Pachchadi

On Independence Day when I had a day off and my oven conked off, in addition to making those Pistachio Pancakes, I made 3 dishes for Onam. A valiant effort, even f I say so myself.

At the end of it all there were two things I realized

1. In a way it's good I never really settled with any of those North Indian boys I hung around with. Rice and Dal is no competition to the miracles of Malayalee food. Sorry. Oops! as an emancipated female of the 21st century, I'm not supposed to say sorry.
2. The real difficulty, the real real difficulty in writing down these recipes is, how do you measure ingredients? I call up my mum for recipe and she gives me ingredients and the method. I add, remove, taste and add a bit more till I work out a balance. Would it really help anyone if I gave approx. measurements of my recipe. Take chillis for example, 2 chillis can be really spicy in some cases, or horribly unspicy in some. Or jaggery for that matter. Or tamarind. Hence, play around please. The idea is to strike a balance of flavours.

Pachchadi is an accompaniment. Sort of like another chutney. Pachchadi is not supposed to be spicy. Its more or less like a cooling agent. Its best had fresh on the day its made. It just doesn't taste the same after a couple of days in the fridge. My mum says, cook the cucumbers in advance and add the rest of the ingredients on the day of serving. This saves the hassle of waiting for the cucumbers to cook on the Dday and also ensures the fresh taste.

Ingredients

200g     cucumbers (peeled and diced small)
4tbsp    coconut
3tbsp    curd
2          green chillis
1/2tsp  mustard seeds
Salt to taste

For tempering
1/2tsp  mustard seeds
1sprig  curry leaves
2  red chillis
1 tbsp coconut oil

Method
Poach cucumbers in water till cooked.
Grind together coconut, green chillis and curd together.
Add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds to the coconut mix and pulse just once.
Strain cucumbers and keep aside 2 tbsp of the water. Add coconut mix and stir in.
Temper mustard seeds, red chillis and curry leaves in coconut oil and add to the dish.
Pachchadi ready!

PS: I added 3 green chillis to mine and was a bit fiery. So for this recipe I'm cutting it down to two, so you guys don't have bowel issues from having pachchadi.