Monday 4 April 2011

Bhindi in Mustard Sauce


Bhindi in Mustard Sauce


I have just had a set-back on something important I was trying so am utterly disappointed and gutted. No one but me is to be blamed though. Of the very few things that can make me feel better, writing about a small success I had in kitchen is I am hoping will lift me up. I watched this dish on a television program and honestly, I did not think of trying it because I thought it would be too bland. However I realised this will put some of the broken mustard seeds I had bought to good use. So gave it a shot but spiced it up a bit. This is suppose to be a Bengali dish called ‘jali’. I have not been able to find much information about it, not even the common spelling so decided to name it the way I have done it. If any reader knows more about it, please let me know and I could rename it. Anyway, this comes under one of the quick side dishes category and gets cooked while we are making the rotis. The quantity I have mentioned serves one.

8-10 okra, ends trimmed, slit and cut into long pieces
2 teaspoons mustard paste
½ teaspoon chilly powder
¼ teaspoon coriander powder
Turmeric powder
Asafoetida
Salt to taste
Mustard oil (you can use any other cooking oil too)

Heat some oil and sauté the okra for couple of minutes

Add turmeric powder, asafoetida, stir and cook for couple of minutes.

Add mustard paste and about quarter cup water, salt and cook covered until okra is done and all water evaporates

Serve!

I had this with rotis and it tasted quite good. To make the mustard paste I soaked some broken mustard seeds in water for 30 minutes and ground to paste. You could also use store bought mustard paste if you like. One interesting point about mustard oil was that I noticed the lable said for external use only. I contacted the company to find if I could cook with it and heard back saying that the erucic acid content in this oil is much higher than what EU regulations allow so they are labelled that way. So I will not use it on a regular basis but may be just when preparing Bengali dishes.

3 comments:

  1. I love okra n this sounds so delicious n flavorful!

    US Masala

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  2. Hi Veena,
    My MIL prepares a similar kind of dish and we call it pachadi.The difference is the preparation of mustard paste. She grinds fresh/dry cocount gratings, red chili & green chili (both r either one of them acc to taste) allow with mustard. She adds this paste to the fried and boiled (in tamrind) okra pieces. This goes well with rice alone or with any kootu kind of dishes. U can use any oil (preferably gingerlly oil)

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  3. Woww thats a delicious and wonderful looking bhindi curry..yumm!

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