Bhindi (Okra) Jhunka - Blog hopping for taste

Oh Boy! time really flies, it seems like only yesterday when I did my last blog hop post about Cajun potatoes and here I am with another one. Exciting journey, exciting explorations and lots of fun.

Radhika who has been running the blog hop Wednesdays, paired me up this time with Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes. Now, here is a person I have only met online in the context of food blogs and i have visited her blog for the last month or so since I discovered her on the previous hop. She has amazing energy, cooks a wide array of dishes and going by the number of posts she has blogged in the last few days, you would think she is on a mission (incidentally she is really on a cooking marathon). Priya has been blogging for a while now and has a wonderful collection of recipes on her blog. I do honestly admit, I had short listed 4 recipes from her blog and finally gave into this okra dish. I am glad I did as we all enjoyed this side dish very much.

Okra/ladies fingers/bhindi/bendekayi is one of my favorite veggies, I know I say this for most vegetables. What can I do? I am just a regular veggie lover. Look for other okra recipes here and here. Okra is unique, not very tempting to look at and slimy when you cut into it but properly cooked, this makes for some of the tastiest dishes you would have had. I am familiar with jhunka and make it plain or sometimes with bell pepper but had never thought of making it with okra. The addition of ajwain in this recipe was a clincher and we loved the flavor pop in the mouth.

Thanks Priya for a keeper recipe :-)

What do you need to make Okra Jhunka?
2 cups thinly sliced okra roundels
1/2 cup thinly slices onions
1/2 cup gram flour/basan
1/2 Tsp ajwain/om seeds
1 Tsp mustard
1 Tsp red chili powder (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
2 Tblsp cooking oil
3-4 curry leaves
2 green chilies - slit lengthwise
1 Tblsp chopped cilantro/coriander leaves for garnish

How do you make Okra Jhunka? 

• Wash, pat dry okra - make sure every okra is completely dried. 
• Trim the ends and cut the okra into 1mm thick roundels.
• Heat a pan on medium and dry roast the gram flour constantly stirring for 8-10 minutes or until the flour turns light brown and you get the nice roasted smell. Keep aside.
• In the same pan, add oil, mustard seeds, ajwain, green chilies and curry leaves. Let mustard pop. 
• Add the onion slices and let it fry for a couple of minutes until onion sweats and turns pink. 

• Add the okra pieces, salt, turmeric powder and cover and cook undisturbed for 3-5 minutes. 

• Once the okra is soft, add the roasted gram flour, red chilies powder and mix well.
• Continue to cook on medium low heat for another 5-8 minutes, the gram flour when comes in contact with oil gives out a wonderful aroma. Priya says the oil leaves sides, I didn't see it since I hadn't used a lot of oil to start with. But the taste was perfect. 

• Take off the heat and garnish with chopped cilantro or coriander leaves. 
• Serve with rotis or hot rice. we had ours with rice and rasam. 

Notes: 

• Roast gram flour on medium heat and constantly stirring so it doesn't burn. 
• Make sure okra is cooked before adding the gram flour.

This delicious okra jhunka goes to Radhika's Blog Hop Wednesday

Stuffed Okra - Story of an Ogre turning into a Prince(ss) charming

What is green all over and slimy? If you thought I was talking about Ogres in general or Shrek in particular, you are way off track. I am here to talk about one of my favorite vegetables which in its unprocessed or under processed form resembles slimy green ogres very much :-).

Stuffed okra is a Gujarati recipe which I had seen in a Tarla Dalal book but had put off making. Sometimes when I see a recipe in a book/magazine/show,  I deliberate on it unless it is love at first sight convincing myself it is the right choice for me and my family in terms of the ingredients. Also with books and magazines, sometimes I feel distant from the original cook as I do not know them and do not relate them to real people. But if I taste something or someone cooks it and talks about it, I go hook, line and sinker.  I know, my brain is weird that way :-).  Back to the stuffed okra, I recently saw the recipe here and then googled it some more to confirm people were infact making it at home and gave it a shot in my kitchen. Boy, I am glad I did. Simple ingredients, fresh, tender okra turns this into a mouth watering dish with your rice or roti. We had ours with rice and rasam.

