Okra (Bhindi) with Yogurt

There are so many diffrent way the same dish can be made, okra can be cut different way, he quatity of yogurt in it can vary and you can even omit to add onion or tomato to it. I tried it those ways too, this is what i liked the most among all other ways to make it. Here is how I made it.


Ingredients:
250 gms Okra(bhindi) cut into 1 inch pieces each
1 onion finely chopped
1 tomato cut in midium size
1 cup Yogurt, whisked until smooth
1 table spoon oil
1 tablespoon garlic paste
Coriender leaves finely chopped
4-5 curry leaves
half teablespoon of cumin seeds,mustard seeds each
1 tablespoon red chilli powder.Turmeric and salt to your taste

Method:
Heat oil in a Kadhai . On medium heat add mustard seeds, cumin and curry leaves. when they start spluttering , add onions, sauté until soft and lightly browned, then add okra pieces. Cook until Okra is non sticky, then tomatoes and stir in red chilli powder, turmeric,salt and garlic paste. Reduce the heat and add yougurt in it, let them simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes .
when the yogurt gravy turns little thicker add chopped coriender leaves and turn off the heat.
Serve when hot.
Tastes best when served with Roti and green Salad.

I posted this recipe in the very initail day of startig of this blog, and it is one of the Most liked dish of Okra at our place. This is so simple to make and tasty . A perfect dish for me and all those who loves okra and curd ... :D . combining these two together in one dish , what can be more pleasant for curd & okra lovers!
There are two reason I posted this recipe here again, one is I like it so much that I wish to share it with all of you, specially to those who loves Okra. Second is due to certain changes in atmosphere here I am caught in cold and flue :(( , so couldn't manage to prepare a new dish at all though I have many more resipe with okra in my mind but the health was against me, and was feeling bit sickness too, so hubby told me to get complete rest,even the normal meal was ordered from outside.:D
I keep my fingers crossed to get outta it soon. At least tomorrow I am gonna present a dish which I will manage to prepare today.

Okra With Potato (Aloo Bhindi)

A simple and quick dish with okra, which is used as the main course in Indian dish .

My Loving Mom make it this way , here it is to share with you all :)

Ingredients:
Okra cut length wise into 1 inch length
The same quantity of Potato cut into strips of the same size.
7-8 garlic cloves, minced with red chili powder ,
½ tsp turmeric powder,
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera) ,
1 tsp Mustard seeds ,
a pinch of Asafoetida,
Salt o taste,
Coriander leaves to garnish.
1 tsp oil.

Method :
First heat oil in a pan or kadhai , add mustard seeds to it, when it starts spluttering , add cumin seeds and asafetida powder to it.
Next add sliced potato, and sprinkle turmeric powder over it. Mix it well, and let it cook on medium heat till potato is tender , add minced garlic and red chilli powder to it. Stir well, and now add okra to it.

On the meduim to high flame keep on stirring it well. After a little while it will seem little greasy due to Okra, keep on stirring it, this will eventually burn all the stickiness of okra. At this stage the okra will reduce to half of the size of its original.

Okra with Potato is ready to serve with Hot Phulka with Ghee : ) .

I had it with ripe Mango Ras ( Juice ) . No , no I am not that much lucky to have ripe mango in market here ,at this time of winter. I stored it in my freezer when the season of ripe mango was on pick here. Here is a quick description of how to do it.

Take fine ripe Mangos, peel it ,and remove the pulp of each , then crush it together to make smooth pulp of it, without adding anything to it, Store it in a air tight container in your deep freezer . this way it will remain fresh for a long time, at least I am using it this way since last 6 months. And it tastes as good as fresh mango. At the time of taking it in use, leave it outside in normal temprature for atleast 2-3 hours , add sugar and little water to it and blend it together again. Your chilled Aam Ras ( Mango juice) is ready to serve with your normal dish. : ) .
At my place both of us love Aam Ras , so I store it in this way and enjoy it in any season here.It is really a great fun to have it in meal, and with Aloo bhindi, it tastes heavenly…. I know I know, that all you buddies from US of A is going to tell that you are missing it there , well, Soon we are also going to migrate there, and will be in your line soon , so let me Enjoy this "Fruit King Of India- Mango " while I am here. :)

The same Dish with okra ans potato can be made other way too, just by changing the way we cut potato and okra here. For that cut potato into small cubes, and okra in usual round shape. This will give it a new look. :) I tried it that way too before few weeks. Here is how it looked like.

