

• Add the ground paste to cucumbers and mix well.
• Prepare seasoning - heat oil, add asafoetida, mustard, fenugreek seeds and let them pop. add curry leaves and switch off. 
• Pour the seasoning on top of gojju and give it a mix. 

Notes:

• I use the long thin English cucumbers sometimes which hardly has any grown seeds, so the entire thing gets chopped up. 
• Adding cucumber pieces while grinding lets water and helps the grinding process, if you want add a little bit of water but make sure the ground paste resembles a thick chutney. 
• Serve this soon after preparing as cucumber leaves a lot of water on mixing with water and makes the gravy diluted if you keep it for long. 
• Addition of jaggery is recommended but not mandatory. 
• Adding fenugreek seeds to the seasoning gives a wonderful flavor and bite to the gojju, skip this if you don't like fenugreek.
• Adding tamarind while roasting the ingredients softens it up and makes it easier on the grinder. 
• Break the green chilies by hand or roughly chop them before adding them into the hot oil, whole green chilies pop all over the place.