When I posted my Bendekayi gojju earlier, I mentioned a few tips to create a slime free okra dish. Okra or ladies finger or bendekayi requires a tart acidic substance like tomato or tamarind or yogurt or even dry mango powder and some TLC in the form of slow roasting and avoiding extra mixing to let go of its sliminess. Remember to follow these and you will be pleasantly surprised with the versatility of Okra.

And a side note on Ogres, I love the Shrek series - Shrek, Fiona and Donkey and all the other characters not just for the great animation but for the fact that the movie and the book do not change Shrek or Fiona's physical appearances for a happy ending. They remain ogres and not turn into the stereo typical good looking girl and handsome boy before living happily ever after. I love that kind of ending:-)

Here is the recipe for a Gujarati Bhindi Sambhariya - a yummy stuffed ladies finger dish.

What do you need to make stuffed okra? 
20-25 tender, fresh okra (increase or decrease this quantity based on the # of people you are planning to feed)
1/2 cup grated coconut - fresh or frozen
1/2 peanuts
1 Tblsp white sesame seeds
1 Tsp coriander cumin powder (I used store bought, make fresh if you prefer)
1 Tsp amchoor (dry mango) powder
4-5 green chilies
2 inches fresh ginger root
1 Tblsp salt
5-6 stalks of fresh cilantro - chopped fine
1 Tsp sugar
1 Tblsp cooking oil

Others - patience, do not attempt this if you are in a hurry, stuffing okra takes time

How do you make stuffed okra? 

• Wash, pat dry okra, remove the stubby end and slit it length wise ensuring the okra remains whole with just enough opening for stuffing.
• Roast the peanuts (see notes below), let cool, make it into a coarse powder by pulsing it in your blender. 
• Pound green chilies and ginger in a mortar and pestle into a coarse paste.

• Mix grated coconut, peanut powder, amchoor, coriander-cumin powder, salt, sugar, sesame seeds and chopped cilantro in a bowl. 
• Mix in green chilies-ginger paste. Check and adjust salt, sugar or spices. 
• Stuff this mixture into slit okras, work the stuffing into the tips of the okra where sliminess is more. 

• Heat oil in a wide, flat pan, load the stuffed okras stuffed side up and preferably in a single layer and cook it open for 5-7 minutes on medium heat. 
• Slowly turn the okras over and cook the other side for another 5-7 minutes. 
• When okras turn soft and wilt a little and the color changes to darker green, switch off. 

• Serve it warm with rice or rotis. 

Notes: 

• You can pan roast peanuts until the outer skin turns light brown and you hear small pop sounds or alternatively you can put them in a  single layer in a microwave safe plate and microwave them for 5-6 minutes mixing them after every minute and half. 
• The original recipe mentioned garam masala which I didn't use. 
• Select small (1-1.5 inch), tender okras for this recipe.
• When you mix in the ingredients for stuffing, the moisture from coconut, chilies-ginger paste and peanut powder is sufficient to make it binding, do not add water. 
• Avoid mixing or turning over okras too much, they need to cook slowly and left to themselves they cook beautifully, just maintain heat on medium or lower. 
• While okra renders itself well in curries, by itself it is bland. Make sure you really stuff the okras to get delicious Bhindi Sambhariya. 
• If you do not like coconut too much, increase the amount of peanuts.

Bendekayi Gojju - Tangy, spicy okra gravy

A typical conversation around meal time at home follows:
He says 'Sambar', I say 'Huli'.
He says 'pachadi', I say 'Chutney'
He says 'charu', I say 'saaru'
He says 'koora', I say 'Palya'

He makes fun of me when I serve a yogurt based gravy calling it bajji, for him bajji is a deep fried snack. I smile at the generic term pachadi used for both kinds with vegetable pieces and ones with ground up veggies. Thus goes on our light hearted banter in this cross border marriage until food fanaticism takes over, becomes personal and turns into fights. We end up having a Tu Tu - Mai Mai session  until the food beckons us, then all is well with the world again atleast until the next time.

In the years I have been married to BH from the neighboring state, I have learned many nuances of the Telugu cooking while teaching him the subtleties of the Kannada cuisine. Big time foodies that we both are, we have enjoyed finding similarities and differences in the many recipes that we come across from the two regions. When I am annoyed with him, the one thing I shove at him is the famous gojju which doesn't (according to me) has an equivalent in his vocabulary so I can feel like I scored one :-), then he does retort back that some curries from Andhra cuisine have similar ingredients but having similar ingredients is not the same as having the same ingredients.

