Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala - Step by Step Recipe

I have been posting way too many dessert recipes of late so here's something to offset that. I have talked about my dislike towards the sliminess of Okra in my Okra Fry with Peanuts recipe post so you can rest assured that if I use Okra, the final dish will show no signs of sliminess. This is another one of them.



Hyderabadi Dahi Bhindi Masala
Source: Monsoon Spice
Serves: 2 - 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:
3 cups Bhindi/Okra, washed, dried and cut into small pieces
8 shallots, sliced fine (or use 1 large onion)
2 tomatoes, finely chopped (or 1 tbsp tomato paste)
1 tsp ginger garlic Paste
A pinch of sugar (optional)
1 cup yogurt, beaten
1 tbsp grated coconut, fresh/frozen
8 cashew nuts, soaked in warm milk for at least 10 mins
A generous pinch of kasuri methi / dried fenugreek leaves
1 tsp garam masala
½ -1 tsp red chilli powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp amchur / dry mango powder
1 tsp coriander powder / malli podi
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

For Tempering:
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
½ tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Urad Dal/Split Black Lentils
2-3 Dry Red Chillies, halved
A Pinch of Hing/Asafoetida
Few Curry Leaves
1 tbsp Oil

How I Made It:

1. Sia's tip: Sprinkle little salt to okra pieces and mix well. Keep it aside for half an hour. This helps in reducing the sliminess while frying the okra. I did this and it worked!

2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan and add okra pieces to it. Fry them continuously at high flame till they turn brown retaining their crispiness, about 7-10 mins. Alternatively you can also deep fry them. Transfer these fried okras to a plate lined with kitchen/paper towel and set aside.

3. Grind soaked cashews and coconut to smooth paste adding the milk used for soaking. Set aside.

4. Heat oil for tempering in a pan and add mustard seeds to it. When they pop, add cumin seeds, urad dal, dry red chillies, hing and curry leaves and sauté it for a minute till the dal turns golden brown in colour.

5. Now add finely chopped onions and fry till they turn light golden. Add ginger-garlic paste and fry for another minute. Add all the dry masalas - garam masala, red chilli powder, amchur, turmeric and coriander powder - along with kasuri methi and fry for a minute in sim.



6. Mix in finely chopped tomatoes (if using) and sauté till they turn pulpy and release their juice, about 2 minutes (or add the tomato paste at this stage). Now add ground cashew-coconut paste and mix well. Keep stirring for a minute.



7. Add yogurt, sugar and salt to taste and stir well. Depending on the consistency of gravy required, add ½-1 cup of water and mix well. Simmer the gravy and let it cook uncovered for another 5 minutes.



8. Mix in fried okra and adjust salt. Add little more water if you think the gravy is too thick and simmer for another 3-5 minutes.



9. Done! Serve with rotis or any mixed rice.

Masala Vada / Masala Vade Recipe

I am so tempted to claim this is the authentic Andhra masala vada recipe. I am this close to actually doing it, but the truth of the matter is, I am not sure if it is. I checked a few sites that have Andhra recipes and all of them give many different variations to the masala vada recipe and now, I just don't know.


But, that doesn't take away from the deliciousness of this crunchy snack that I served with rice, melted ghee, Gongura Pachadi and Gongura Adugula Pappu. We definitely had a good Andhra meal that day for lunch!

Andhra Masala Vada Recipe
Makes 12-15 small vadas

Ingredients:
1 cup channa dal / kadala paruppu / Bengal gram
A few shallots or 1 small onion, chopped fine
1/2 tsp jeera / cumin seeds
3 green chillies, cut into thin circles
1" piece of ginger, grated
2 pods of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
A few curry leaves (I added lots!)
Salt to taste
Oil

How I Made It:

Soak channa dal for atleast 2 hours. Drain and grind to a coarse mixture with all other ingredients. I leave some whole dal out while grinding and then add them on to the mixture before shaping, so that there's a bite in the vada. Make sure you add as little water as possible, in fact, a few drops should be sufficient, if at all you need it.

Shape into small discs and deep fry. I made these in the paniyaram pan that I use for pakoda and other fried goodies.



I really should make simple thaalis like this more often!

Gongura Adugula Pappu / Gongura Dal - Thick Version

Remember that Andhra meal I posted a few days back? Yeah, so there I was with a big bunch of Gongura leaves and very resourcefully I decided to make the Gongura Pachadi and the Gongura Adugula Pappu from Mahanandi, my first recipe attempt from that site.



