Name: Pan-Fried Okra with An Onion-Tamarind Sauce (Bhindi Pyaaz)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon coriander seeds, ground; 1 pound fresh okra, rinsed, thoroughly dried, caps pared off without cutting into the pods; 1 teaspoon cumin seeds; 1½ teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt; ¼ cup canola oil; ½ teaspoon cayenne (ground red pepper); 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems for garnishing; ½ teaspoon tamarind paste or concentrate; ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric; 1 medium-size red onion, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

660 Curries

By Raghavan Iyer

Published 2008

About

Maybe when Roy Blount Jr., in his “Song to Okra,” crooned, “You can have strip pokra, give me a nice girl and a dish of okra …” he meant this tart, onion-based okra curry. This vegetable, a member of the hibiscus family, is known as “lady’s finger” in India. If I were a lady (no smart-aleck comments please), I don’t think I would want my slender fingers compared to a fibrous, ridged-skin vegetable. This prehistoric plant, found growing wild in Sudan and Ethiopia, made its w