Bhindi do Pyaza

Bhindi do pyaza is an Indian vegetable dish made from stir frying Okra with double the amount of Onions.

We call Okra / Lady’s finger as Bhindi and Onions as Pyaz in Hindi. “Do" in Hindi means twice or double.

We call this sabji as “Bhindi do pyaza” because here we add double the amount of Onions in this sabji than what we use generally.

Okra / Lady's finger / Bhindi

Here we add basic Indian dry spices to make the sabji spicy. 

This dish is for those who love Onion based sabji.

INGREDIENTS :

(1) 300 gms of Okra / Lady’s finger / Bhindi

(2) 2 large Onions, chopped

(3) 1 large Tomato, finely chopped

(4) Half tablespoon of Ginger Garlic paste

(5) 2 green chillies, finely chopped

(6) 1/4 tea spoon of Fenugreek seeds

(9) Half tea spoon of Cumin seeds

(10 1/4 teaspoon of Turmeric powder / Haldi

(11) Half teaspoon of Kashmiri lal mirch powder /  Red chilli powder

(12) Half teaspoon of Cumin / Jeera powder

(13) Half teaspoon of Coriander / Dhania powder

(14) Half teaspoon of Garam Masala powder

(15) 5 tablespoon of Cooking oil

(16 Salt to taste

Cuisine : Indian / North Indian

Serves : 2 persons

Time required : 30 minutes

PREPARATION :

(1) Wash Bhindi thoroughly in running water and dry them completely.

(2) Cut the top and tail of each Bhindi and then cut the Bhindi into 1 inch sized long pieces.

(3) Chop the Onions and keep aside.

(4) Chop the Tomatoes and keep aside.

(5) Mince the green  chiilies and keep aside

(6) Gather all the ingredients required for the preparation of Bhindi do Pyaza.

METHOD :

(1) Heat 3 tablespoons of cooking oil in a  kadhai / wok and put the cut Bhindi pieces in it to stir fry. 

(2) Close the lid and cook for 3-4 minutes. 

(3) Open the lid. Add salt and mix well. 

(4) Cover the lid again in between for some time so that the Bhindi gets cooked uniformly. It took me about 10 minutes on a low flame for the Bhindi to get cooked. 

After opening the lid...

(5) Transfer the cooked, stir fried Bhindi onto a plate and keep aside.

(6) Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in the same kadhai / wok and add 1/4 tea spoon of Fenugreek seeds to the warm oil. 

(7) When they turn dark brown, add half teaspoon of Cumin seeds.

(8) When they began to splutter, add chopped Onions and green chillies. Stir fry till the Onions change golden brown in colour.

(9) Add ginger garlic paste and sauté for 2 minutes till the raw smell of it goes away.

(10) Add chopped Tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes.

(11) Add Turmeric powder, Red chilli powder, Coriander powder, Cumin powder and Garam masala powder in the proportions given in the ingredients list. Mix well.

(12) Add required amount of salt. Note that we have already added salt to Bhindi while stir frying it, so add less salt this time only for the quantity required for Onion Tomato mixture.

Mix well.

(13) Add cooked Bhindi and mix well. Stir fry for 2 - 3 minutes so that the onion tomato mixture blends well with the Bhindi.

(14) Turn off the flame and transfer the cooked sabji on to a serving bowl. 

(15) Bhindi do pyaza goes very well with any Indian bread like rotis / phulkas/ chapatis. It can be served as a vegetable side dish along with steamed rice and daal. Serve hot.

Watermelon juice

If there is any fruit that takes me back to my childhood memories, then that is my favourite watermelon. This is the fruit that I ate the most during my childhood. Every summer, which is a  season of watermelon, this fruit was sold in a watermelon cart, that would come near our house and all the kids, who loved this amazing fruit would run towards the cart to buy their favourite fruit. Today, I am not so lazy like I was in those days 😊 when it comes to deseeding this fruit.  My dear Mom would chop and deseed the watermelon for me and my brother, and we would leisurely have the chunks of this juicy fruit, with its juicy drippings sliding down on our small chins and our hands all sticky and wet with watermelon juice. Today, times have changed, watermelons are available in store in even chopped and deseeded forms, but those days, it was not so.

Have this fruit in any form, but I feel one must have watermelons every summer as it really hydrates the body.

Not only that, the watermelon juice, which we will learn to prepare can be used to quench the thirst and refresh the body during the tiring hot summer days.

Here is the list of ingredients and the method to prepare the watermelon juice.

INGREDIENTS :

(1) Watermelon cubes deseeded (If seedless watermelon not available)

(2) Lemon juice -  2 table spoon (Optional)

(3) A small piece of Ginger (Optional)

(4) Few Mint leaves (Optional)

(5) Sugar (if required)

Recipe type : Beverage

Serves : 2 persons

METHOD :

(1) Wash watermelon under running water. Cut it to two halves. Remove the seeds (Deseed). Tender white seeds can be used for the juice as they have health benefits too like they are edible and are known to cleanse the kidneys. Chop the watermelon pulp from the rind cut the pulp into bite sized cubes. Keep them in the refrigerator in a large bowl. 

