Nupur’s A-Z of Indian Vegetables ~ D is for Dosakaya

February 18, 2007 at 1:57 am · Filed under Cooking

Lovely Nupur of One Hot Stove has invited us to to take part in her new series,
A-Z of Indian Vegetables. Since Nupur was one of my very early inspirations, it’s particularly fun to take part in this. Thanks, Nupur!

As usual, however, I am late — perhaps just under the wire since Nupur is blogging on central time and I am on the east coast! I thought it would be easy to whip together something for a veggie event… but do you know how many vegetables actually begin with “D”!? Without counting “dal” — here’s what came to my mind:

Dandelion
Dasheen
Dhania (hmm… vegetable or herb? I stuck with herb)
Dondakaya
Doodhi
Drumstick

“D” is for dilemma, eek! I don’t love dandelions, and I wasn’t going to get to the Indian store today. At home, I didn’t have so much as a *can* of drumsticks (my favorite!), nevermind fresh or frozen. Ditto for the other choices. I had a bunch of cilantro (dhania), but that wasn’t inspiring me.

“D” is for dig, and dig I did. I dug through my cookbooks. I dug through the internet. Finally I remembered the dosakaya (dosakai) I bought a couple of weeks ago. Did I still have the half I hadn’t cooked? And more importantly, would it be usable? Sure enough, there it was securely wrapped in plastic in the fridge, still feeling firm and fresh, and still scented with that lovely summer-sweet melon fragrance. Perfect!

In digging through my cookbooks, I came across my old copy of The Joy Of Cooking. Armed with that, I decided to experiment. I am not much of a baker, but J of C has never let me down.

~~~

Dosakaya Breakfast Bread
adapted from carrot-nut bread from The Joy of Cooking

Preheat oven to 350F

Sift together:

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour, preferably unbleached
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cardamom pwd.

In another bowl, mix:

1/2 c sugar
1/4 c jaggery
2 eggs, beaten (I used 3, as I had medium sized eggs)
1/2 c canola oil

Grate:

1/2 medium sized ripe dosakaya (yellow cucumber)
you should have about 1 cup

In a small pan warm:

1 tsp ghee
1 cinnamon stick
5-6 cloves

To the spiced ghee, add and toast:

1/3 c golden raisins
1/3 c cashew pieces

Remove cinnamon stick and cloves from pan. Mix dry and wet ingredients together. Fold in the grated dosakaya, and the toasted raisins and cashews. Bake in greased 9″ x 5″ loaf pan at 350F for approx. 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool ten minutes in the pan before removing.

I put some butter next to the bread for the pic, but it really didn’t need butter. It was very moist from the juicy dosakaya, and not overly sweet. Like most quick breads, it’s probably best eaten within a day or two of cooking — and rewarmed at that.

fresh from the oven ~ dosakaya breakfast bread

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