Lemon cucumber/dosakaya ooragaya chutney

This vegetable is called lemon cucumber(in English)/dosakaya(in Telugu).This is also belongs to cucumber/keera family but it is hard and sour in taste.

chutney made with lemon cucumber is called dosakaya ooragaya chutney.This chutney is my favourite and this is very good in taste.It tastes like mango pickle!! I have learn't this pickle from my mother. Usually everybody brings cucumber to put it in dal or just make curry alone or combine with other vegetables like tomato or alu.Sometimes cucumber can be bitter becoz of cucumber seeds are bitter or it might be cucumber(it's muscle) itself is bitter.In the later case, we can't do this chutney.This is usually done when cucumber seeds are bitter or cucumber is not at all bitter.

Ingredients:

Medium size lemon cucumber (dosakaya)-1
chilli powder-4tsp
Garlic cloves-10(slightly mash them using mortar and pestle)
fenugreek seeds /Methi powder -1/4thspoon
Mustard powder-2tsp
oil -half of small glass(50 ml)
salt to taste
Turmeric powder -1/2 tsp

Preparation:

1.Wash the cucumber and wipe it with kitchen towel (shouldn't be a drop of water on it) and cut a small portion of it and taste to see whether it is bitter or not.

2.If the cucucmber seeds are bitter first cut the cucumber into half & remove the seeds out of it and slice the cucumber (without peel cucumber) into small cubes/long slices .Add salt and turmeric powder to these pieces and mix well and let it for 5 to 10 min and then squeeze all the pieces with salt and turmeric powder to remove bitterness(bitterness becoz of attached seeds to the cucumber) .Take squeezed cucumber pieces into another bowl and all other ingredients except oil & mix well.

3.If the cucumber is not bitter the squuezing is not required as in step 2,just cut it into small cubes/long pieces(dont peel the skin and remove seeds) and take those cucumber pieces into a bowl and add turmeric,chilli powder, mustard powder, methi powder, salt, garlic cloves (slightly mash them) and mix them nicely.

4.Take a small pan and heat oil and add all seasoning/tadaka/talimpu ingredients .Add this seasoning mixture to the above cucumber pieces. Mix all the ingredients properly and keep in a dry jar and rest it for a day. It stays for 2 weeks . Tastes good with upma, rice, chapathi, dosa etc.

Note:You can also add raw oil directly to the pieces like in mango pickle or just add heated oil without talimpu/seasoning.