Name: Bengali Shosha Makha
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 2 Cucumber, peeled and finely chopped; 1 Onion, finely chopped; 2 Green Chili Pepper, finely chopped; 2 tbsp Coriander Leaves, chopped; 1 tbsp Mustard Oil, raw; ½ tsp Salt

10 mintotal

Prep 10 min

Serves: 2
Difficulty: Easy
Spice: High

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Ingredients

Quantities are for 2 servings.

Ten minutes, all of it chopping. Shosha makha is mixed by hand and eaten straight away.

Method

Wash, peel, and finely chop the cucumbers. You can keep the seeds if they are tender, otherwise scoop them out.
In a mixing bowl, combine the chopped cucumber, finely chopped onion, and fiery green chillies.
Sprinkle salt and fresh coriander leaves over the vegetables.
Drizzle the raw, pungent mustard oil directly over the top. This is the soul of the dish.
Mix very well using your hands (makha) to slightly bruise the onions and cucumbers, releasing their juices to mix with the oil.

How to tell it's done

Soft yet crunchy vegetables swimming in a sharp, nose-tingling mustard dressing.

Nutrition

Per serving, from 2 servings.

131kcal

Where the calories come from

Protein2.7 g8%
Carbohydrate16.6 g46%
Fat7.4 g46%

Saturated fat: 1 g
Fibre: 2.5 g
Sodium: 591 mg
Potassium: 545 mg
Calcium: 63 mg
Iron: 1 mg

Estimated by calculation from the ingredient list, using USDA FoodData Central. Not a laboratory analysis.

Getting it right

Tip

Authentic Makha requires massaging the ingredients by hand. The heat of the hand helps release the essential oils of the green chilli into the mustard oil.

What to serve it with

Serve immediately with simple Dal and Rice (Dal Bhaat).

Common mistakes

It tastes of raw oil rather than cucumber.: Mustard oil is meant to be raw here, but the quantity matters — a tablespoon for two cucumbers. More than that and the dish is oil with cucumber in it.
The salad is watery.: Salt it as you mix and eat it straight away. Mixing by hand bruises the cucumber deliberately, which means the juices start running immediately; that is the dish, but it does not wait.

Substitutions

Any raw pungent oil works if mustard oil is unavailable, though nothing else gives the same sharpness in the nose.
Shallots can replace the onion and are milder and sweeter raw.

Storing and reheating

Made and eaten in the same few minutes. It will not keep — the cucumber collapses and the raw mustard oil turns bitter within a couple of hours.

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