Mangalore Cucumber Coconut Curry Recipe

This creamy, savory-sweet Mangalore cucumber coconut curry is rice’s best friend plus Monsoon season’s food heaven. This curry is honestly so good and so perfectly savory with just a teensy bit of sweetness that you probably find yourself scraping out the extra curry-coated rice from the plate and spooning it all straight in to the mouth.

This Mangalore cucumber coconut curry bowl is not only colorful and healthy and delicious to the core, but it also comes together quickly, which is basically a staple food in my life these days as I am vacationing at my native in this downpours of Monsoon.

In this coastal region of Karnataka Monsoon season is probably terrifying with heavy downpours all the time I mean 24 hours of the day. These are the most messy months of the year when one doesn’t feel like getting out even for vegetable shopping. Most of the cooking in these days either have some fresh greens from the backyard or the Mangalore cucumber (vellary) which is hung along the bamboo during it’s cropping only to use the same during Monsoon.  And this curry is well known as “Southe Koddel” in this region.

The soft, crunchy Mangalore cucumber cubes get amazingly pulpy when cooked in tamarind juice and jaggery. And also get the hint of beautiful golden yellow color from turmeric. Then they are drenched in coconut plus roasted spices gravy which induces all the flavors and taste in to them. So it’s a Mangalore cucumber coconut curry time. Enjoy eating a good and comforting meal.

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Mangalore Cucumber Coconut Curry Recipe

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time35 minutes mins

Author: Sumana

Ingredients

• Mangalore cucumber medium sized- 1 no.
• Tamarind- Small lemon sized
• Jaggery- Big lemon sized
• Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- 1 to 1.5 tsp
• Curry leaves- few

To grind

• Grated coconut- 1/2 cup
• Split black gram lentils- 3/4 tsp
• Chickpea lentils- 3/4 tsp
• Coriander seeds- 2 tsp
• Cumin seeds- 3/4 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds- 1/2 tsp
• Red chillies- 3 nos.
• Curry leaves- few
• Oil- 2 tsp

Seasoning ingredients

• Cooking oil- 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
• Split black gram lentils- 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves- few

Instructions

Preparation

• Wash the Mangalore cucumber scraping any mud sticking on to it with enough water. Then cut it horizontally in to half in turn cutting each half portion in to wedges. Chop each wedge of Mangalore cucumber in to medium sized pieces.
  

Method

• Soak tamarind in half cup of water for about 10 minutes. Extract it's juice discarding the residue. In a cooking vessel or pan add all the chopped pieces of Mangalore cucumber and half cup of water. Cook these pieces along with tamarind extract, jaggery, turmeric powder and curry leaves till the pieces turn pulpy.
  
• Meanwhile heat a wok adding oil followed by black gram lentils, chickpea lentils, red chillies, coriander, cumin, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves. Roast all these ingredients in medium flame till the lentils turn little brown. Transfer all the roasted ingredients in to blender and grind it to coarse paste along with grated coconut. Add water as required.
  
• When the Mangalore cucumber pieces on stove have cooked well, add the ground coconut paste and salt. Combine everything well. Include water to get the curry to desired consistency and bring it to boil. Switch off once done.
  
• Heat a seasoning pan with all the seasoning ingredients included, as the mustard seeds start to crackle transfer it to curry.
• Authentic Mangalore cucumber curry is ready to serve with steamed rice.
  

Notes

• You can peel the skin off from Mangalore cucumber if you wish. I usually prefer keeping the skin.
• While roasting the ingredients make sure the flame is medium and you are stiring it continuously to avoid burning.
• Do not grind the coconut mixture too finely, let it be little coarse.
• You can also add 2 tsp of cooked pigeon pea lentils(toor dal) to the curry.