Third day entries for Okra- vegetable of the Week .

First Entry for today is from Laxmik of Veggie cuisine , she has prepared Okra masala in a very different way, very good dish for those who love Okra. I love it very much, and its a treat for me to get such a tasty recipe with Okra. Thank you Laxmi for your timely participation.
Laxmi has also shown how to use frozen okra for this. Those who are not able to get fresh Okra in stores there, can also give it a try.

Next is from Asha, who is celebrating her 20th wedding anniversary today: ) . First of all thank you Asha for participating here with your busy schedule . As usual Asha has come up with some new idea with okra, though she made it in past sometime, but idea seems very fresh. She prepared Okra Potato Bhaji greavy . Though what I am going to post today is also Okra with Potato but the two dishes are totally different.

Second day entries for Okra- vegetable of the Week

First Entry for today is from Sangeeta, from Ghar Ka Khana. She came up with a totally new Idea - Okra bhujiya. Lovely pictures and nice presentations. Perhaps she was not aware of this event, but I cant restrict myself to tell her about vegetable of the week , after going throught her never seen idea. So nice of Sangeeta that , she willingly participated immediately after she come to know this. And here we have got a good dish to prepare with okra. :) .Thank you Sangeeta for your Participation .

Swapna Of Tastes of my Kitchen is again with us, in this third week of vegetable. She has prepared a nice Bhindi Rasam . Swapna is also showing us the way we can prepare Rasam Powder for this at home. :) .Thank you Swapna for your timely presentation and efforts to publish it in this week. :)

(Request : I will appreciate , if all of you who are participating here can send me a picture in email along with your recipe/URL. That will catch attention to your recipe. This Idea was suggested by Asha, as she said in Email - " it's more attractive for people to peek in if they can see what the dish looks like" , and indeed I find it helpful to catch attention of blog readers. Thank you Asha for your valuable suggestion :) )

Just Came to Know from her blog that Asha is celebrating her 20th wedding Anniversary tomorrow. (Here is a prize from me for your peaceful 20 years. :) A perfect award on your 20th anniversary . If you wish copy it into yours, will suit your years from 1986-2006 too :D . )


Here is something specially for you Asha. :)

Wishing congratulations to a wonderful couple , and many many good years together ahead .

Tempura

Presenting here today - Tempura.

Tempura made up with Okra, served with tempura sauce and cucumber flower, filled with Beetroot and Ginger.

Tempura are Japanese Pakoda, they are dipped in a thin sauce and eaten sizzling hot .

Something you would like to know about it :

The dish is an expression of Japanese culture. The presentation is to be artful for this food. The art of deep-frying is said to have come to Japan from China in the 7th or 8th century. Since the cooking oil of the times was very expensive Buddhist temples were the basically the only places that served the deep-fried food. (A different source says that tempura was brought to Japan by Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century.) Although tempura can be ordered by the piece, the usual approach is to get a set meal (teishoku) which has a variety of tempura, rice, pickles and soup.

Ingredients :

FOR THE TEMPURA :
Okra (Lady Fingers) , specially cut ,
Baby brinjals slices,or thin long small eggplant ,specially cut ,
Frenchbeans, specially cut ,
Sweet Potato slices,
Mild variety green chillies,slit and desseded
Oil for deep frying


FOR THE BATTER:
1 cup flour,
¼ tsp baking soda,
Salt to taste,

FOR THE TEMPURA SAUCE:
1/3 cup soya sauce
1 ½ cups water
1 tsp vinegar
Salt to taste
1 tsp sugar
3 tsp finely grated beet root ,

FOR THE CUCUMBER FLOWER CUP:
Several 2 inch long pieces of cucumber.
Ginger minced and mixed with a little lemon juice to get nice pink color .this can be served in small cucumber flower.
Shredded beetroot, served in small cucumber flower.