(2) Once cool, add them into the blending jar along with the optional ingredients mentioned above in the ingredients list and blend until smooth. Add sugar if required. This method will not require us to add ice cubes. 

(3) Strain the juice using a strainer and collect the juice into a serving jug. Serve the juice immediately in serving glasses as shown.

I did not have any of the optional ingredients mentioned above. I did not even use sugar, the watermelon was that sweet. The juice I showed in the picture is prepared using just the watermelon only. However, I will try to prepare again using lemon juice, ginger and mint leaves and see how it tastes. 

This experience of preparing this watermelon juice was an emotional one for me as this time, I prepared it for my dear Mom like she use to chop and deseed the fruit for me during my childhood. After so many years, and first time after beginning this blog, here is the watermelon treat for my Mom from me. 

Dear readers, try preparing this juice and relish it! Its truely amazing treat!

Mango Shrikhand

Mango Shrikhand is a curd / yogurt based sweet dish, which is made during the Mango season.  It tastes good with pooris. By adding mango puree to the hung curd along with rest of the ingredients, we make Mango Shrikhand.

We always use fresh curd to prepare shrikhand, preferably home made curd. Homemade curd / yogurt is used to prepare hung curd / hung yogurt. No artificial colours or flavourings have been used to prepare this mango Shrikhand. I flavoured the Shrikhand with some cardamom powder and saffron. Depending on the sweetness of the mango, we add sugar to this Shrikhand.

I first made this hung curd to make Mango Shrikhand.

Here are the step by step pictures on how to make hung curd.

(1) Keep the four things ready -> A container, a colander or filter, curd (called Dahi in Hindi), and Muslin or Cheese cloth.

(2) Place a colander or filter over the container to collect the whey.

(3) Spread the muslin or cheese cloth over the colander or filter.

(4) Put curd on the centre of the cloth as shown in the image.

(5) Make a knot and squeeze the curd inside the cloth so that the whey oozes out of the cloth and falls in the container. We do till maximum of the whey is squeezed out.

Then place the tied curd in the strainer and allow the whey to drip into the container.

Leave it for about 30 minutes.

(6) After 30 to 45 minutes, again squeeze out the extra whey into the container.

(7) Put the cloth on the colander and cover it. Keep it in the refrigerator for 4 - 8 hours.

After four hours, the hung curd is ready.

This hung curd is used for making Mango Shrikhand.

Following ingredients are used to prepare the Mango Shrikhand.

INGREDIENTS :

(1) 500 gms of hung curd prepared from homemade curd or dahi or one brought from store.

(2) 1 Mango, chopped and pureed.

(3) Powdered sugar, (Put amount as per sweetness required)

(4) Saffron milk

(5) Cardamom powder (of green cardamom called Hari elaichi or choti elaichi in Hindi)

(6) Crushed dry nuts like cashews, almonds and pistachios.

PREPARATION :

(1) Prepare hung curd using the instructions given about how to prepare hung curd and keep aside.

(2) Peel a mango, discard the skin and seeds of it and chop the pulp. Put the chopped mangoes in the blending jar and blend them to form a smooth puree. Keep the Mango puree aside.

Mango

Peel the skin of the mango

After peeling off the skin of the mango

Chop the pulp of the mango into bite sized pieces. Note that the seed kept aside is to be discarded.

Chopped mango pieces

Put the mango pieces into a blending jar and blend to form a smooth puree

Mango Puree

(3) Using a mortar and pestle, crush the dry fruits like Almonds, Pistachios and Cashews and keep them aside in separate bowls each.

Crushed Almonds

Crushed Pistachios 

Crushed Cashews

(4) You can form powdered sugar by grinding the sugar granules in a mixer grinder or buy readymade powdered sugar.

Powdered Sugar

(5) Put 2 pinch of saffron strands in 20 ml of hot milk for 15 minutes. This will cause the colour of the saffron to get incorporated well in the milk to form saffron milk. Keep aside.

Saffron Milk

(6) Keep Cardamom powder aside.

METHOD :

(1) Keep together all the required ingredients as shown in the image.

Hung Curd, Mango Puree, Powdered Sugar, Saffron Milk,
 Crushed Cashews, Pistachios and Almonds

Cardamom powder

(2) Take hung curd in a large bowl as shown.

Hung Curd

(3) Add Saffron Milk.

(4) Add Mango puree.

(5) Add powdered sugar.

(6) Whisk well till well blended.

(7) Add half the amount of crushed dry fruits now and whisk well again. Keep the remaining dry fruits for garnishing later.

(8) Add Cardamom powder. 

Whisk well again.

(9) Refrigerate the prepared Mango Shrikhand for 2 hours.

(10) Take out the Mango Shrikhand from the fridge and serve chilled in a serving bowl and garnish with remaining dry nuts.

(11) Serve this creamy Mango Shrikhand, topped with mixed dry fruits along with steamy hot Pooris as shown.

Note that Mango Shrikhand is loaded with calories, so have it as an occasional treat.