Dosa Avakai (Dosavakaya)

Recipe Ingredients:

1.  Medium sized dosakaya
2. 3 tbsps mustard powder
   
3. 4 tbsps red chilli powder (use red kashmiri chillis)-you can reduce to 3 tbsps for less spice
   
4. 1 1/2 tbsp salt-if required more salt can be added at a later stage
   
5. 4-5 tbsp of nuvvulu nune (til or sesame seed oil)

Recipe Procedure:

     Wash a medium sized dosakaya and dry it completely.Cut the cucumber into two halves and de-seed the cucumber and cut it into small pieces or slightly big ..approx 1″ size…which should yield 2 cups of chopped pieces.

    Mix chilli pwd,mustard pwd and salt.Take a wide vessel, add the above spice-mixture and the chopped dosakaya pieces.Mix the cucumber pieces well with the spice-mixture and slowly add the oil and combine with the pieces till well coated. The cucumber pieces should be well coated and wet with the spice mixture and oil but not dripping with oil, using approx 4-5 tbsps of oil. Once the cucumber pieces are well coated and wet, check the taste of the raw cucumber pickle and if salt is insufficient, add a little more salt. If you find that the salt content is more then add a few more cucumber pieces to compensate for the saltiness of the dish.Generally the salt content in pickles is a wee bit more than normal.You can adjust according to your liking. Now put the cucumber pieces in an absolutely clean and dry wide-mouthed ceramic jar, cover with a tight lid and keep at a moisture-free dark area of your kitchen or pantry, overnight. Next day, take a dry clean laddle and mix the cucumber pickle well.

    Dosa Avakai is ready to be consumed the day after preparing the pickle (approx 24 hours).The spices and oil blend with the cucumbers which absorbs the spice-pungent flavors to form a thick paste like consistency due to the water content in the cucumbers and salt.