Method :

FOR CUTTING THE OKRA :
Select small or medium sized Okra and remove the stems. Make slits from the broad end, keeping them attached at the top.

FOR CUTTING THE EGGPLANT :
Select tiny eggplant(baby brinjals) and remove the stems. Make slits from the broad end , keeping them attached at the top. Spread the pieces with your fingers. Soak in water till it is the time to fry them .

FOR CUTTING THE FRENCH BEANS :
String the French beans and make slits on both ends of the French bean pieces, leaving them attached at the center.

Peel sweet potato, make slices of sweet potato ,and soak in water till it is the time to fry them .


FOR THE CUCUMBER FLOWER CUP :

Take 2-3 inch ling piece of cucumber. Using a thing pointer knife , cut out circle from the top, at least 1 inch thick to give the thickness to the petals.
Cut out 3-4 petals from the outer side circle .give round shape to circle carefully using a sharp knife. Scoop out the center with a scooper and make space to fill the minced ginger and beet root in it.

FOR THE TEMPURA:
Prepare all the vegetables and keep them ready.
Mix all the ingredients for the batter and make a loose batter as for Pakodas, which will coat the vegetables lightly . Do not make it very thick. Set this batter aside for 15 minutes.
Heat the oil in a deep kadhai , dip each vegetable piece in the batter and deep fry. Drain the vegetables on brown paper.

FOR THE TEMPURA SAUCE :
Combine the soya sauce , water , vinegar ,salt and sugar. Put this mixture over a flame to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a boil. Remove from the flame and serve when cool.

Serve each plate of Tempura with ½ bowl of sauce and 1 tsp of grated beet root and ½ tsp of ginger. Which I served in cucumber flowers. : ) Unlike from carrot flower , it is easy to make.: )) also it looks very attractive while serving ginger and beet root this way rather than simply serving them as we serve simple chutney . :P .


Seems like a little lengthy process , huh! Well, it is! But not much , Just the writing for this is lengthy I think :)). while making it just take care to cut each vegetable its own way. I have shown the picture of it, which might help you to prepare it easily. : )


Tempura also consists of various kinds of fish & shellfish coated in a light batter and deep fried. The batter is called koromo and is made from flour, egg yolks and water. Since I don’t prefer Non-veg food any time, here is I made it my way with the all beautiful Veg. ingredients and batter.

Sukhadee-My Second Entry to Jihva For Jaggery

My Second entry for FAHC to VKN of MyDhaba. :) .For
You Can Cook- authentic traditional home cooking recipes .

Sukhadee is a very popular Gujarati sweet dish. A quick dish to make and a nice dish for those who loes sweet taste ! Here is the way I make it.

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour .
¾ cup jaggery (gur), cut into small pieces,
1/2 teaspoon cardamom (elaichi) powder
2 tsp crushed almond ,crushed .
5 tablespoons ghee

Method:
Melt the ghee in a frying pan and add the wheat flour, stirring continuously till it turns golden brown in colour.
Remove from the flame, and add the jaggery, cardamom powder and crushed almond. Stir well. When the jaggery melts and the mixture is still warm, pour it into the greased thali and spread it evenly.
Cut into pieces while still warm. Store in an air-tight container when cool.

Note :
Make sure to maintain the proportion of jaggery and wheat flour while you make it.
when the wheat flour will start turning golden brown , it will spread agood arome of it, it tis the time whne you have to turn off the heat. if you like you can cok it bit more too, but not less than that.
Adding crushed almond is optional , but adding this will make Sukhadee soft .
Do not add jaggery when the flame is on.

