Okra with Shallots

Okra is a vegetable that I am very unfamiliar with.  I think I'd only ever eaten it once or twice at restaurants and always in a stew type dish.  Recently I've been reading and trying out a lot of Madhur Jaffrey's recipes and I noticed in her cookbooks a lot of okra dishes.  She actually claims that it is her favourite vegetable and so I was intrigued.

I came across some okra in a local fruit shop and decided to try out a dish traditionally called Bhuni Bhindi, or Okra with Shallots from one of Madhur Jaffrey's cook books.  I actually used spring onions or green onions for the recipe but shallots can also mean the small onions and so I think it would work with any of these.  I just happened to have some lovely spring onions (which I've always called shallots and so figured I'd use them).  For this recipe, rather than stewing the okra, they are fried until crispy.  Using this technique the mucilaginous (or slimy) aspect is greatly reduced.  I have cooked this recipe twice, the first time it was crispy and delicious, the second, using a different batch of okra, it wasn't as good.  It's definitely something I need to work on but the first batch was SO good that I'm not giving up yet.

What you will need:

• 350 grams fresh okra
• 1/4 cup rice bran, canola or peanut oil
• 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 3/4 cup shallots or spring onions
• 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp of crushed red chillies - optional

What you need to do:

1.  Cut off the top stem ends and the very tips of the okra pods and then cut each pod diagonally into 3 or 4 slices, depending upon the size.

2.  Pour the oil into a medium frying pan over a medium-high heat.  When hot, put in the cumin seeds and then a few seconds later add all the sliced okra.  Stir fry for about 5 minutes.  The okra will have browned a bit.

3.  Add the shallots and continue to stir and fry for about 3 minutes so that the shallots brown as well.  Now turn the heat to low.

4.  Add the coriander, chilli if you are using it, and salt.  Stir and keep cooking for another 7-9 minutes or until the okra is crisp and cooked through.

5.  Add the lemon juice and stir to mix.