Cucumber Idli (Thoushe Muddo)

Cucumber Idli (Thoushe Muddo)

Konkani cuisine includes dosas and idlis made with cucumbers and not just cucumber salads. Suprised?

Take a look at these Konkani cuisine's delicious cucumber dosa recipes, give them a try and let me how you like them: cucumber dosa (thousali), pancakes with cucumber (thoushe doddak/thoushe bakri).

Konkani cuisine's cucumber idlis have been a scrumptious breakfast for ages. They are quick, easy to make and don't need fermentation.

Cucumber idlis are full of flavour & smell from cucumber as cucumbers add their distinctive taste and smell to otherwise normal rice idlis. Cucumber idlis are best enjoyed with a spicy coconut chutney. A nice variation from regular idlis for breakfast. 

Cucumber idlis are made two ways - the savoury ones and sweet cucumber idlis. Savoury cucumber idlis are eaten with a spicy coconut chutney. Sweet cucumber idlis are had just with ghee on top or with ghee and with a spicy coconut chutney.

Cucumber idlis are made all the more flavoursome and fragrant by steaming these idlis in turmeric leaves and banana leaves. Traditionally, cucumber idlis were steamed in plaintain leaves or in turmeric leaves only for their distinct taste and flavour. Cucumber idli batter is placed within a plaintain leaf or within 2 turmeric leaves and are steamed. However, you can make these idlis in idli mouldsidli plates too.

Cucumber idli rice batter is also steamed with pieces of turmeric leaves placed within the banana leaf parcels or on idli moulds/plates (when turmeric leaves aren't available in plenty) to impart their heavely aroma and taste to these idlis. While cucumber idlis are steaming within/with turmeric leaves & banana leaves, it fills up your house with this heavenly aroma of cucumber and those leaves. Turmeric leaves, banana leaves add their heavenly smell, distinctive taste to these idlis.

Cucumber idlis are called thoushe idli in Konkani. Thoushe means cucumber in Konkani. They are called thoushe muddo in Konkani if they are steamed in plaintain leaves, turmeric leaves or in a container/idli plates, instead of steaming them in idli moulds.

Here's the recipe to make delicious cucumber idlis (thoushe idli/muddo) for breakfast. 


Savoury cucumber idlis 


Ingredients:

  • 1 medium sized cucumber
  • 1 cup dosa rice
  • 3 green chillies
  • Salt to taste
  • 1/2 cup grated coconut

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 35 minutes


Preparation Method:

1. Wash dosa rice well. Strain out all the water. 

2. Grind the rice grains for few seconds without using water so that they breakdown into pieces (called as rava). We need a mixture of powdered - peices rice grains and a nice powder of rice. So, that they cook well, fast and easily.

3. Peel, grate the cucumber. If your cucumber is mature and has huge seeds, deseed the cucumber and then grate it. If the cucumber is tender and has tiny, thin seeds then it's ok to leave the seeds on.

4. Mix well ground rice, grated cucumber, salt, grated coconut, chopped green chillies.  

5. Add little water if required. We want the rice grains to be completely soaked and submerged in water, cucumber water so that they cook through.

6. Allow this mixture to stand for 15 minutes so that the rice grains soak up a little.

7. Get your steamer going in the meantime.

8. Transfer cucumber idli batter into idli mouldsidli plates and steam them for 25 minutes.

There should be little water content in the batter or else the rice rava doesn't cook through. There shouldn't be excess water too or else the idlis will be mushy and sticky. 

If you want to steam the idli batter in banana leaves, then wilt washed squares of banana leaves on a gas flame for few seconds until they start to change their colour. Otherwise banana leaves tend to break when you fold them. Pour in a handful of batter into the banana leaf, fold around the leaf and steam for 25 minutes.

If you are using turmeric leaves then hold two turmeric leaves as a cross, place a handful of batter in the middle and roll around the leaves.

9. Remove the steamed idlis off the moulds after a few minutes of cooking and serve them hot with coconut chutney.

Side Note: You can make these idlis using store bought rice rava for a quick breakfast. In that case, you'll have to just mix together all the ingredients & steam them. However, I prefer idlis made out of homemade rice rava for it's texture.


Sweet cucumber idlis (Godu thoushe idli)

Add powdered jaggery to the above mentioned rice batter to make sweet cucumber idlis. Add jaggery depending on how sweet you would like your idlis to be. Rest of the steps remain the same to make sweet cucumber idlis. 


Side Note:

1. You can aslo steam cucumber idlis with turmeric leaves on top of the batter in idli moulds/plates for an awesome flavour and taste. 

Turmeric leaves:

3. If you are short of time you can use store bought idli rava, instead of making rava from rice at home.

4. To make sure the idlis cook perfectly I follow these steps:

a. Wash the rice grains, strain out all the water completely.

b. Keep the rice grains closed in that vessel itself for about 2 hours or just let it rest overnight.

c. During that time the rice grains soak up all the moisture content that's present and this helps ensure the rice grains cook perfectly and quickly. 

d. Once the rice grains take up all the water content present in the vessel, the rice grains and the vessel on teh inside gets dry, with no more water content present, then grind the rice grains for a minute in pulses. Grind it for few seconds, stop, mix the rice grains to get uniform sized rava, grind again. We need a mixture of fine rice powder and pieces of rice grain. 

5. You can also make delicious cucumber dosas and cucumber pancakes.


Try out other veggie idlis:

Pumpkin idli (dudde idli)

Ash gourd idlis (kuvale idli)

Chayote idlis (simethoushe idli)

Field marrow idlis (magge idlis)

50+ types of idlis from Konkani cuisine, GSB cooking

Find more Konkani cuisine breakfast recipes here.


Tags: Thoushe muddo, cucumber idli, southekayi kadubu, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani cuisine, Konkani food, Konkani recipe, kids breakfast