Okra, known in many countries as ladies’ fingers or ochro. The plant is cultivated in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions around the world. Bhindi or okra has a different and wide variety of ways of cooking. My favourite style to cook Bhindi(Okra) is fry with onion, but that’s more of side dinner side rather than a substantive dish that can be had on its own. This bhindi masala is a very classic recipe – there are several very similar variations. There may be a few tips and tricks in the spices and proportions, But the base are the same: Okra, onion, tomatoes with spices like turmeric, red chilli powder, coriander or cumin powder need to fry and mix. Some people like Okra with meat, that also have its own taste. But mostly people like bhindi its own.
Okra cutting skills
Cutting okra is not very time consuming but few things need to be in mind. Firstly need to wash and needs to be dry before its get cut. Otherwise it gets sticky and looks meshy.
Some other Tips
- It took me about 10 minutes to fry the okra on medium heat till it stopped being sticky. Some people like to continue to fry the okra till it becomes a deep green. For me, it was more important that the okra was cooked enough to stop sticking but retained its shape. How long it will take depends on both the okra and the pan.
- Not over cook otherwise its gets messy. The important thing to remember is the proportion – the okra and onion should be roughly the same weight/volume.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 kg okra half inch sliced
- 4 medium sized onion thinly sliced
- 3 tomatoes finely sliced
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder preferably Kashmiri
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- Salt to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon garam masala powder for dusting
- 1/2 Aamchoor powder
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat up oil in deep frying pan.
- Fry okra on medium heat till it stops being sticky, about 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat.
- Remove okra with a slotted spoon and put in clean pan.
- Reheat oil and add onion. Fry on medium heat till soft, about 5 minutes.
- Add tomatoes and fry on high heat for about 5 minutes till they begin to soften and break down
- Add ground spices (red chili, turmeric and cumin powder), and fry 30 seconds – 1 minute till aromatic. Add salt.
- Once the masala is ready, add fried okra and stir gently on medium-low heat till well-mixed, about 2-3 minutes.
- Cover it and leave for 5 to 10 minutes on very low heat.
- Serve with chapati and cucumber salad.
