zucchini

Mission accomplished. I did a Chicken Shakuti (I think this is the name for a chicken cooked in coconut) with the pods. I tried to peel the outer (hard) skin to remove some of the stringy parts but some were still stringy and we had to scrape the inner softer pulp. It was nice, but I wouldn't deliberatly go look for these again...

Amazing! I think the mystery is solved and now it has to cook! Thanks, mudbug, for the extensive information. The pictures look exactly like the pods I have. I wonder if they grow them here, in Israel, I guess the climate is good for them. I've downloaded a PDF file with recipies, I'll pick one and report back!

Ok, recipe please (a south India one)...

Are drum sticks handled like okra? Does someone have a good idea what to do with them? Here's the picture again on a differnet server:

Ok, Here's a picture of the alien pod. (if the picture does not show try this URL: Alien Pod It does not have the consistency of okra as it's not soft to the touch, but hard. A lot of guys at the office have gathered for the photo shoot and now it has become a wide spread mystery. We need to find out what it is! A lot of people are now waiting for the truth to come out...

I'll try and take a picture of the mysterious pod (I'm a bit medieval in this matter as I do not own a digital Camera ).

Hi, I'm new to eGullet but looking at the former posts I believe I arrived to the right place Walking in a market, where there is a large Indian community, I came across an old guy selling strange looking pods or pulses. He asked me if I was Hindi speaking and when I answered negatively he smiled (with only a few teeth... ) and said that this was like "indian okra" and muttered something like "ChaPAnga" (with an accent on the PA sylable). These are 5-6 inch pods, green with some reddish lines. They are hard, not as soft as other pods I know. He told me to trim the ends, peel and cook them. This is what I'm going to do, but I wanted to know if anyone has a clue what these are, what are they called and what's the best use for them (otherwise it's tomato sauce with spices...) Thanks, Zucchini