Week 8: Bhenda Huli

The versatility of Bhendi (or Bhindi/Okra/Ladies finger as you may call it) continues to pleasantly surprise me. I must say it is one of my favourite veggies, and I have yet to come across someone who does not like it. If I had my way, I would quite likely alternate between Bhindi and potatoes for my daily veg intake, but well, it is safe to say I don't.

I have grown up having an assortment of different bhendi dishes since childhood, which has most recently (rather, since getting married) included a wonderful masala stuffed bhindi made by my significant half. Bhenda Huli, is yet another popular and yummy aamchi dish, that livens up any meal with its spicy and tangy nature - a delight for your taste buds!

Unfortunately, my sophisticated camera kit (i.e. my phone!) let me down for this recipe, and I only saw that later - and so I only have photos, but no video of this recipe in action!

The Rasachandrika recipe does not mention adding jaggery, but on making and tasting the Huli I realised the jaggery is needed to complement the spice and enhance the 'tangy' taste that is so typical of the Huli, so I then ended up adding it at the end.

I did have a slight panic attack that I had managed to make the Huli too bitter (check out the recipe to see as to what I did wrong!). I managed to resolve that quickly with just a little bit of salt, but have added a tip to avoid the bitterness in the first place!

The final result, is in the photo below, and from the manner in which we wolfed it down with dali thoy and rice, I would say it was a pretty decent success!

Ingredients:

250-300 grams bhendi/okra/bhindi/ ladies fingers (roughly 15-20 medium sized )

1 small ball of tamarind soaked in hot water

Massol

1 cup of grated fresh coconut, or 3/4 cup desiccated coconut

3-4 red chillies

4 tsp coconut (or any other cooking oil)

2 tsp jaggery (powder, or grated)

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

Phanna/ Tempering

7-8 garlic cloves (crushed or chopped fine)

2 tsp coconut (or other cooking) oil

1. Wash the bhendi/okra and wipe them dry using a tea or paper towel. After cutting their ends, chop them in long pieces. Note: The Rasachandrika says 2.5 cm but I cut them slightly bigger (roughly 3-4 cm).

2. Cook the bhendi pieces in the tamarind juice (the tamarind soaked in hot water) and the salt. Cover the vessel initially so that the vegetable absorbs the juice and the water doesn't evaporate immediately. Note: Try and see if you can get seedless tamarind at a nearby Asian store, as it is so much more user friendly (i.e takes less time, and doesn't make a mess!). I used one that had seeds and it took a while to deseed it (plus, I don't think I did such a great job at it!).

3. At the same time as cooking the okra, shallow fry the chillies, mustard seeds fenugreek seeds and coriander seeds in oil. Don't fry these for too long as they will burn very quickly.

4. For the massol, grind together the coconut (fresh, or desiccated) and the fried ingredients to a fine paste in a mixer grinder. Note: The Rasachandrika asks you to add all the fried ingredients together for grinding, but in doing so my massol initially tasted bitter. This was quite likely due to the fenugreek and coriander seeds. To avoid the bitterness, grind the coconut first to a relatively fine paste. Then add the seeds, starting with the mustard seeds, then the coriander seeds, and finally the fenugreek seeds. Avoid grinding the fenugreek seeds a lot, or these will increase the bitterness.

4. Add the massol to the cooking okra, and then add the jaggery. Add just some more water until it becomes a thick gravy. Bring this to a boil.

5. Using the same pan used for frying the massol ingredients, fry the crushed or chopped garlic until light brown in oil. Add this garlic seasoning to the Huli and stir.

There you have it - another simple dish, and one that goes perfectly with chapatis, or dal and rice.