bhindi ka raita | crisp fried okra in yogurt

Raita is so simple why would someone need a recipe for it, be it cucumber raita or okra (bhindi) raita. We anyways customize our raita recipe depending on how simple or heavy or spicy the other dishes on the table are, the recipe is not so rigid and keeps changing according to the seasons too. The intrinsic beauty of Indian cuisines, especially home cooking, is that we use each produce in just the right way to suit ourselves.

Bhindi ka raita is often made with a little mature okra (bhindi) that has not turned fibrous but has lost the tenderness. The mature fibrous okra is also used in some curries I will share sometime, right now it is about bhindi ka raita. I had shared this bhindi ka raita on instagram and many had asked the recipe. I hope you like it when you make.

In the traditional recipe the bhindi slices are deep fried to make the raita but I never do that. Slow cooking in very little oil in a shallow wide pan works wonderfully to crisp up the bhindi slices to make a great textured bhindi raita.

ingredients 
(2 large servings)
about a dozen large slightly mature okra or 20 small tender ones
2 green chilies chopped finely
4 springs of curry leaves chopped finely
1 tsp cumin seeds (sometimes we use ajwain seeds)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp roasted cumin powder
2 tsp mustard oil
pinch of asafoetida (optional)
1 cup whisked home made cultured yogurt

preparation 

Rinse the okra and pat them dry. Remove the crowns and hold them together over the chopping board. Slice them all together in very thin roundels.

Heat the mustard oil in a flat base and tip in the asafoetida and cumin seeds and let them splutter and get aromatic.

Now add the chopped chilies, curry leaves and the sliced okra, mix well and lower the heat. Spread out the okra slices over the surface of flat base pan and let them brown slowly and dehydrate a bit. Stir after every 3-4 minutes and let it cook for about 10 minutes on very low heat so the okra becomes almost crisp. Add the salt, pepper and roasted cumin powder and take off the heat.

You can bake the okra in the oven after mixing all the ingredients too. 

Now pour everything over the whisked yogurt, adjust seasoning and serve chilled or at room temperature.

We serve this bhindi ka raita mostly with dal chawal meals but any roti or paratha subzi meal also feels great with this raita. The heat level of the raita is always adjusted according to the type of subzi and dal made for the meal.

pyaz ka raita aur arbi ki sookhi subzi | onion yogurt raita and colocasia curry with coriander greens

Pyaz ka raita used to be a favourite in our childhood days. I am not joking. I know many people whose most favourite raita would be boondi ka raita and most Banaras families made the best boondi ka raita I have ever tasted anywhere else. That boondi ka raita used to be a little sweet and sour and a very little hot. Raita is considered the digestive condiment served with the first course of meals and more serving are had till the end of the meal. For some people using any vegetables in a raita is blasphemy but I somehow always loved the ones with vegetables in some form or the other.

This pyaz ka raita used to be different from all the other raitas that were made at home. This was the one where the dahi (home made yogurt) will be thinned down a little bit and the raita would be a little runny. All the other raitas will be thick and creamy but not pyaz ka raita. And this was the only raita where the vegetable (onion in this case) would be fried till pinkish brown and then mixed with thinned yogurt. Other vegetables were just grated and added raw to the raita (like cucumber, carrots, radish etc) or were cooked or steamed (spinach, bathua, grated lauki etc) and then added to the raita.

Now you know this raita used to be a little different in all aspects. The roughly chopped onions will be shallow fried in mustard oil with a few tempering ingredients and the extra oil would always float on the raita. Now I make it low oil but my mom's version still has a layer of oil floating on the surface.

ingredients..
(2-3 servings)
roughly chopped red onions 3/4 cup
scissor cut dry red chillies 2 or to taste
hing (asafotida) 1 pinch
cumin seeds 1 tsp
chopped curry leaves 1 tbsp or more
mustard oil or any oil you want 2 tsp
salt to taste
black pepper powder to taste
yogurt 1 cup
water 3/4 cup

procedure..

Heat mustard oil in a pan and tip in the hing and cumin seeds and let them splutter. Now add the cut red chillies, chopped curry leaves and then the onions. Add slat and fry the onions on low flame till they get pinkish brown.

Let the mixture cool down. Then whisk the yogurt and water together and add the fried onion mix to it. Add pepper powder and mix well. Serve at room temperature.

This pyaz ka raita used to be always accompanied with some sookhi subzi. We used to eat a lot of parwal ki bhujia, kachhe kele ki subzi, arbi ki sookhi subzi or beans cabbage or cauliflowers cooked with minimal spices.

This arbi ki sookhi subzi is cooked with loads of green coriander leaves and some dhaniya-jeera powder or all blended into a paste together. I like the later version for its convenience and better aromas.

ingredients of arbi ki sooki subzi
(3 servings)

boiled and peeled arbi (colocasia or taro roots) 250 gm
chopped coriander greens with stems 1.5 cups
coriander seeds 2 tsp
cumin seeds 2 tsp
green chillies 2-3
chopped ginger 1 tsp
chopped garlic 1 tsp
turmeric powder
mustard oil 1 tbsp
salt to taste
lime juice 2 tsp

Procedure..

