Rasa Cucumber Curry

We have a surfeit of cucumbers in the organic box, so I’m making a recipe from London’s Rasa chain of restaurants. We don’t tend to cook cucumbers that much, but this is really good.

1tbsp tamarind pulp

1/2tsp fenugreek seeds

4 dried red chillies

50g desiccated coconut

1tsp turmeric powder

4tbsp vegetable oil

1/2tsp mustard seeds

7 curry leaves

400g cucumbers, peeled and partly seeded

Understandably the boy is not sure about this at all. I was tempted to tell him this was actually an Asian vegetable he hadn’t had before but realised that this would do nothing for his confidence. This is London-Asian so a Bhangra CD goes on.

Steep the tamarind in 4tbsp hot water and break it up with a fork, as much as you can. After about 20 minutes sieve it to get a thick liquid. The sieve is a nightmare to wash up, but that’s just part of it.

Chop the cucumber into fairly small pieces. I think a little unevenness will give a better variety of textures at the end so allow for some really big and small pieces.

In a dry frying pan, toast the fenugreek seeds and dried chillies for a minute and then tip them in a blender with the tamarind pulp, coconut and turmeric to make a paste.

In the same frying pan, heat the oil and fry the mustard seeds until they pop. Add the paste and the curry leaves and get it nice and hot. Then add the cucumber. Turn the heat down low and cook for 5 minutes.

The good news is that the boy does actually like it and claims he probably wouldn’t have thought it was cucumber if I hadn’t told him.