This is my second entry to Kay for Jihva for Jaggery .

Okra with Green Mango & Lentils

To continue celebrating Green Winter, here I am with the first recipe of Okra as Vegetable of this Week :) . Just have a look to know how I made it. :D

Okra with Green Mango & Lentils

Ingredients :
Okra(bhindi ) , cut into 2 inch pieces
½ cup of yellow lentils(toor dal) ,
2 medium sized onion, cut into strips ,
1 medium sized green (unripe) Mango,cut into 2 inch long strips ,
(I am lucky to get unripe mango here at this time of season, I don't know how, but I find it it Market, asn was so happy to get it. :D )
1 tomato, sliced ,
2 fresh green chillies, deseeded & sliced , 1 tsp ginger garlic paste,
¼ tsp fenugreek seeds,
1 tsp ground coriander,
¼ tsp turmeric powder,
½ tsp red chilli powder,
1 ½ tsp oil,
Salt to taste
½ cup fresh coriander leaves.

Method :

Wash the lentils thoroughly and put it in a sauce pan / cooker with enough eater and cover. Bring it to boil and cook until soft but not mushy. When cooked enough for this, drain and set to one side.

Cut okra into 2 inch long pieces, onions lengthwise, tomato into long slices, and Mango into strips of 2 inches length. (This kind of cutting of each vegetable will give a nice look to this dish. Refer to picture here for how to cut these veggies.)

Now heat oil in a pan, add fenugreek seeds in it, when they begin to pop, add green chilli, and then add the onion until it turns little transparent , Lower the heat and add ginger – garlic paste & turmeric powder to it.

Add okra pieces in it. Let it cook until okra is tender and non sticky. When okra is well cooked , throw in the mango slices .As mango slice will not take much time to turn tender , within a minute of it, add ground coriander , and red chilli powder.

Next add cooked lentil and tomato slices to it. Just cook for a while and add chopped coriander leaves and turn of the heat. Okra with green Mango and lentil is ready for you :)

If you love Okra, you will love this dish too.

A tangy and spicy and healthy dish is ready to serve with hot chapattis . : )

Okra with Green Mango & Lentils Served with Chapatti

This is my entry for WHB to swan as this week's WHB host.

First day Entry for Vegetable of the Week

On the frst day with Okra, dear Asha is Here , to share a spicy sambhar with Okra.
It looks so delicious that I think one can hardly keep herself away from trying it. Atleast I am gonna try it as soon as this week is over . :P .
Thank you Asha for your delicious entry for the Okra on the first day of this "Vegetable of the week" with Okra. Check
out the recipe for it in deatail at FoodiesHope : ) & have fun with Okra :D .

My Own Made Henna designs -2

Being in India is Just great sometimes. To attend functions, meet nice people and celebrate each joy of us with the people we like to be with . Well, I think there is much more can be written about that , but today I am here to share the Mehandi designs I made recently.
I made these designs just 2 days ago . I am so much fond of making henna designs that sometimes I Catch anyone from around , and start filling her hand with my new ideas of mehandi Designing :)
Recently I had to attend a function and what can be better than to get a chance to make henna design on my own hand. I did it on my left hand (both sides) . Since many of my blog buddies are also intresten in this art, I am presenting here the designs I made . :) This is what I made on the back side of my hand . It Happened so that when I fineshed designing on the front side, the henna cone has started creating some problems with its smooth flow :( , but I was not the one to gave up so easily, so I also kept trying with care, and the a battle between my tries and flow of cone was continued till the ends :) .Finally I came to finish it :D. well, I hope if cone might have been smooth with its flow then I could have made better design. :)

This is what i made to my Sister's hand few days back. She is so nice to allow me to do so anytime I wish to do :) .

This is specially for all those buddies who had shown interest in this art of henna making. Hope you will enjoy this. See you all tomorrow with Okra - Vegetable of the Week . :) Stay tuned ...

