Tausalli is one of the most loved breakfasts among Konkanis. I never knew it is also called ‘cucumber cake’. But after reading Ashwini’s post and also talking to few of my readers who referred to this dish as ‘cucumber cake’, I thought of adding “Cucumber cake” to the title of this post. Taushe means Cucumber in Konkani. The name comes from “taushe idli – tausalli” since it is steamed like idli.
I have grown up eating this dish for breakfast or evening snacks with chutney or chutney powder(pitto) . Our version of this dish is not very sweet. Usually turmeric leaves are used to line up the vessel in which this dish is steamed. These leaves give extra flavor to the dish. But since the leaves are not available here, I steamed them directly in cooker vessel.
Ingredient: Cucumber(grated) 1 cup Rice 1/2 cup or rice rava(idli rava) 1/2 cup Coconut(fresh or frozen) 1/2 cup Ghee 1 tea spn Sugar/jaggery 1/2 tea spn Salt For lining up vessel Turmeric leaves(optional) 5-6 or ghee 1 tea spn The amount of sugar/jaggery can be increased to make the dish more sweet.
Method: Soak rice in water fr around 2hrs. Drain the water and spread it on a dry cloth or paper. When it becomes dry, grind it into coarse rava (alternatively, use the idli rava directly). Mix rava with all other ingredients and leave it for around 30mins. When it is left for 30mins, the mixture leaves water. This makes the dish more tasty.
Lineup the cooker vessel with a layer of turmeric leaves, if leaves are not used, apply ghee to the vessel. Pour the mixture in to the vessel. Cover the mixture with one more layer of leaves.
Steam it for around 10-15mins(similar to idlis without adding the weight). Cut into desired shape.
Serve with chutney or chutney powder.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 20mins (excluding the ‘standing’ time)
Few days back when I had requested for kids’ lunch box recipes, one of my readers asked me to post lunch box ideas for adults. I gave it a thought and finally decided to click pictures of hubby’s lunch box and post them here. I do not know how long this category will continue, because it becomes very difficult to click pictures early morning when I usually run here and there to finish cooking lunch and breakfast before 8AM. This category will only have pictures and the links(if possible) of the dishes.
I use the tupperware boxes which I got from India. I have tried with different types of lunch boxes but liked tupperware because the food does not smell in these boxes and also even the watery dishes do not come out from the boxes. I like to fill all the 4 boxes though I perfectly know half of it comes back without being touched :).
I could not think of any good way of including fruits in our diet. And we hardly used to have any fruits after dinner as well. Mostly, because I prepare a very heavy dinner after which we are so full to have anything else. I know a heavy dinner is not a healthy habit, but still dinner is the only meal when we can relax a bit and eat, whereas lunches are had in our busy schedule/office. So I started including assorted fruits in lunch (I was inspired by Meeta’s blog ). Today’s lunch is jowar roti , engayi (I filled it in two small boxes, am sure one will come back untouched :)) and fruits – watermelon, grapes, pineapple, apple mixed with one tea spn honey.
