Okra or gumbo is definitely better sounding names. Rather squeamish isn't it to be slicing through it while calling it lady's fingers. In Tamil, known as vendikai, the Indians love it in all their curries especially fish curry, spicy masala and dhal flour batter dipped fritters too. Believed to be brainfood, eaten a few days before an exam is said to improve brain function. Hmm... try it out la..who knows.
Well basic Indian cooking is to smother most vegetables in oil, spices and coconut and a tendency to overcook them into mush, I believe for a reason those days. And then there is the other extreme western side who like their stuff as raw as possible. I prefer the middle path, less of everything else and lightly cooked. So you can see ive thrown them directly into a pot of bubbling water.. about a litre for 300gms of okra. I believe oil was used mostly in olden days to preserve the cooked food longer, otherwise i can't really vouch for any added taste.
I have diced some onions, sliced a tomato, plucked some curry leaves from the backyard and flicked some fenugreek from mom's spice box. Mental note : time to top up my spice stock.
Have you ever seen purple cilipadi? Pretty isn't it? By the way, i believe the same silly fella who came up with name 'lady's finger' must have thought up 'bird's eye chilly' too.
So there, everything goes into the pot of nearly half cooked okras. Add a tsp of turmeric powder to counter my chesty lungs (cough!) over the last 3 days. Lower the heat.
Very quickly add a cup of full cream milk (or santan). Add salt and squish half a lime. Turn off before milk curdles.
Obviously mine did curdle a little while i was 30 seconds late into snapping the last pic. So watch out.
How to eat it? Think it as a stew. If you want a meatier version, you can add in prawns or chicken or squids or even tofu. Any combination of carbo will sync well. Or you can do without if you dont sync well with carbo. ;)
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