(P.S. Some of my blog buddies have requested to show the process of making cone. As cone of good quality is noramlly easily available here these days , I don't prepare it at home. But for you Some other time I will try to show that process step by step to you, though I have never gone to any classes for learning this art of art of making cones or henna designing, but I know how to make it. )

Methi Kadhi

Methi Ni Kadhi Today I am going to share something I am very fond of. That is Kadhi :) . And that too with Fenugreek :D. Isn't the idea itself enough to make mouth watering, well, atleast for me it is true. :P . Here is the way
I make it. Simple and healthy for all my blog buddies :) .
Just with little twist in regular Kadhi, also by adding Jaggery to it, to remove the bitterness of Fenugreek.

(Methi leaves,besan,red chilli powder, turmeric powder Jeera, green chilli,curry leaves, Cinnamon stick, cloves, ginger, garlic & jaggery )
Ingredients:
Finely Chopped fenugreek 1 1/2 cup,
Sour Curd - 2 cup ,
Bengal Gram flour- 2 1/2 tbsp ,
Jaggery ( Chopped )- 2 1/2tbsp or as per the sweetness you want ,
oil- 1/2 tbsp ,
Asafoetida Powder- a pinch ,
Cloves- 4 nos ,
Cinnamon- 1 Inch Stick ,
Cumin Seeds- 1 1/2 tsp ,
Ginger ( Finely Chopped )- 1 Inch Piece ,
Garlic Paste- 1 tsp ,
Green Chillies ( Slit and Deseeded )- 2 ,
1/4 tsp turmeric powder ,
1/2 tsp red chilli powder,
Curry Leaves ,
Salt To Taste .


Method :
Whip the sour curd and to it add enough water & add besan to it and mix such that no lumps will be there.
Heat oil in a kadhai, addcurry leaves to it and saute till they splutter. Next add jeera, asafoetida, slit green chillies, cinnamon and cloves. Add curd mixture to it and stir continuously to see that no lumps are formed and the mixture boils well.
Then to it add chopped ginger, chopped jaggery, turmeric powder , red chilli powder and salt to taste . Add chopped Fenugreek leaves to it and mix.Cook on a low flame for sometime. Check the seasoning and adjust accordingly. Serve hot !

I added Boondi to it at the time of serving , and it was tasting heavenly. I liked it so much that I ate it even without rice , just the bowl of Methi kadhi itself was enough to please me. Try it , andIi am sure you all will also like it .I have to attend a marriage function here tomorrow, and as I am very much fond of doing henna ( Mehandi ) designs, I make it on my left hand . So was not able to do any work in kitchen on my own, and dear Deepak- my hubby, has helped me through everything for the dinner of tonight. :) I just kept on giving instructions and he followed it completely. So nice of him. I think I must thank him to make this post of today possible. :) . Well, after completion of the kitchen work, he was happy with the dinner menu, so was I. :D .
Here are some of my past recipes with Spinach & fenugreek -Palak Paneer ,Methi Matki Curry, Aloo Methi .
This week with Spinach and Fenugreek was excellent with all your support and delicious recipes . Thank you Viji, Trupti,Supriya,Asha, Laxmi , Laxmik , Swapna, Vini ,Usha,Revathi for contributing to Vegetable of this week . Hope you all might have enjoyed this week . Do let me know ,how do you find this week with Spincah & fenugreek.
Vegetable of Next week(starting from coming Monday) is -Okra (Bhindi ) . Put you thinking cap on, and email me with your nice recipe on blogpooja@gmail.com :) .
(P.S. -May be I will publish the henna design I made on tomorrow or any other day.If your mind is arising a question that then how come I typed this post?Welll, this all I typed with one hand only :( , and it has already taken much time , so bye for tonight. :) Have fun On weekend. )
This is also my entry for Jhiva For Jaggery to Kay . By keeping Kay's request in mind, I have tried something new with Jaggery, which I never tried before this way. :)