- Submitted by Raji Ramakrishnan
(Okra And Yogurt Dip, Okra Raita, Vendakkai Thayir Salad)
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Have you all felt that cooking together with family members for a long list of guests is an amazing and fun filled experience. Yes!!!! I totally agree to the fact that it is essential to team up with a like minded people for maximum fun and minimized time and effort. Fortunately, I have a very good team member in my sister in law. My sister in law is an amazing cook and a very chilled out person with full of laughter. When both our families’ vacation together in my in laws place, my mother in law has total gala time handing over the kitchen totally to us and enjoy completely with the kids. For each item that we cook, we jokingly appoint each other as head cook and the assistant cook.
On, one such similar day when we almost finished preparing lunch, we got a call from a close family friend that they will be coming and visiting us. Since it was lunch time, we insisted that they must join us for lunch. We had already made vatha kuzhambu, rasam, beetroot Poriyal and paruppu usili. We quickly wanted to add some more items in the menu and make it grandiose. I quickly fried all varieties of appalam (pappads) and vadaams, and my sister in law made the yummiest rava kesari as the sweet dish. We still had some more time before our guests could arrive and we wanted to make a raita or a thayir pachadi which would go well along with the spicy vatha kuzhambu. All we had in our refrigerator were some 20 ladies finger (bhindi in Hindi or vendakkai in Tamil) and while I was thinking what we could do, my sister in law made up her mind on the recipe. Yes, she decided to make ladies finger raita otherwise called as vendakkai thayir pachadi in Tamil or bhindi raita in Hindi. At first, I was surprised and confused about the final taste and appearance. But she wasted no time in declaring herself as the head cook and asked me to chop the ladies finger in finely small pieces. By the time she finished the raita our guests had arrived. Everyone was in great admiration of the raita and as thought it was just perfect with the vatha kuzhambu. Since then, it has been a regular accompaniment whenever I make vatha kuzhambu.
It is simple, quick and a must try. Do try and let us know how much did you and your family enjoy. Cheers!!
Recipe For Bhindi Raita
Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 15 minutes
Serves : 2 - 4
Ingredients
- Okra/ ladies finger/ bhindi - 3-4
- Oil - 3 tsp
- Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
- Urid Dal - 1/2 tsp
- Red chilly - 1 small piece
- Salt
- Curd - 1 cup
- Sugar - 1/4 tsp (optional)
- Chilly powder - 1/4 tsp
- Chat masala - a pinch (optional)
- Cumin powder (roasted) - a pinch optional
- Black salt - optional
- Asafoetida - a pinch
- Coriander leaves for garnishing
Method
- In a kadai, add two teaspoon oil.
- When it becomes hot, add the chopped bhindi and fry them till they turn brown and crispy. Remove it in a bowl
- Add oil in the kadai and add the mustard seeds, urid dal and chilli.
- Add the tempered items in the bowl.
- Beat the curd and add to the bhindi.
- Add salt, sugar, chilli powder, asafoetida, chat masala, cumin powder and black salt.
- Garnish with coriander leaves.
Serving Suggestion
- You can have the bhindi raita with dal rice, chapati or just plain and chilled. During summer season, any items with curd is good for health.
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