Ashy's vegetarian recipes ©2004
Okra, bindi, ladies fingers - this vegetable has lots of names. I've never seen a lady whose fingers looked like okra.
Okra is a very tasty vegetable, but can on occasion turn a little bit slimy when cooked. There are, however, ways to minimise this. First, try to find fresh, young okra. That will help. Okra that has been lying around for a while loses it's bright green colour and goes soft - that's the stuff to avoid. If you get a chance to select your own, choose slim bright green pods. Don't choose large bumpy pods. Bumps mean lots of hard seeds inside - not good either.
The second thing to remember is not to stir the cooking okra too much. If you do, the juice will come out of the pieces - another sliminess-inducing factor.
This is one of the simplest ways of cooking okra. It's a very quick method and doesn't require spices. For a recipe with a few more ingredients, my aubergines al a Imran recipe also works well with okra.
Ingredients
500g of okra
Salt
Oil for frying
Wash and top and tail the okra, then cut into 1 cm. pieces. Heat some oil in a pan and add the okra with a little salt. Stir gently to coat the okra with oil then fry for 7 or 8 minutes, stirring only occasionally and very carefully.
Fried okra is nice as part of a thali.