Vendeka Mezhkuvarati / Okra Fry

This simple recipe of my mothers is my most favorite with roti or rice . I can eat is all seven days of week. This curry rice with sambar or mor curry is yummmmy :).

Most of the time Bindi fry turns out to be mushy , the trick is to leave the bindi alone in the frying pan for sometime and then stir occasionally as and when needed. And you will see that each and every piece is cooked properly and separate.

Bindi(Okra ) - 250 gms

Onion - 1/2 cup chopped

Green Chilli - 2

Curry Leaves - 5-6

Salt to taste

Tumeric - 1/4 tsp

Chilli Pw - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

1. Wash and dry Okra, Cut bindi into small 1/2 inch rounds.

2. Wash onion and chop it into small piece .

3. Wash and slit the chilli in the middle and cut into small pieces.

4. Heat oil in a frying pan(10'' or big ) add onion , chilli, curry leaves,tumeric,salt, okra

and just leave it for 2-3 min.

5. Now lower the temp to lower medium and mix it .

6. It should take 20-25 min for okra to fry properly, but you decide when to stop cooking based on how crispy you want the okra to be.

7. Just before you decide to remove okra from fire add chilli pw and mix well and cook for another minute.

Cherry Achar

We went to pick cherry and picked so much that even after sending it to many of our friends and lot was still remaining. I didn't want to freeze as i have already freezed a lot of strawberry and my freezer will be soon out of capacity:)So i was thinking what to do with it other than making jams , an old memory of eating Ber Ka Achar came to my mind. I sure for all of us who has ever eaten Bengali Kuler Achar will be salivating hearing the name of ber ka achar.

Recipe

Cherry

(notpitted ) 1 kg

Tamarind a lemon ball size soaked in warm water

Panchphoran/

Mustard seed 1 tsp

Hing 1/4 tsp

Methi Seeds 1 tsp

Chilli Pw 2 tbsp

Oil 3 tbsp

Jaggery 2 tbsp or more based on cherry sweetness

Salt to taste

Method

1.Heat a heavy bottom pan and toast the methi seeds and grind it to fine powder.

2. Add oil to the pan and the panch phoran , hing and then chilli powder and add tamarind paste.

3.Cook till the oil start to seperate add the jaggery.

4.Add cherry and cook till a few of then of them breaks ,then add the methi powder and remove from flame.

Simple and Easy Sambar

My Mom has a very simple sambar powder recipe when she didn't have the elaborate sambar powder handy. Few days ago my friend Jaishree asked me for my sambar recipe which inspired me to write this post.

Simple Sambar Powder :

Coriander Powder -2 tbsp

Chilli Powder -1 tbsp

Tumeric Powder -1/2 tsp

Fenugreek Powder -1/2 tsp

Hing/Asafoetida -1/4 tsp

Sambar

Step 1:

Tuvar Dal - 1/4 cup

Pear Onions - 5-6

or

Onion -5.-6 quater one inch pieces

Veg of Choice - 1/4 cup chunky pieces

Tumeric Powder- 1/4 tsp

Hing/Asafoetida - 2 pinch

Add Jaggery - a small piece

1. Cook all the the things together two two cups of water in pressure cooker for 2-3 whistles.

Step 2:

1. Tamarid a small ball soaked in hot water , then mash to extract the liquid.

Step 3:

1. Once cooker has cooled, mash that dal with spoon a little and but it back on fire.
2. Add Sambar Masala - 2 tsp
3. Add Tamarid Extract to taste
4. Add salt to taste

1. Cook for 3-5 mintues and switch off.

Step 4

Mustatrd -1/2 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds - 1/8 tsp

Onion/Shallots - 2 tsp  chopped fine

Curry leaves -3-4

Dry Red Chilli - 2

Coconut Oil /Ghee-1 tsp

1. Heat oil/ghee and add mustard.
2. When mustard starts popping add fenugreek seeds.
3. When it turns golden add onion,chili and curry leaves.
4. Cook till onion turns golden.
5. Pour everything to the cooked dal mixture.
6. Cover the this immediatley.Serve with rice ,papadam.

This post i'm sending to an sambar and rasam podi event at

kadumanga