Okra in Indian cooking

[Bond Girl]

Does anyone out there have an Indian recipes to share on Okra? A friend recently send me a huge box of it from her garden and I'm tired of using them as thickeners for my Gumbo.

[Laksa]

Well, it's not exactly Indian, but I love okra in curry fish head and chicken curries - the wet type with lots of coconut milk (more Malaysian than Indian, I think). Any soupy curry recipe will do, and add whole okras (minus the head) for the last 15 minutes or so of cooking.

Okra stir fried with tom yum paste is a regular item on my kitchen table. The recipe is simplicity itself - stir fry bit-size pieces with garlic until soft, add enough tom yum paste to your liking/spice tolerance.

For the more adventurous, substitue belacan for tom yum.

[Monica Bhide]

My favorite vegetable. OKRA.Yum. I even have my little one addicted to it! I prepare it four different ways and each method makes it taste quite different

1. You can slit the okra and stuff it with a spice mix of turmeric, red chilie powder, coriander powder, Indian garam masala and a bit of salt. Then these stuffed pieces are gently stir fried in oil along with thinly sliced onions and ginger. If you like green chiles like me, then stuff a few of those and add them as well

2. Cut the okra up into bite size pieces and deep fry it. Then add it to a whipped yogurt -- sprikle with salt, red chili powder and a pinch of roasted pounded cumin for a gorgeous side

3. Okra seasoned with tangy spices like dry mango powder, pomegrante powder and then deep fried is just heavenly. I make this and use it as a bed to serve vodka drenched shrimp

4. Finally the day to day okra -- cut it into bite size pieces and saute along with onions, green chilies and ginger. Add turmeric, salt, red chili powder, coriander powder and a bit of Indian garam masala..

and there you have it... Okra YUMMMYYYYYY

[Bond Girl]

Thanks Monica! The day to day recipe is exactly what I am looking for. What do you serve it with? Basmati rice or some kind of bread? With the stuffed okra, do you make a paste out of the spices or do you just sprinkle them?

Can you get mango powder in just about any Indian grocers?

[Monica Bhide]

Thanks Monica! The day to day recipe is exactly what I am looking for. What do you serve it with? Basmati rice or some kind of bread? With the stuffed okra, do you make a paste out of the spices or do you just sprinkle them?

Can you get mango powder in just about any Indian grocers?

Glad I could help. I am PMIng you the recipes now. Yes you can get all the spices at your local Indian grocer

Glad to have you hear and look forward to more postings from you

[FaustianBargain]

Monica, do have any problems with the 'stickiness' of the okra burning the pan before the veggie itself is cooked? blah.. i am not even sure if i am phrasing my query right...

[Milagai]

Another day to day recipe, similar to Monica's option #1:

1. wash, dry WELL okra.

2. trip off top and make slit in middle (not all the way through).

3. stuff with mixture of: besan + rice flour, turmeric,

red chilli, amchoor, salt, dhaniya powder.

4. sprinkle more of this mixture around the okras, mix well, and let it sit

like this for ~ 15 to 30 mins.

5. deep fry.

okra cooking goes in stages: first will get slimy and then will dry up.

be patient. they taste best when a bit blackened :)

more good recipes:

vendakaya mor kozhambu (madrasi style okra and buttermilk kadhi kind of thing)

vendakaya gojju (i had already posted the recipe for kathirikai gojju,

just omit the chick peas, and sub the eggplant with okra cut into

1 inch long pieces).

vendakaya pachadi (raita)

etc.

i ADORE this veggie, and when i further learnt how nutritious it is,

(high calcium source) things got betterer and betterer.

i am waiting for the price to come down. still rather expensive

here in southern part of USA. but will soon flood market!

milagai

[gingerly]

looks like you're off to a flying start!i'll just add one for good measure.lightly steamed okra with a lime juice based dressing-or whatever you fancy.i can and will eat any quantity you set before me!

[Pan]

Ya-Roo, you also might want to look at a more general thread we had on okra on the Cooking Forum.

[Episure]

Coincidence. This was on the menu today, Crisp fried (deep, only deep!)Bhindi .

[Bond Girl]

Since I live in a 450 square feet apartment with dog, deep frying is out of the question. But I made the okra with onions, green chili, ginger, a pinch of tumeric, red chili powder, garam masala and seasoned with salt as Monica suggested. Cooked with extremely high heat, the okra didn't have a chance to be slimy or burn. It was just slightly browned around the edges. The result is....really really good! Very yummy, especially with naan bought from Indian takeouts across the street.

This is definitely going to be a staple in my house. My Indian friend also suggested ajuwain seeds with okra, though I haven't try that this time, has anyone heard of the combination?

[Pan]

Ajwain is great! If you need some, just go to Dowel on 1st Av. between 5th and 6th. Madhur Jaffrey's spice cookbook (I forget the exact name) includes recipes that feature ajwain, but I don't remember if any of them are okra recipes.

[Bond Girl]

Thanks Pan!

