Vendakkai Mor Kuzhambu

A little over a year ago, I had no idea what to do with lady's finger except for pachadi and sambar. This summer, I added to my repertoire and can confidently say that I know at least 6-8 ways of cooking this vegetable. And by know, I really mean know.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a bagful of lady's finger in the fridge. A friend, who works with a fresh produce company, brought us another bagful. I'd never seen fresher lady's fingers than the ones she brought us. We enjoyed the vegetable in more ways than one.

Here's what I made on Deepavali. Pandigai saapadu complete with mor kuzhambu. The method of preparation varies a wee bit from normal mor kuzhambu as the lady's finger needs to be cooked in tamarind water.

200g Lady's Finger, chopped into 2" pieces

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

1-2 tbsp Toor Dal, soaked
1/4 cup Coconut, shredded
1 cup Curds, beaten
1 tsp Urad Dal
1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
2-3 Green Chillies
1 tsp Oil
1/4 tsp Turmeric
Salt to taste


For the Tempering:
1 tsp Cooking Oil
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
½ tsp Asafoetida (Hing)

7-8 Curry Leaves

Cook the lady's finger pieces with the tamarind water and a little salt. Drain the water when the vegetable is cooked.

Fry the urad dal, fenugreek seeds, and green chillies in the oil. Grind this with the coconut, turmeric and soaked toor dal. Add this paste to the curds and bring the mixture to a boil over a low flame after adding the lady's finger and salt. In a frying ladle, heat the oil and add the mustard and asafoetida. Add the curry leaves after the mustard has spluttered. Add this to the boiling mixture and serve.

We had this with some rice, yelai paruppu, rasam, and potato curry. Find out what my co-runners have been eating: Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Anu, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh , Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, DK, and Pavani.

Dahi Bhindi

This is one more way that I learnt to cook lady's finger this summer. In addition to using up the lady's finger, it also helps use up any extra curd you might have. I'm fairly certain this would taste great with rice or rice and dal, but we had them for lunch with chapatis.

1/2 kg Lady's Finger, chopped into 2" pieces

2-3 Green Chillies, slit

1 tsp Ginger Paste

1/4 tsp Pepper

1 1/2 cups Curd, beaten

1 tbsp Gram Flour (Besan), dry roasted

2 tsp Oil

2 Red Chillies

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

2 tsp Coriander Powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the cumin seeds, red chillies, green chillies, coriander powder, turmeric powder, gram flour and salt. Add the lady's finger and cook for 8-10 minutes. Add the ginger paste along with the pepper. Add the curd, cover and cook over a low flame until the lady's finger is cooked.

Do check out the blogs of my co-runners in the recipe marathon! Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Anu, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh , Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, DK, and Pavani.

Stuffed Lady's Finger

More and more vegetables get added to my repertoire every week and this is something that I am very proud of. People tell me that Lady’s Finger is the first vegetable they learnt to cook. I can’t say the same. The very first time that I cooked this vegetable was only last year. Prior to that, all I ever did with it was out it in Sambar... which reminds me of this conversation with my colleague:


A: So, you’ll make sam-burr tonight?
Raaga: Yeah. I have some bhindi sitting in the fridge. I think I’ll use that up to make sam-baar.
A: Eeks… you never put things like bhindi in sam-burr! You can use carrot, beans and lauki, not bhindi yaar.
Raaga: No, no. Bhindi, baingan etc in sam-baar are considered delicacies.
A: Oh God, no! You really are a cocktail case yaar.


I suppose that last sentence defines me. Hybrid, cocktail, mixed parentage. Any deviations from traditional cooking is usually blamed on this thing. Coming back to the recipe here and this particular vegetable in question. I never really liked Lady's Finger much. I think it was because my brother loved it so much. I will post the recipe of Amma’s famous Vendakkai Karumadhu someday soon. That was the staple I grew up with. Pachadi and Huli were never standard fare. Fried lady’s finger featured in my hostel menu once a week and I would allow it to soak in my bowl of curds, allowing my thoughts to wander home. This recipe was picked up off the internet by a friend who brought it for us one evening. I learnt the recipe from her and made it a few weeks later. That one weekend, I did a lot of work. I chopped all the vegetables for the week and froze them. I even prepared vegetables for stuffed vegetable dishes and this is the result of just that.

