Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s cucumber yoghurt curry with gooseberry pickle. Photograph: Phoebe Pearson/The Guardian. Food styling: Hanna Miller. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Liam Baker. View image in fullscreen Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s cucumber yoghurt curry with gooseberry pickle. Photograph: Phoebe Pearson/The Guardian. Food styling: Hanna Miller. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Liam Baker. Curry A Tamil summer vegetarian feast: Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s cucumber yoghurt curry and gooseberry pickle Serve this cold curry with a hot, fenugreek-flavoured preserve for a seasonal refresher
Prefer the Guardian on Google T his lovely summery “curry” is a cold, refreshing dish from Karnataka in India, and is eaten widely in Tamil Nadu, just 20 miles across the Palk Strait from my ancestral Tamil homeland in north and eastern Sri Lanka. Along with chefs Louis and Seb in our development kitchen, we decided that smacking the cucumbers helps give them a silky texture, and means the fragrant yoghurt base can get into all the nooks and crannies. It’s wonderful with plain rice and a side of fenugreek-heavy hot Tamil pickle, made with English gooseberries rather than superfood nelli, both of which are said to make your skin shine and hair bouncy.
View image in fullscreen Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s hot gooseberry pickle. Prep 10 min Cook 10 min Pickle 10 min Chill 2 hr+ Serves 4
250g gooseberries 250ml apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp caster sugar 1 tsp salt 1 tsp fenugreek seeds 1 tbsp mustard seeds 4 garlic cloves , peeled and crushed 3 tbsp vegetable oil 4 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder Some salt
Wash the gooseberries well, then spread them out on a cloth and leave to dry.
Put the vinegar, 250ml water, the sugar and salt in a saucepan and cook on a high heat until the sugar and salt have dissolved and the liquid is simmering. Add the gooseberries, turn off the heat and leave to pickle for 10 minutes.
In a small frying pan, dry roast the fenugreek for about 60 seconds, until fragrant, then leave to cool. Tip the cooled fenugreek into a small spice grinder or mortar, add the mustard seeds and crushed garlic, then blitz or grind to a paste. Scrape the mix into a small bowl, add the drained gooseberries, the oil, chilli powder and salt, then cover and put in the fridge for at least two hours.
View image in fullscreen Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s cucumber yoghurt curry. Prep 15 min Cook 10 min Serves 4
2 cucumbers 80g desiccated coconut (frozen or freshly grated) , soaked in water for 15 minutes, then drained 2 green chillies , roughly chopped 4 garlic cloves , peeled and roughly chopped 30g fresh coriander , stalks and leaves ½ tsp black peppercorns 2 tsp sesame seeds 100g natural yoghurt Salt , to taste Boiled white rice , to serve
For the temper 4 tsp vegetable oil , or coconut oil 10 fresh curry leaves 1 tsp fenugreek seeds (optional) 2 tsp mustard seeds 2 tsp cumin seeds 3 dried red chillies , ideally cascabel
First, make a coconut-cucumber paste. Peel the cucumbers, reserving the skins. Wrap each cucumber in clingfilm, then bash them lightly with a rolling pin. Remove the clingfilm, keeping the seeds, and cut the flesh on a slight diagonal into 1cm slices. Put a few of the chopped cucumbers, the cucumber seeds and skins into a blender, add the drained coconut, green chillies, garlic, coriander, black peppercorns and sesame seeds, then blitz smooth.
Put the yoghurt in a medium bowl, and whisk until smooth, then bea…