Recipe of the month: Taushe Bhakri (Cucumber Rotti)

Continuing my exploration of regional Indian dishes, today’s find is a Konkani  speciality called Toushe Bhakri or Cucumber Rotti. It is an easy to make, light on the tummy, traditional breakfast dish. Even better, it comes together with ingredients you probably already have sitting in your kitchen.

Somewhere along the way, I have had to accept that I don’t quite have the time (or bandwidth) to blog the way I once did. I'll admit that it is a bitter pill to swallow. Having said that, the urge to keep at it hasn’t gone away. I still find myself saving recipes I stumble upon, usually with a quiet conviction that this one will be the one that brings my blog out of its coma! And that is exactly how I found the recipe for this dish. I had never heard of it before, which immediately piqued my curiosity and it seemed like the kind of dish that would work perfectly for our busy household of six.

On an unrelated note, it does make me a little sad to see traditional blogging slowly fading into the background. Nobody really has the patience for it anymore because everything nowadays needs to be quick, snappy and instantly consumable, doesn't it? 😢 Even recipe videos have a shelf life of a few minutes before people start losing interest. Attention spans are shrinking at an alarming rate, and instant gratification seems to be the rule of the game. To avoid disappointment, I am not holding on to hope that my Generation Alpha daughters will read my elaborate blog posts. By now, I am quite convinced that I am an old soul at heart. I have little interest in keeping up with technology. I have never approached content creation as a means to an end. Podcasts, vlogs, audiobooks, YouTube shorts have never really appealed to me. I still believe in the power of writing, in documenting lived experiences, in taking the time to say things from the heart and in today's day and age, not having AI chatbot say things for me that I am perfectly capable to saying myself! (no matter how unpolished it may sound 😝). But my thoughts aside, the fact that my blog still gets a reasonable number of views is reason enough for me to keep showing up here.

Coming back to today's recipe - this was (for the most part) a hit just as I thought it would be. My husband didn’t quite take to it, but that is due to his long-standing dislike for cucumber in the cooked form. He is one of those people who prefers the vegetable raw. Fair enough I'd say. The rest of us really enjoyed it and I can easily see this dish working just as well with zucchini. I served the bhakris with homemade butter (so good), coconut chutney, chutney pudi and pickle. It complemented everything very well. 

To those of you who still take the time to visit my blog, read my ramblings and try my recipes, thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are the reason I'm still here 💜

Taushe Bhakri

Preparation time: 40 min (included resting time)

Cooking time: 2-3 min per bhakri/rotti

Serves: 4

Recipe category: Breakfast/South-Indian

Recipe level: Easy

Recipe source: No single source

Ingredients:

3 medium-sized taushe (English cucumber) 

2 cups medium rava/ sooji (semolina)

3 tbsp rice flour

1 cup fresh coconut, grated

3-5 green chillies, finely minced (adjust as per taste)

1/2" piece ginger, finely minced 

1/8 tsp hing (asafoetida)

2 tbsp coriander leaves, finely chopped

1 tsp jaggery powder

1 tsp salt, to taste

Oil, as required for making bhakris

Method:- 

1. Wash the cucumber properly and snip off the two ends. If you want to peel the cucumber you can but I prefer the peel on. Grate the cucumber and remove the seeds if they are not tender. 

2. In a large bowl, mix together the grated cucumber, minced ginger and green chilli, asafoetida, rava, rice flour, fresh coconut gratings, coriander leaves, jaggery powder and salt, to form a dough. Do not add any additional water as the cucumber will release it's own juice. 

3. Let the dough rest for atleast 30 mins.

4. Heat a flat pan (preferably cast iron).

5. Take a banana leaf, or silicone mat or laminated sheet and lightly grease it. Place a golf ball size of dough in the middle and lightly pat it to form a uniform circle like you would do for rotti. Dip your fingers in water to make this process easier. 

6. Invert the bhakri over the hot pan. Remove the banana leaf or sheet/mat. Cook the bhakri on both sides until brown marks appear. drizzle with a little oil.

7. Serve the hot bhakris with butter, coconut chutney, chutney pudi or pickle of your choice. 

Notes:

• Add more rava if you feel the dough has more moisture content but keep in mind that the dough should not be too stiff
• Resting the dough is important so don't skip this step
• You can use regular cucumber if you do not have English cucumber on hand
• You can replace English cucumber with zucchini in this recipe

Cheers,

Megha