[carswell]

How about Indian-Southern US fusion? After receiving complaints from several dinner guests about stewed okra's "sliminess," I adapted my grandmother's recipe for fried okra. It's hardly authentic but it works, and the okra emerges crisp, crunchy and tasting more of India than Texas. Here's what you do: Mix some cornmeal with roasted ground Indian spices (whatever moves you; I often opt for a panch phora mixture of black mustard seeds, cumin, nigella and fennel and sometimes throw in powdered chile). Rinse the okra and cut it crosswise into ¼-to-½" lengths. Toss with the cornmeal-spice mixture (a paper bag works fine). Transfer to a strainer and shake lightly to remove the excess cornmeal. Heat a tablespoon or three of vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet. Add the okra and fry until the cut sides are crisp. Season with salt. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the okra to a serving dish. If desired, sprinkle with garam masala and amchur or lime juice just before serving.

[Episure]

Carswell,

Welcome to this side of egullet! I keep reading your informative posts on wine and fine dining.

Your okra version sounds interesting and workable, I'm going to try it out.

Do you have any first hand experiences with pairing Wine and Indian or even any spicy cuisine? Perhaps you could start a thread here.

[carswell]

Thanks for the welcome, Episure. I've been lurking here and on the other Asian fora for a while, awed into silence by the knowlege of so many of the contributors.

Will, of course, be interested in your reaction to the okra. Would there be a more authentic flour to use than cornmeal (which, I hasten to add, is not the same thing as cornflour—aka cornstarch—but rather coarsely ground grain corn)? Have thought of trying besan, but the texture wouldn't be the same.

Yes, I have some experience pairing wine and other alcoholic beverages with Indian food. Will mull it over and start a thread this evening, after I've gotten through the pile of work sitting on my desk.

[Episure]

I use cornmeal frequently for crunch, though it is not in usage in Indian cuisine. In fact I have to make it myself by coarse grinding whole dried corn ( Like in popcorn corn) and sieving it to my desired mesh size. It's a must when I make onion rings, tandoori masala marinated fried/baked chicken.

Texture is an aspect that is often neglected in Indian cuisine.

For the same reason I prefer the tadka method which is added at the last stage.

I look forward to your topic on wine pairing.

Edited July 22, 2004 by Episure (log)

[mongo_jones]

I often opt for a panch phora mixture

i know it is just an inadvertent typo for "panch phoron" or "panch phoran" but i can't help be amused by the thought of a "panch phora" mix--that would translate as a 5 lump (as in from boils or heavy bumps) mix.

but that aside, i belive i might have posted an illustrated recipe for okra in my blog--if you can find it.

[carswell]

I often opt for a panch phora mixture

i know it is just an inadvertent typo for "panch phoron" or "panch phoran" but i can't help be amused by the thought of a "panch phora" mix--that would translate as a 5 lump (as in from boils or heavy bumps) mix.

but that aside, i belive i might have posted an illustrated recipe for okra in my blog--if you can find it.

My cluelessness in Indian cooking, dear Mongo, is exceeded only by my ignorance of Kannada, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Oriya, Begali and the subcontinent’s many other tongues (though living in Montreal, I must confess to a nominal attraction to the first). If you insist that panch phora is wrong, then wrong it is. But an “inadvertent typo” it ain’t. I checked the spelling before posting my message, and panch phora is the sole term used in Charmaine Solomon’s Encyclopedia of Asian Foods and Indian Cooking for Pleasure. Also, I’m pretty sure I learned it before acquiring her books. Googling the term turns up 168 hits, most of them mentioning only it, a few giving panch phoron as a synonym. In other words, I’m not the only one confused. Yrs most humbly, c.

PS Aren’t all typos inadvertent by definition?

PPS Actually, shouldn’t you be taking me to task over the missing fenugreek?

PPPS Will attempt to find the okra script in you blog, though I feel oddly like Stanley about to enter the Congolese jungle.

[mongo_jones]

carswell--you'll have to excuse my bengali-centric view of indian culture (phora/fora would mean what i said it does in bengali; possibly in hindi it might not have that connotation, though i've rarely heard of panch-phoron being used outside of the bengali cooking context).

haven't had the energy to probe deeply into the google links for "panch phora", but at first glance most of them seem to be from non south-asian sites (for what that's worth), some even citing your charmaine solomon text (so there may be something circular happening there).

as for typos--there are always the strategic kind as well...

why would you want me to take you to task over missing fenugreek? okra doesn't have to be cooked with fenugreek (seeds or leaves)--in fact i've never put any in my okra preparations. there's all kinds of recipes, approaches.

and yes, entering my blog armed with a machete is probably the way to go.

[carswell]

haven't had the energy to probe deeply into the google links for "panch phora", but at first glance most of them seem to be from non south-asian sites (for what that's worth), some even citing your charmaine solomon text (so there may be something circular happening there).

Wondered about that. Haven't found any reference to it in the non-Solomon Indian cookbooks I've since perused either, so you may be right.

as for typos--there are always the strategic kind as well...

Point taken, though It could be argued that such are the exact opposite of a typo.

why would you want me to take you to task over missing fenugreek?

It's the unmentioned fifth seed. Panch phoron means five seeds, doesn't it? Or am I clueless as far as that goes, too?

[mongo_jones]

why would you want me to take you to task over missing fenugreek?

It's the unmentioned fifth seed. Panch phoron means five seeds, doesn't it? Or am I clueless as far as that goes, too?

right, here you go:

what the hell were you thinking?

the 5th seed can sometimes be radhuni as well--though i don't know if in that uber-traditional panch-phoron fenugreek is the one it would replace.