Kakkiri pachadi is something like cucumber Raita. But Raita is grated or chopped vegetables of any kind, mixed with yogurt and generally no coconut is involved. Here in kakkiri pachadi, uncooked, green cucumber is mixed with coconut which is ground along with few other ingredients to impart fresh flavours. It is then mixed with yogurt for a refreshing tangy taste. And then tempered in coconut oil. Here mustard is used in two form, one while grinding and other is used to splutter while tempering. Pachadi can also be made with other vegetables like beetroot, mango, pineapple, carrot, Okra, Indian cucumbers etc. Most of these vegetables are cooked prior to adding the ground mixture though and are integral part of Kerala Onam Sadya menu. This is my mother’s version of kakkiri pachadi and she normally serves it along with some fish curry, fried fish and pappadum.
Kakkiri Pacchadi (Cucumber in tempered coconut and yogurt sauce)
Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
1 cup grated cucumber
A tiny piece of ginger
1 medium size clove of garlic
1/3 cup grated coconut, fresh or frozen (not desiccated)
¼ tsp mustard seeds
½ - 1 green chilly (Omit if you don’t like it spicy)
½ cup creamy yogurt
For tempering:
2 teaspoon coconut oil
¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 twig of curry leaves
1 dried red chilly, broken into 2*
Preparation:
1. In a bowl tip in the grated cucumber. If wished, you may chop them into tiny pieces as well instead of grating.
2. Grind coconut, green chilly, ginger and garlic into smooth paste by adding 2 Tbsp of curd.
3. Crush mustard using pestle and mortar and add to the coconut mix. You can also add mustard directly to the smooth coconut paste and just whizz them just to crush. But make sure that you don’t over-do mustard as the flavour is very strong and overpowering. So to be on the safe side, crush it on pestle and mortar.
4. Add the whole ground coconut mixture to grated cucumber. Add yogurt and salt and mix well.
5. In a separate small pan, heat oil. When the oil is hot enough, crackle mustard seeds and add chilly and curry leaves. Sauté for few second until it leaves aroma. Add it to the prepared mixture and mix well. Serve with hot plain rice and curries.
Notes:
1. My mom uses round dried red chilly for tempering, I am not sure what it is called though. I have never come across that kind of chilly here , so I use long twisted Dried kashmiri chillies instead. I am sure any dried variety should work fine.
