Tried and Tasted a Fabulous Jugalbandi of Okra and Spices!

This month Zlamushka has the dynamic Jualbandi blog up for her Tried and Tasted series. What makes choice SO difficult is the mind boggling variety of food these Jugalbandits have cooked! The amazing recipes are topped off with photographs of food that I had hitherto come across only on glossy cookbook covers. The dynamic duo cook, garden, travel, give photography solutions and tips.. do everything!!Looking thru their extensive repertoire, I landed on this and my mind was made up!

I had a pack of okra sitting in the fridge these many days and I couldn't really decide what to make of it. I love okra in all it's forms, not so the Husband, he will eat it, but will have some comment to pass, like this one time I made okra the Maharashtrian fasting style and in my humble opinion, it tastes good with tamarind- jaggery and peanut powder gravy, but DH had only one word to describe it 'murder', okra he maintained is best either in Sambar or dry. So dry it was! And what better than a tongue tickler with spices like fennel, nigella, cumin, amchoor?!

Every bite is a delight! I tis easy to make, not time consuming (which is a priority for me now),my only crib was, the quantity .. in this case supply did not match demand.This recipe is definitely a keeper, I will only double the quantity the next time. Thank you Jai and Bee for this wonderful recipe.

I followed the recipe with only a couple of changes. I am also reproducing the recipe here with my changes but for the original version, please click on the link in the first paragraph.

Ingredients:

About half a pound (1/4 kg.) tender okra

1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)

1/2 tsp nigella seeds (kalonji)

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

3 green chillies slit

1 tablespoon besan (chickpea flour) * I used Rice Flour

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp garam masala powder * I used 1/2 tsp Rajwadi Garam Masala

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/3 tsp amchur (dry mango powder) (or 1 tsp lime juice) * I used 1/2 tsp Amchur powder

3 tbsp oil

salt

Method:

1. Wash and wipe the okra and cut it diagonally into inch-long pieces. .
2. Heat the oil in a wok or pan to nearly smoking, add the fennel, cumin, nigella seeds and green chillies, after a few seconds, lower the flame and add the besan and all the powdered spices except the amchur.
3. Fry for a minute or so, until the besan stops smelling raw, then add the okra and the salt. Stir gently to coat with the spices, and spread them out in an even layer.
4. Leave the pan uncovered on medium flame.Turn them over after 3-4 minutes (maybe more if you are using a non-stick pan) cook them until crisp.
5. Towards the end, add the amchur powder. Stir for a minute, and take it off the flame.
Serve hot with rotis or with rice and plain yogurt.


Mistakes I made and Lesson I learnt: MUST use FRESH okra (I made this mistake despite the list of ingredients stating tender okra). I used a packet that was in my fridge for a few days and heaven knows how long on the Vons shelf. If you do not grow your own (like the Jugalbandits) and rely on the store, try to select by testing the okra by simply bending the end of the okra, if it snaps easily, it is fresh. I also went a little overboard with the rice flour , it did not taste bad, no way, but visually a little less appealing perhaps?