Chop the arbi in roundels. Keep aside.

Blend together all the whole spices and chopped ginger garlic and green coriander leaves. Make a coarse paste. Keep aside.

Heat the oil in a thick base kadhai and tip in the hing and wait for a couple seconds to infuse the hing in oil. Add the green paste and fry till it gets aromatic.

Add the arbi roundels and fry well, occasionally turning them. The arbi should absorb the flavours of the green spice paste.

Add lime juice and mix well. Serve hot or on room temperature. This sookhi subzi is a good option for lunch boxes too.

We enjoyed this meal with multi grain kasoori methi parathas. This was a lavish (read heavy) Sunday brunch one day. We normally have only this kind of meals on Sundays and a very light early dinner.

The arbi ki sookhi subzi makes the whole meal for me sometimes. I love it sometimes if not always.

hari tahiri : green rice pilaf with spinach and green peas

Tahiri or tehri is a vegetable pilaf that can accommodate any amount of vegetables, green peas, paneer and leafy greens to make the rice meals a perfect one pot meal. Tahiri is a popular one pot meal with singletons as it saves a lot of effort in the kitchen. Tahiris made in larger families can be elaborate and can accompany a variety of side dishes as well. Raita, chutney, kachumber salad, pickle and papad with a winter vegetables tahiri can be a festive weekend meal for some. It used to be for us in the past.

We grew up eating loads of greens every winter. Ours was a household where greens were considered gold (well, almost) and everyone liked it too. I don't remember shrinking nose for spinach or other greens that were cooked, throughout the year as we get different types of leafy greens in summers as well.  But it was winter time when our dining table was dominated by the colour green.

Heaps of spinach, fenugreek greens (methi), mustard greens , bathua will be brought home, sometimes we would contribute to the collective ritual of cleaning and packing the greens for refrigeration and mounds of saag would adorn the plates for each meal. Sometimes the saag was pureed and a curry like palak paneer, palak ka nimona or palak alu dum will be made, sometimes our rice would turn a deep shade of green. That was harey chawal for us if made plain, or hari tahiri when some green peas, paneer, lotus stem slices or soy nuggets were added to the rice pilaf. Raitas of different hues and kachumber salads (salsa like salads) would be made in large quantities as we all loved or salads too.

Grated radish salad with chopped green chillies, chopped coriander greens and grated ginger with a generous squeeze of lime used to be a staple along with a tomato salsa type salad with mustard oil dressing. I associate this salad with winters as the radish have this taste only in winters. There are more reasons to eat seasonal foods, taste is one of them. We used t call it mooli ka salaad.

This salad is a perfect foil to such tahiris, some spicier biryanis and most parathas that we make only during winters. Some raita or buttermilk rounds up the meal perfectly. I made a roasted beets raita this time with hari tahiri and it was such a soul satisfying meal for a Saturday brunch, sitting outside amongst greens and the sun.

ingredients for the hari tahiri
(2-3 large meal servings)
a generous 1/2 cup rice (roughly 100-120 gm)
green peas 200 gm
cubed paneer 100 gm or more if you like
steamed and pureed spinach (without any water) 600 gm
finely minced fenugreek greens (methi) 1/2 cup packed
finely minced dill leaves 1/2 cup packed (optional, if not using methi)
everyday curry powder 1 tbsp
special garam masala (or freshly powdered mix of cloves, cardamoms and cinnamon) 1/2 tsp
red chilly powder 1 tsp or to taste
turmeric powder 1 tsp
cumin seeds 2 tsp
finely minced ginger 1 tbsp
tejpatta 2-3
ghee 2 tbsp
salt to taste

procedure

Rinse the rice, drain and keep aside.

Heat the ghee in a large wide pan or kadhai (wider pan works better to cook the rice evenly) and tip in the cumin seeds and wait till the crackle. Add the minced ginger, green peas and tejpatta and methi leaves one after the other. Add salt, turmeric powder and the spice powders and cook covered for about 2-3 minutes.

Add the spinach puree and cook uncovered till the puree starts bubbling up like puffs. Add the cubed paneer, water (double the volume of rice being used, ie, one cup) and let it come to bubbles once again.

Add the washed rice, mix everything till you see very little trace of rice in the sea of green.

Cover the pan with a tight lid and let the tahiri cook at low flame for about 15 minutes. Check if the rice is done and then take the pan off the flame. Let it rest for about 5 minutes and then turn the rice using a flat spatula.

Serve immediately with the choice of accompaniments.

You can add shrimps or chicken instead of paneer if you want a non vegetarian version. But I like the plain version better as the freshness of winter spinach and green peas is something I wont like to compromise with fish or chicken flavours.

To make the roasted beets raita, or chukandar ka raita, I just roasted a large beetroot along with 3 fat cloves of garlic. Peeled them both after cooling and then liquidized in a blender. The puree was then mixed with whipped dahi along with salt and pepper. It made such a lovely meal with all the colours and flavours.

Healthy filling meals can be fun, easy and free from unnecessary grease and processed ingredients. Try this hari tahiri this winter and let me know if it becomes your winter favorite meal too.