Kakdichi Koshimbir

In the days of yore when a full meal was a daily affair. The balanced Marathi Taat always had a spoonful of salad, ofcourse I'm talking abut the Koshimbir. This version in made with cucumber which we call Kakdi in Marathi.

As far as I remember to make a delicate Koshimbir one always peeled the skins. We would use the white / light green skinned cucumber for our daily dose of Koshimbir. If we did get the dark green skinned one which we called gavathi or country cucumber, we kept the skin on.

There is a science for preparing the cucumber for use in cooking. Before even peeling we'd wash it cut the two ends and chip of the ends and taste. If it was not bitter then it was meant for consumption. Then we took the cut off ends and rubbed the cucumber ends to get rid of any excess latex. We did not want it forming little lumps in the dish or to find coating our tongue. Our family had a way of finding out if we didn't do this little task. At the first morsel itself, they'd asked "Who cut/ grated the cucumber?"

Most times the assignment of cutting or grating cucumber was given to a kid or a husband who was plonked in front of the TV. Koshimbir got made just before serving the meal so it was a lady's way of telling the husband she had enough with the cooking and now he better help instead of just watching TV. This was especially true in the evenings.

The other ingredient is the danya cha koot which is stocked in a jar. It is the groundnut powder made after roasting and deskinning. This danya cha koot is use to make the Koshimbir khamang or as a thickner for curries.

So here is one more variety of Koshimbir from the pantry staples.

Ingredients

1 cucumber

1 cup curd 

1 tablespoon groundnut powder

salt to taste

sugar to taste

Wash peel or keep the peel of cucumber as you wish. Grate or chop fine as per your style. Put it in a large bowl.  Mix in curd, groundnut powder, salt and sugar.

Serve as accompaniment with any type of paratha or enjoy a bowlful as it is. To go all traditional make it with all your full meals on weekends and festivals.

Posting this for all the bachelor boys who love koshimbir but never ever tried making it. Make it your self and eat as much as you want. Moms no more say "Koshimbir thodi khavi, tondi lavana aahe te". See the change the humble Marathi salad has evolved from being an item for changing the taste to an item of importance in a meal and can be eaten a lot.