Instant Cucumber pickle / Kheera achaar

Pickles are a craze for us south Indians. Many want to have their first bite of dinner or lunch to be with any pickle. Be is with hot rice or even with chapathis. Pickles with perugu annam is also very common. The yummy taste of cold curd rice with spicy pickle! yum!!
Pickles like avakaya, usurkaya are prepared carefully only one time of the year when the mangoes are in abundance or you get lots of gooseberries (amla) and stored very carefully for the rest of the year.
For us who live here away from home, where we don't get good mangoes...we turn to store made pickles, which are OK sometimes, but for the most part aren't good when stored for long. That's when we turn to these instant pickles, which aren't that difficult to make and can be eaten instantly!
I put up an recipe for an instant Mango pickle before.
Here is an instant pickle made with crunchy salad cucumber....yes I am not kidding, the green cucumber which we eat as salad can also be made this way as pickle. It taste good, is crunchy when eaten immediately.
Makes for a good side item for a party or a pot luck.
I made it to my taste...please increase or decrease quantities according to yours!!


Ingredients:

1 + 1 1/2 cucumber, chopped to small pieces
about 1-2 tbsp of oil

To dry roast and grind to powder:

1 tbsp mustard seeds
1/2 tbsp methi seeds

To add to chopped cucumber:

1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp amchur powder
salt to taste

For Tempering:

6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp urad daal
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
5-6 dry red chillies, broken
1/2 tsp Hing, asfoetida, inguva
bunch of curry leaves

Method:

Peel and chop the cucumber to small pieces, smaller than bite size pieces preferably.

Dry roast the mustard seeds and methi seeds and grind to powder.

Chop garlic and heat oil for tempering. Add the chopped garlic, urad daal..let it brown.
Add the mustard seeds and jeera...let them splutter.
Add the red chillies, hing and curry leaves, when they splutter add it to the chopped cucumber.

Add the rest of the ingredients like salt, turmeric, red chilli powder and amchur powder to the cucumber. Mix well.

You will notice that when its first mixed, the pickle is thick, but slowly the juices from the cucumber start coming out and the pickle will become juice. After one day, it will be more juicy, thats why it doesn't store good for long.
Serve immediately with hot steamy rice, perugu annam (dahi rice, yogurt rice), roti or chapathi or as a side item. Can be kept in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. I wouldn't suggest storing for more than that. Make sure that no water touches the pickle, or it will deteriorate even sooner.

Enjoy!!!

Sending it to Nivedita @ Nivedita's Kitchen for CMT - Pickle, started by Jagruti of Joy of Cooking.

And also to Torview @ TorviewToronto for Food Palette Series - Orange.

Also to Preeti @ Khaugiri for "ONLY" - Festive food, started by Pari @ Foodelicious.