bhindi + masoor ki dal
Stir-fried bhindi (okra or ladyfingers) was always a family favourite at our house. The mildly sweet-ish flavour and somewhat slimy (but in a good way) texture of the vegetable, combined with some choice flavouring, made for a tasty dish.A few days ago, I made it for the first time. It's actually pretty easy - but took a while to cook through. I'd consider bhindi more of a side dish because it's hard (expensive) to make in large quantities.
Ingredients:
- vegetable oil (do NOT skimp on the oil)
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1/2 tomato, chopped
- salt
- few tbsp cumin (depending on your tastes)
- lime/lemon juice to taste
- dried chili peppers, chopped, or chili powder (however much you can stand!)
- In a large saucepan or pot, saute the onions on medium high heat. Add the salt, cumin and chili powder/peppers once onions are translucent.
- Add the okra + tomatoes. Fry until the okra is very well done, stirring often. Note the gooey, web-like strands. The okra will go from raw green to bright green to a darker green. It will also have shrunk considerably. If you don't end up using enough oil (like me), you'll have to stir even more.
- Sprinkle with lime/lemon juice and serve with dal (recipe below) and bread (chapati is best; pita or naan would also go okay; or some other bread)
Dal:
I never actually liked any kind of dal growing up; I found it too bland. But if I could have chosen a favourite, I would have chosen masoor ki dal, or split red lentils (but they actually look orange - note the photo).
The added bonus with this dal is that it's quick cooking!
I actually surprised myself in making this - it tasted better than I could remember. I don't know if my mom or aunties would approve, but it was good just the same. The secret is really in the tempering...if you miss that step you end up with a mushy paste. And you don't want that. Trust me.
By the way, there are tons of ways to cook this dal - this is the poor person's version.
Ingredients:
- 1cup split red lentils
- 3 cups water
- dry spices: salt, chili powder, black pepper (you should probably put a bit more than you would usually use; I find that the spices somehow seem to disappear into the dal). I think I may have thrown in a bit of cumin too.
- tempering: vegetable oil, 1/4-1/2 sliced onion
- Lay the dal out onto a flat pan and pick out any gravelly rocks (or anything else non-dal like)
- Rinse the dal a few times to clean out
- Place the dal + water and dry spices in medium sized pot. Cook covered on medium high heat until it begins to boil.
- Bring down the heat to medium low and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally. This is the time to add extra spices if you need to. You'll notice that the dal will go from orange to yellow.
- Once most of the water is gone and the dal has a thick but still soupy texture, turn the heat down to a minimum.
- Next, find a small frying pan or pot and fill with oil. Do not skimp. You are basically going to be deep frying the onions.
- Heat the oil, then add the onions and deep fry on medium-low heat until they are a dark brown colour.
- Add all of the oil & onions to the dal. You will hear a glorious sizzling noise. Stir the oil in and let cook for a few minutes.
- Serve hot alongside the bhindi (or another vegetable/meat dish). Dal also goes well over plain white rice. Actually, it's quite versatile and you can eat it with many different foods, in many different ways. I ended up eating mine the next day like a soup.
7 Comments:
mmmm, sounds good!!
Do you also fry up garlic and ginger with the second round of onions? In punjabi it's called a tarka. I haven't heard of tempering before. Cool!
rabfish & sharmalade: i think we're all talking about the same thing...the urdu word is something like bhagar...i used the translated word, 'tempering', because i wasn't sure how to 'spell' the urdu one correctly.:)
i only did one round of onions! does everyone else do two? i was thinking of using ginger & garlic too, but i couldn't remember if my mom or grandma ever did that. i will try that next time. i'd also like to try the garlic + cumin combo.
sharmalade, it took FOREVER + a streetcar ride to find the fresh okra...but i actually found it before i found any frozen, believe it or not.
i think the lime/lemon just tastes good with okra, i load it on...but maybe there's another reason.
yum! i am so making this!
gein mentioned eating it for dinner the other day!
that's funny.. i never have trouble finding fresh okra. i seem to see it everywhere? they have it kensington market for sure.
That's right these dishes were a yummy yummy yummy yummy dinner!!!!!!
from the recipe i got the impression you did a basic masala with onions etc at the beginning, before adding the second round (?) of onions in the bhagar/ temper/tarka/chunkay/(BTTCH)...
I've gotten addicted to adding mustard seeds in the last two min of the BTTCH and then adding them all roasted or blackened to daals etc; they pop in your mouth and release all this flavour.
so i made some minor additions to the post (in red) - i realized that i didn't really mention that i added in all the dry spices right with the water & dal.
BTTCH ?! ha ha!
thanks guys for all the spice tips, for once i'm actually looking forward to eating more dal !!
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