¼ kg Lady’s Finger


To be mixed together:

1 tbsp Chopped Garlic
1/4 cup Gram Flour (Besan)
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Cumin Powder
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
¼ tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Lime Juice
Salt to taste

For the tempering:

2 tsp Oil

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

Wash the lady’s finger well and dry on a towel until completely dry. Chop the crown off and make slits in each.

Stuff the prepared mixture into the lady's fingers.

In a pan, heat the oil and add the cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the asafoetida and the stuffed lady's fingers. Cover and cook on a low flame till the lady's fingers are done (about 15 minutes). Remove the lid and allow to crispen.

This makes for a great side with rice and dal. I'm fairly certain it would make a great snack with cocktails. Thanks Ginny. This is a keeper recipe!

Bhenda Huli

This is one of the more popular amchi dishes. I know that it features at least once a week on the menus of several of my relatives. It is usually not made dry. I made it a little dry to go with rotis and then diluted it with a little water when we had it for dinner with rice and dali-saar.

1/4 kg Lady's Finger, chopped

4-5 tbsp Coconut, scraped

2-3 Red Chillies

1 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/2 tsp Fenugreek Seeds

1 tsp Coriander Seeds

5-6 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

3-4 tsp Oil

Salt to taste

Fry the red chillies, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and coriander seeds in about 2 teaspoons of oil. Grind this along with the coconut to a smooth paste.

Cook the lady's finger with the tamarind paste, salt and a little water until done. When it is cooked, add the masala and enough water to make it a sambar like gravy (or thicker if you like). Bring this mixture to a boil.

In a frying ladle, heat the remaining oil and add the crushed garlic and fry for a minute. Add this to the gravy and serve with rice and dali-saar.

If you're looking for a no onion/garlic version, you could use this tempering:

1 tsp Cooking Oil
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
½ tsp Asafoetida (Hing)
7-8 Curry Leaves

In a frying ladle, heat the oil and add the mustard. When the mustard splutters, add the asafoetida and turn off the flame. Add the curry leaves. Fry for a minute and add this to the boiling mixture.

Off this goes to Deepa's RCI: Konkani Cuisine.

Vendakka Pachadi (Lady's Finger in Curd)

I hadn't used vendakkai for anything other than sambar. I just never knew how to cook it and make a curry. And all my friends would tell me that it is the easiest to make. I did finally attempt to make it sometime back and have gotten the hang of it. FINALLY!

As a child, I didn't eat lady's finger. I mean, I would eat it, but not EAT it. I didn't enjoy it. Why? Because my brother loved it. How can I relish what he loves? We are Boy and Girl, right? So we can't like the same things. And "Eww... excuse me. How can anything he likes be nice?" But then years later, when I completed class 12, I suddenly found myself spending a lot of time with my kindergarten and elementary school friend, Priya. She LOVED lady's finger. And she told me that she could eat any amount of curry just like that. To rid her of her addiction, her mother decided to give her so much that she'd get sick of it. She made curry with 2 kilos of the vegetable. And Priya ate it all with curd rice. I thought, "Wow... if Priya can eat so much at one go, it must be nice". (Now I understand that 2 kg of this vegetable doesn't yield much anyway, once it is cooked.) And I started relishing the vegetable too.

This dish, however, is not the curry I am talking about. That's a simple bhindi fry. This is a pachadi that I love to eat.

V is for vendakka pachadi and this is one more entry to Nupur's A-Z of Indian Vegetables.

Ingredients:

1/4 kilo lady's finger, cut into small pieces
1 cup Curd
1/4 cup Coconut, scraped
1-2 Red chillies
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying


For the Tempering:
1 tsp Oil
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
8-10 Curry Leaves


Grind the coconut along with the chillies and salt. Add the curd to this mixture. Heat the oil in a small kadhai. Add the mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard begins to splutter, add the curry leaves. Add this to the curd mixture.


Heat the oil in a larger kadhai or pan. Deep fry the lady's finger pieces and drain them on a tissue.


Just before serving, add the lady's finger pieces to the curd mixture. That way, they will remain crunchy throughout the meal. This is a wonderful accompaniment to many rice dishes.


You can try to crisp the lady's finger pieces in an oven to eat this dish with far less guilt. But without guilt trips once in a while, what is life?