Okra Fry / Bendakaya Fry / Bindi Fry - Andhra Style

Ladies Finger / Okra / Bindi / Bendakaya / Vendaikai, the green vegetable is mostly liked by all. This vegetable is rich in fiber, loaded with plenty of vitamins like Vitamin A, C, iron and calcium. Okra is mainly suited for diabetic people and for people who suffer from constipation. There are hundreds of reasons for including Okra in our regular cooking due to its high nutrient source. Though we make many varieties of food items using Okra, Okra fry ( Bindi Fry) is the most common and one of the favourites in any household as it goes well with rice, rotis. This time i made the Okra fry in andhra style, as served in many andhra restaurants in their traditional food thali. I loved this recipe and sharing with you all....

Ingredients

Fresh Tender Okra / Bindi - 1 Full Vessel or Around 40 to 50 Okras.

Oil - 2 tbsp

Hing/Asafoetida - 1 Dash

Mustard Seeds - 2 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 2 tsp

Urad Dal / Mina Pappu / Ulutham Paruppu - 2 tsp

Curry leaves - 5 or 6

Red Onion finely cut - 1/2 cup

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Red Chilli Powder - 2 tsp

Groundnut Powder ( grounded coarsely for good taste ) - 3 -4 tbsp

Method

• Wash the Okra and cut them into small size and keep them ready.
• Make the groundnut powder using a mixer grinder and keep it ready too.
• In the kadai or frying pan, add oil first. When its heated, add Hing, Mustard Seeds, Cumin seeds first. When it sputters, add the urad dal, curry leaves and fry them for few seconds till they become slightly brown in colour.
• Then, add the cut red onions and fry them till they become translucent. Add the cut okra to the kadai now and fry them in the oil for a minute.
• Add the turmeric powder, salt now and cook the okra with the lid closed for few minutes. NO NEED TO ADD WATER.
• When the cut okras become little softer and cooked, open the lid and add the red chilli powder and groundnut powder to the frying pan.
• Fry the okra mix on a low flame till they get fried uniformly with all the spices coated. Stir the fry in the middle so that they get fried uniformly. No need to add any besan ( Bengal Gram Flour ) to make it crispier. The taste of the fry is definitely unique with the mix of red chilli powder and groundnut powder..
• When you are satisfied with its fried level, switch off the flame.  Serve the Okra with hot rice or rotis.

Tips / Variations

You can add more red chilli powder to have a very spicy Bindi fry.

If you add little coarse groundnut powder ( Peanut powder ), the fry looks good with small pieces of groundnuts in the middle and the taste is also much better. I made a fine paste of groundnut powder this time.