Easy Goan Cucumber Cake

Goan Cucumber Cake Without an Oven

The Goan cucumber cake I’m presenting to you today is an old and traditional one and also a different kind of cake. The star ingredient here is cucumber. Also, it doesn’t rise like other cakes, is made with jaggery, and is baked without an oven on a stove. But it is so delicious that it is still made in Goan homes.

Traditionally, this cake is made out of large-size, yellow skinned cucumbers that are available mostly during the monsoons. But it can also be made with regular cucumbers. Now let me show you how to make it.

Another delicious Goan traditional cake is the Goan Baath Cake, a tasty coconut cake made with semolina. And another cake you could bake without an oven is my Eggless Semolina Cake.

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups grated cucumber
(From 1 around 400g)
1 cup (170g) rava (semolina)
1 cup grated jaggery (200g), cane, palm, or a mix of both
¾ cup (75g) grated fresh coconut
½ tsp grated nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
A few cashew nuts (optional)

Procedure

1. Deseed and grate the cucumber.
2. Lightly roast the rava in the ghee for 4-5 minutes.
3. Mix all the ingredients, including the water released by the cucumber, in a large bowl. Cover and set the mixture aside for 1 hour to give the jaggery time to dissolve and the rava time to absorb a lot of the liquid.
4. Give the mixture a stir and transfer it to a greased baking pan that has been lined with parchment paper. Tap the pan on the work surface and level the top surface. Sprinkle some chopped cashew nuts on top.
5. Place the baking pan on a trivet placed inside a pre-heated kadai. Cover the kadai and bake the cake on the stove top on low heat for around 45 minutes.
6. Let the cucumber cake cool completely and then unmould it. In the old days, Goan housewives would bake this cake in the night on a wood fire and then serve it for breakfast the next morning.
7. Make thick slices and serve the cucumber cake.
Enjoy!