Okra-Fry in Cheese-Paneer Sauce

Fried Okra (Lady Fingers) in Cheese-Paneer Sause 

Type:	Vegetable in Semisolid Sauce/Gravy	Hot	For: 8 Persons	Processes: Cutting, Frying, Preparation of ‘Phodani’, Boiling, Seasoning, Mixing.
Nutritive Value:	Carbohydrates, Proteins, Fats	Vitamins – “A”, “B-Plex” and “C”	Minerals (mainly Calcium)	Soluble and Non-soluble Fiber
Cooking Time:	Pre-preparation:	30 Min	Serving:	1 Min
	Preparation:	10 Min	Eating:	15 to 30 Min

Name:	Okra-Fry (Bhendi or lady Finger) in Cheese-Paneer Sauce/(Thick Garvy)
Preface:	·         Try and Taste this very delicious dish after trying (thanks for trying) our new and special dish - Okra-Fry in Mango Sauce (WOW, it was unimaginably wonderful!!). This is a dish in the same tradition, but with totally different nature and taste.  ·          Plain Okra-Fry is a popular dish and is usually found in marriage and other party menus. You must have tried that soggy, oily and brown dish that sticks in your mouth. ·         But Okra-Fry in Cheese-Paneer Sauce? WOW, it’s a totally different story. Unimaginably wonderful!!
	So, we will now prepare this new Okra-Fry in Cheese-Paneer Sauce.
Pre-preparation:	·         Except extracting pulp of mangoes Pre-preparation is same as that of 'Okra-Fry in Mango Sauce'. ·         So, please follow instructions in that Recipe. Bring One Kg. Okra. ·         Cut their stalks and give a logitudinal slit.
Preparation:	We will take 100 gm cheese (cut in small pieces - about 8 x 8mm), 100-150 gm paneer (cut in small pieces - about 10 x 10 mm), 1 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), 1" cinnamon, 2 tomatoes - finely chopped, 4 tablespoons curd (or Yogurt, or fresh cream), finely chopped coriander leaves, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and salt to taste.
Recipe:	Prepare simple 'Okra-Fry' with our method (Please see it's recipe in 'Okra-Fry in Mango Sauce') and remove from fry-pan. In the same fry-pan, in the remaining oil add 4 tsf ‘Desi Ghee’. Add 1 tsf pepper powder, cinnamon, cloves and turmeric powder.  Add finely chopped tomatoes and fry for 2 min.  Add curd and paneer pieces, some water if necessary, sugar, and salt to taste (only for sauce).   Add fried Okras and half of coriander leaves and stir carefully for 1 min till the sauce covers okra evenly. Add cheese pieces and taste it.  Adjust sourness, if necessary, by adding lemon juice and adjust other tastes. Continue boiling only for 1 more minute.   ·
Fortification:	·   This cuisine is so rich in Tastes and flavors; colors and appearance; texture and Nutritive Value that it is not necessary to fortify it. ·   For children NOT spoiled with over-pampering, you can add any amount of extra paneer or cheese.  for you and your spoiled overweight children add paneer and cheese in moderation or don't add at all (and use only plain curds. Don't use fresh cream, and Desi Ghee).  If you want, you can add some grated coconut, almonds, pistachios and cashew nuts. but instead, try adding walnuts.
Skills:	·     This exquisite and delicate dish is very simple, easy and quick to prepare. But … it is exquisite and delicate. ·     For skillful jobs of cutting okras, slitting them, preserving specific color while frying them and delicately stirring, tossing and lightly mixing them with sauce, see 'Okra-Fry in Mango Sauce'.  ·     (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.)  ·     Inhaling the flavors before tasting is important. Make it your habit.  ·     Last, but not the least, tasting at various stages to adjust all tastes properly is very important.  It is a myth that just adding lots of cheese-paneer makes any dish tasty. Adding cheese-paneer is like enhancement plastic surgeries.
Presentation:	This dish with dazzling green okra in orange-yellow-white glittering sauce with dashes of red tomatoes is attractive and mouth watering in itself. You need not decorate it, except adding chopped coriander.
Serving:	Be ready with everything arranged on dining table. When this dish is ready, add remaining half of chopped coriander and serve it hot immediately and HMmmm!! Start! Now you cannot wait.
Tasting:	·     Half of the people at the dining table, who have already tasted this dish before, can’t and don’t wait. ·     Those who are going to eat this for the first time, but had already tasted 'Okra-Fry in Mango Sauce', will trust us and will be eager to taste this one also.  ·     Those who are going to eat this for the first time, haven't tasted 'Okra-Fry in Mango Sauce', but are always ready to try new things, will say – Oh … a new and novel recipe. Let’s try. ·     Those who are always reluctant to try new things, will have a feeling – Oh … what is this!? ... But if only they make up their minds and taste it … Wow!! ·     Once tasted you will definitely say, It has and it IS “Something Special”. ·     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. ·     And the one who licks the last of it from the pan is really fortunate.
Afterthoughts	·     In 'Cheese-Paneer Sauce' we can add hung curd, cream-curd/yogurt or fresh cream.  We can also add cashew-almond paste. ·     We can make this sauce more or less sweet by adding more sugar, honey or fruits.  ·     In this type of Cheese-Paneer Sauce we can add fried potatoes, cauliflower, (any vegetable for that matter - even Cluster Beans - गवार, French beans or bitter-gourd - कार्ले) and fried boneless chicken or fish(pomfret, surmai, tilapia, salmon, etc.) or prawns.   ·     Try to make simple 'Okra-Fry' in our way.