Gojju for me is that ultimate treat, a perfect blend of multiple tastes resulting in a burst of flavors. We always had more of this side dish than the usual main dishes as we would finish bowlfuls of the gojjus nammamma made. There are variations to making a gojju, it is a spicy, tangy gravy that makes a great accompaniment to rotis or rice. Nammamma makes perfectly consistent gojjus bringing out the individual flavors of the vegetables used by a subtle variation of one of the spices used or the way it is cooked. Gojjus are made with different vegetables (fried, boiled, steamed), there are hasi gojjus (no boiling/cooking involved) and bisi gojjus (heating or cooking involved). Gojjus are rarely made with a combination of vegetables, the only combination I encourage in my kitchen is the onion-tomato (a.k.a eerulli-tomato) gojju. Talk about weirdness..

Today's recipe - Okra gojju is a favorite at home, daughter loves it with rotis or chapatis, I love to eat it mixed with rice and BH loves it both ways :-). Like bitter gourd, people get divided into okra lovers or okra haters generally without any middle ground. Treated with care, this is a delectable vegetable with a very mild flavor and nutrients. If you are a first time user of okra, follow the tips at the end of the post to get a non-slimy, tasty okra dish.

What do you need to make Okra gojju? 
1 pound of okra (about 25 tender ones)
small lime size tamarind - soaked in warm water for 15 minutes
2 Tblsp grated coconut - fresh or frozen
4-5 stalks of cilantro, cleaned and trimmed
1 Tsp jaggery/brown sugar
1 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp cooking oil
1/2 Tsp turmeric powder

For the gojju masala: 
2 Tsp chana dal/kadle bele
1/2 Tsp urad dal/uddina bele
1/2 Tsp fenugreek seeds/menthya
1 Tblsp white sesame seeds
4-5 green chilies cut into half
1 Tsp cooking oil

For vaggarane/seasoning/Tadka:
1 Tsp cooking oil
1 Tsp mustard seeds
1/2 Tsp fenugreek seeds
3-4 curry leaves
1/2 Tsp asafoetida

How do you make Okra Gojju?

• Prepare Okra - Wash and drain them, pat dry with a towel each of the okra until there is no moisture. 
• Remove and discard both ends of the okra, cut the okra into roundels of 1/2 inch thickness. 
• Heat 1 Tsp of oil in your cooking vessel on medium high, add the okra pieces, turmeric, cover and let cook for 8-10 minutes until okra softens and turns pale green in color.
• Open the lid, mix it once and add the tamarind juice extract from the soaked tamarind.
• Add salt, cover and cook further for 5 minutes. 
• Fry the ingredients listed under 'gojju masala' in oil until the dals turn light pink and green chilies develop blisters on skin. Let cool
• Grind the fried masala ingredients along with coconut and cilantro into a smooth paste by adding 1/2 cup of water. 
• Pour the masala into the okra pan, add jaggery and mix. 

• Adjust the consistency of the gojju with water, it should be neither runny nor dry. 
• Let the mixture come to a rolling boil, switch off the stove. 
• Prepare seasoning by heating oil, add ingredients listed under vaggarane except curry leaves, let mustard and fenugreek crackle, switch off the stove, add curry leaves and pour the sizzling vaggarane on top of the gojju to finish off. 

Variations: 

• Use 1 Tsp of tamarind concentrate in place of tamarind.

Tips: 

• Before you start cutting okra, make sure you have dried it completely. I usually leave it to air dry before patting them individually with a dry towel. This step is crucial to reduce the sliminess of okra. 
• As you cut okra, you will notice your knife picking up the clingy thing from okra, keep a paper towel handy to wipe off the knife before you continue cutting. 
• Gojju should be balanced in its sweet-sour-spicy-salty tastes, adjust the ingredients to get it to your taste. 
• The chana dal in the masala makes the gravy thick on boiling, adjust the water to get the right consistency. Note: Leave the Gojju in a slightly liquid form when you switch off, it thickens as it cools. 
• Tamarind, yogurt or tomatoes help remove the sliminess in okra, use these in various dishes to get a slime free okra dish.