If the summer is killing you and ice-cream is not your way of cooling yourself, try making this succulent dish – Cucumber and Cream. However repulsive the combo may sound, it actually makes the perfect thanda-thanda afters.
Actually, the credit for this matchless dish goes to Jamyang G, who runs a restaurant in Bhutan and occasionally prepares this sweet dish for special customers. He says it is “fast to cook and good for health.”
According to Jamyang, all you have to do is pick up some fleshy cucumbers from the market, peel them, sprinkle some salt and keep them to cool for a while in the fridge. “If you want it real fast, keep it in the freezer, though they tend to turn a bit soggy,” warned Jamyang.
When cool enough, pour a good measure of sweetened cream on to it. “We use the branded cream packets that come from India. If you keep this cream in the fridge, it will be cool as well and make your dish taste better,” added Jamyang.
Mix the two so that all pieces of cucumber are soaked in the cream. Sprinkle a wee bit of white pepper and serve. If sweetened cream is unavailable at home, ‘malai’ from milk can also work as a secondary, though, not so tasty option because you will have to sweeten it up a bit.
The flavour is one of its kind because of the bizarre mishmash of tastes. The cucumber cools while the cream gives it an unusual sweet twist and the white pepper and salt provides the slight tangy after -taste.
So this October, if all you are going to do is curse the summer, try some cheap and fast-to-cook dessert instead and may be it will not feel so hot.
So whip up this dish and let me know.