Okra With Dessicated Coconut

This dish has got its roots in Goan cuisine. A key ingredient used is kokum (a dried berry fruit) used in Goan dishes especially fish curry as a souring agent. You could find it any local Indian grocery store.  I love to eat this vegetable slightly caramelized, so I prefer to cook it on a higher heat.

Okra with dessicated coconut

Ingredients:
250 gms lady fingers
2 onions chopped fine
1 green red chilli sliced
salt to taste
3-4 pieces of kokum
1-2tbsps of dessicated coconut

Method:
Wash your ladyfingers under a tap. I like to pat them dry with a kitchen cloth to remove any of the moisture. This also helps to reduce the stickiness that can ooze out of this vegetable when cooking.

Top and tail the lady fingers. Then cut them into rounds.

Bhendi/Okra

Heat oil in a casserole. Add in the onions and kokum. Adding the kokum to the dish creates a sourness that stops the ladyfingers from releasing that stickiness. Another trick to stop the stickiness is to either cook the vegetable on a higher flame or pre roast the ladyfingers on a tawa (flat non stick pan) before cooking.

Season with salt. Add your chilli. Add in the lady fingers and increase the heat to a higher setting. When almost done, add in the dessicated coconut. Give it another 5-10 mins more of cooking time and you're done.

Okra with dessicated coconut