The idea is to cook the toor dal just right, where they can keep their individuality. Quite nice, if you ask me. The only issue I had with this dish is, it ended up a bit too dry. So its advisable to have some rasam or vatha kozhambu or something to kind of balance the texture.

Gongura Adugula Pappu / Thick Gongura Dal Recipe
Serves 2

Ingredients:
4 cups chopped gongura leaves
1/2 cup toor dal, soaked for atleast an hour
1 chopped onion
4-5 green chillies
A pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste
2 tsp oil

For tempering/tadka
1/2 tsp channa dal / kadala paruppu
1/2 tsp urad dal / ulutham paruppu
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera / cumin seeds
A few curry leaves
A generous pinch of hing / asafoetida
1 tbsp oil

How I Made It:

1. Heat 2 tsp oil and add onions and slit green chillies. Fry until transparent and pink - 2 to 3 mins.

2. Add the chopped gongura leaves and fry for another 3 mins. Sprinkle with salt and turmeric powder and add the soaked toor dal. Mix well and cook covered on sim for 25-30 mins. Sprinkle some water if necessary - I had to because my gongura leaves were probably not super fresh. Otherwise, the water from the leaves should be sufficient, as Indira points out.

3. Once the toor dal is cooked soft yet holds its shape, remove from fire. Heat oil for tadka and add the mustard seeds and jeera first. When the seeds pop, add the dals. Once they are golden brown, add the curry leaves and hing and mix well.

4. Add the dal mixture to this combine well. Adjust salt.



I got inspired by Indira's picture and served this with rice, ghee, gongura pachadi and some masala vade. Taste of authentic Andhra food!

Gongura Pachadi / Pulicha Keerai Pachadi Recipe

In my 2.5 years in Hyderabad, if there's one thing I had acquired a taste for, its Gongura (called pulicha keerai in Tamil, sorrel leaves in English). Its a predominant green in Andhra cuisine and frequently found its way a lot into the catered food at work.

Although I have seen fresh Gongura leaves many times in Little India, I pretended not to because I didn't want to admit I have never cooked with it. There, I said it!

But even a girl like me can't find more excuses with a brilliant book like Cooking with Pedatha on her bookshelf, so one day I slaved on for 2 hours and ended up with (way too little) of this amazing Gongura Pachadi. High-five Pedatha!



Gongura Pachadi
Adapted from Cooking with Pedatha

Ingredients:
8 cups tightly packed gongura leaves / pulicha keerai / sorrel leaves (discard thick stems and retain the tender ones)
3/4 cup gingelly / sesame oil
Salt to taste

For 1st tempering:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
8 dry red chillies
4 green chillies
A few curry leaves
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp hing powder / asafoetida powder / perungaayam

The 2nd tempering:
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
2 red chillies
1/4 tsp hing powder / asafoetida powder / perungaayam
8 flakes of garlic

How I Made It:

1. Heat 1/2 cup oil and add the gongura leaves. Cook well for about 30 mins until the leaves shrink to almost nothing and all the water has evaporated. The leaves will have a cooked/fried consistency.

2. In another pan, heat 2 tbsp oil for 1st tempering. Add mustard seeds and when they pop, add the fenugreek seeds. Remove from fire and let the fenugreek brown. Then add the red chillies and as they turn shiny, add the remaining ingredients for the 1st tempering.

3. Grind the above mixture into a course paste with salt without water. Then add the cooked gongura and grind some more, but not into a fine paste.

4. Heat remaining oil for 2nd tempering and add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the fenugreek seeds and lower flame. When they turn brown, add the garlic and red chillies. As the chillies turn shiny, add the asafoetida. Garnish the ground pachadi with this tempering and mix well.



Serve with warm steamed rice and melted ghee. I prepared an all-Andhra-dishes lunch  recently and this Gongura Pachadi was part of that. Other recipes following soon.

Oh and btw, let me know when you are back from heaven after eating this!

The book, Cooking with Pedatha has been reviewed to death when it came out and won Best Vegetarian Book of that year (2008, I think), but I am still tempted to do my own version. Maybe once I've tried a couple more recipes. Definitely a good book to add to your collection, which I can tell you at this point itself.

PS: its much cheaper to buy it through Flipkart in India, which is what I did.