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Name:
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Okra-Fry (Bhendi
or lady Finger) in Mango Sauce
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Preface:
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Everybody (except some
unfortunate ones) likes Mangos. We can eat them only once in a year (April to
June), so we eat them greedily according to our digestive capacities. We don’t
get tired of eating them and the season ends before that. We traditionally use
them in many ways from its sour unripe stage to fully ripe stage. (But we
will write about that sometime later.)
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But we can use them in
a very untraditional way in this very special cuisine. You will know it when
you taste it. Then you will make it a point to prepare it, for you and your
special guests, at least once in a Mango-Season.
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Plain Okra-Fry is a
popular dish and is usually found in marriage and other party menus. But
that’s a different story.
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But Okra-Fry in
Mango Sauce, WOW, it’s unimaginably wonderful!!
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So, we
will now prepare totally new Okra-Fry in Mango Sauce.
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Pre-preparation:
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Extract
pulp of 6 mangos. It is better if they are slightly unripe, for a bit of
sourness.
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Bring One
Kg. selected fresh and tender Okras, each 3” to 4” long (don’t forget to take
measuring scale with you), from the market. They must be free from pest. (God
knows how many pest-infested Fried-Okra you must have consumes in parties.)
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Wash and
dry them with cotton cloth. (The preparation becomes sticky if they remain
wet.)
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Cut their
stalks and give a logitudinal slit.
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Three
special instructions – (1) Cut longer okras (> 4”) into 2-3 pieces, 3”
each. (2) while cutting you may find some okras that are not tender. Discard
them and (3) You may also find some pest-infested okras. Discard them also
immediately (even though you may be thoroughly non-vegetarian). Thanks!
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Preparation:
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 We will take mango pulp, I kg Okras (now
ready to use), 4 green chilies (with longitudinal slit), 1-2 tsf red chili
powder, Ingredients of ‘Phodani’ (6 tsf edible oil, 1 tsf mustard seeds, 2
tsf cumin seeds, turmeric powder and asafetida powder) (See Post ‘Phodani’),
4 tsf ‘Desi Ghee’, 4 Cloves, 8 black peppers (coarse powder), cardamom
powder, finely chopped coriander leaves and salt to taste.
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Recipe:
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Prepare ‘Phodani’ (in
oil) in a fry-pan or wok (Kadhai). 
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Add 4 chilies to fry.
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Add turmeric powder
and asafetida powder and immediately add okras to fry. Add red chili powder
to taste (we want this dish hot, but remember, we have also added green
chilies). Add salt to taste (sufficient only for okras).
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Fry Okras evenly and
slowly till they become dazzling dark Green
(don’t fry till brown or black) and remove from fry-pan. (We suggest that you
prepare plain simple Okra-Fry also in this fashion. That is more attractive,
colorful, tasty, rich and healthy.)
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In the same fry-pan,
in the remaining oil add 4 tsf ‘Desi Ghee’. Add pepper powder and cloves.
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Add mango pulp and
salt to taste (sufficient only for pulp) and stir continuously and carefully
(avoiding burns from splashing mango pulp while boiling) till it boils.
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Add fried Okras and
half of coriander leaves and stir carefully for 1 min till the pulp covers
okra evenly. Taste it. Adjust sourness, if necessary, by adding lemon juice
and adjust other tastes. Continue boiling (only for 1 more minute) till pulp
becomes translucent and glittering Orange.
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Fortification:
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This cuisine is so
rich in Taste and flavors; color and appearance; texture and Nutritive Value
that it is not necessary to fortify it.
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If you want, you can add
some grated coconut and cashew nuts.
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Skills:
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This dish is very
simple, easy and quick to prepare (except the time taken to pulp mangos and
to cut okras). But …
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But it is a delicate and
skillful job to cut okras and slit them. Otherwise you will cut them (or your
fingers) into two halves. Why 3” pieces? – Convenient, good looking,
aesthetically attractive and easy to eat.
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Looking for and
preserving specific colors mentioned, while frying okras and boiling mango
pulp, is very important. (Of course, you should not, with any pretext, add
color preservatives, color improvers or artificial colors.) This has more
than only aesthetic significance. Before specific green color, okras are
undercooked. After that, when green changes into brown, they become extra
tender, soft and sticky to lose their identity and taste. Then they turn dark
brown and extra-caramelized. Mango pulp tastes like mango pulp when
undercooked. Afterwards it turns brown and sticky and tastes like fudge. And,
more important is the fact that Color
change means Loss of valuable Vitamins and Anti-Oxidants. It is
ridiculous if a cuisine rich in appearance, taste, flavors and texture is
poor in quality and nutritive value.
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Stirring and tossing
okras lightly in mango sauce till it enters inside and covers okras evenly,
and to know when to stop stirring, is also very important. (We are resisting
a strong impulse to give a simile. But you are wise enough.)
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Tasting at various
stages is very important. All tastes (Sweet, salty, sour and pungent) are
strong and equally important in this cuisine. To adjust them properly is like
doing makeup of a beautiful girl. Good makeup enhances while bad makeup
destroys her original beauty. (Otherwise it would have been better to eat
okra-fry and mango pulp separately.)
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Inhaling the flavors
before tasting is also important. Make it your habit.
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Presentation:
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 If you
have followed the instructions thoroughly, have attended changing colors and
stopped timely, this dish looks so attractive, with contrast Orange-Green
color scheme, that you need not decorate it, except adding chopped coriander.
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Serving:
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Be ready with
everything arranged on dining table. When this dish is ready, serve it hot and
HMmmm!! Start! Now you cannot
wait.
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Tasting:
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Half of the people at
the dining table, who have already tasted this dish before, can’t and don’t
wait.
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Those who will eat
this for the first time, but are always ready to try new things, have a
feeling – Oh … a new and novel recipe. Let’s try.
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Those who are always
reluctant to try new things, have a feeling – Oh … what is this! Mango and
Okra? It’s ridiculous. What things we have to tolerate as a curtsy and table
manners, God Knows.’ But if only they make up their minds and taste it …
Wow!!
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Once tasted you will
definitely say, It has and it IS “Something Special”.
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It can be eaten, as
any other vegetable, with Bread, Roti, Parantha, Nan, Rice or anything. But it
is good as a separate dish or as a starter also.
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And the one who licks the
last of it from the pan is really fortunate.
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Afterthoughts
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What other dishes can
we prepare using similar mango sauce? Fried potatoes and Paneer will be good
dishes and they are!
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And what about Fried
Chicken in Mango Sauce? Yes! We have prepared it and tasted it. Marvelous!! …
It’s recipe, sometime later.
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We can use
preserved pulp during off-season. But it is better to eat mangos in
mango-season only. (And if possible, don’t use any preserved foodstuffs.)
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We use mango in
various ways from its unripe to ripe stage. But it is so versatile and
interesting that we may and can use it in many other untraditional ways.
Probably, being so familiar and favorite, we haven’t explored its all potentials
and recognized its abilities. It’s like trying to know oneself for all life.
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