Wood Apple (कवठ - in Marathi) Chutney

Name – Wood Apple (or elephant-apple, monkey fruit or curd fruit and in Marathi - कवठ) Chutney / Souse

                                                        

Type:	Chutney / Souse	Cold	For: 16 persons	Process:   Pulping, Mashing, Grating, Mixing
Dietary Value:	Electrolytes and Iron (in Jaggery)	Beta-Carotene, B vitamins: Thiamine, Riboflavin, Vit C	Carbohydrates, Proteins (mainly Seeds)	Anti-Oxidants – Beta-Carotene  Fiber – Soluble and Insoluble
Time:	Preparation:	5 min	Serving:	1 Sec
	Recipe:	3 min	Eating:	20 min – During Meal

Name:	Wood Apple (कवठ  - in Marathi) Chutney / Souse
Preface:	You don’t have taste? Are you bored of eating routine food? Are you bored of life in general? Then you need to make them both Colorful and Tasty.
Will:	Here is how you can do it. Just prepare this Chutney and Taste it! Ttttak!!
Pre-Preparation:	·         But it is not that simple. You have to get Wood Apple for that. You have to walk to the market, and you have to be lucky enough to find them in the market (it is seasonal and rare and you must be on the lookout). Or you should have the Tree in your courtyard. Or somebody having the tree in his courtyard, but fortunately (for you) having no taste for wood apple, should offer it to you. ·         When you get it, GET IT. Then the life is tasty at least for one week. ·         If the aroma spreads in the house, use it immediately. Otherwise wait. If you break it before that, it is faint pinkish brown and has faint and sourish smell. It also tastes sour and a bit bitterish TURAT. BUT DON’T WORRY. It’s hot and sour Chutney also tastes good. ·         But be patient and wait till it is ripe. (The Aroma in unmistakable.) Then break it and scoop out the pulp. It is dark purplish brown. Taste it! Wow!! Ttttak!!!
Preparation:	Now we will take equal quantity of grated jaggery, 1-2 teaspoons of red chili powder, ½ teaspoon cumin and coriander seed powder and salt to taste. Enough.
Recipe:	·         We will Mash the pulp. ·         We will mix all other ingredients and mash them again thoroughly. Then we will add some Chakk, some Ttukk and a bit of Tyanww; taste it and keep it aside (at least for 1 hour) for jaggery to get dissolved and to marinate. (Mash – Mix – Mash – done! … Simple. ) ·         Then we will taste it again to adjust and blend the tastes perfectly (really an excuse to taste it).
Fortification:	·         In this chutney we have already added jaggery (instead of sugar) that contains Iron salt. ·         Its seeds (after thorough chewing), supply additional protein. ·         It also contains insoluble as well as soluble fiber. ·         The chutney can be fortified by adding some coarsely ground groundnut or walnut powder.
Skills:	·         Blending of tastes is always more important in chutneys and souses. It’s like Harmony in music. Particularly in case of This Chutney, when there is a strong peculiar aroma in addition to blending of sweet, sour, salty, pungent and TURAT tastes, it is more difficult. It requires training under expert guide; prolonged practice, patience, intuition and inborn insight. And a bit of luck (stage of ripeness and the taste of THAT wood apple). ·         But don’t be afraid. As it is, it tastes good. ·         Otherwise through it away without hesitation. Better luck next time.
Decoration:	It decorates the dinner plate. It need not be decorated.
Serving:	… ?
Savoring:	While eating meals or snacks, intermittent spontaneous uncontrollable sounds of Ssssk, … SsssS, … Ch, … Chak, and … Tttak!
Thoughts & Afterthoughts	·         Without any preservatives its shelf-life is 3-4days and 7-8 days in Fridge (but it doesn’t last that long). ·         This can be used as a chutney, souse and Jam (with more jaggery or sugar and without chili powder) or in a gravy. ·         It has a jellifying property. So it can be used to prepare Jelly, Jam, or Burfi. We will learn to do them soon. ·         Culinary art is really an inborn quality. Very few people are gifted with that. And ‘Blending Perfection’ is a subject of PhD. ·         Few people, who don’t like Wood Apple Aroma, can also be there. To say the least, they are unfortunate. ·         With tasty food life also becomes tasty and interesting.