Bendakaya Pulusu
Bendakaya pulusu is a south Indian style tangy Okra stew made with okra which is also called bhindi or ladies finger. It has a perfect balance of sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, and salty flavors and is great comfort food served with rice, dal, and ghee.
Ingredients
- ¾ lb Bendakaya also called Okra or Ladies finger
- 2 tbsp Sesame oil
- 2 red chillies broken into 1-inch pieces
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 sprig of curry leaves
- Half of a big onion cut into cubes
- Lime sized ball of tamarind or around 1.5 tablespoons of thick tamarind paste
- 2.5 to 3 cups of water
- 1 &¾ tablespoons grated Jaggery
- ⅓ cup chopped Cilantro
Ground Spices
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- Salt to taste I used around 2 to 2.5 teaspoons of pink Himalayan salt
- 2 pinches of asafoetida hing
- 2 teaspoons of ginger garlic paste
- 1 teaspoon Coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon Cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon Red chilli powder you can use Kashmiri red chilli powder for milder spice level
- ½ teaspoon Methi powder Ground fenugreek seed powder
Instructions
Preparation for Bendakaya Pulusu
- Wash Okra( Bendakaya) well and dry them using a clean kitchen cloth or paper napkins.
- Soak tamarind in 1 cup of hot water. Once it cools off a little bit, squeeze the juice out of the tamarind with your hands and then filter to remove the pulp. Repeat the process with the pulp until all the juice is extracted. If you are using ready-made tamarind paste, then use around 1.5 tablespoons of paste mixed with 2.5 cups of water and add it to the bendakaya pulusu when specified below.
- Cut Okra into 1 to 1.5 inch long pieces after chopping off both ends. Wipe off the sticky part from the knife using wet paper napkins in between.
- Chop the onion into big cubes and keep them ready.
How to make Bendakaya pulusu
- Heat a medium-sized, deep saucepan or stockpot and add 2 tablespoons of Sesame oil ( You can use whatever oil you regularly use, Sesame oil just gives an added flavor).
- Once the oil is hot, add ½ teaspoon mustard seeds, ½ teaspoon cumin seeds, 2 broken red chilies, 2 pinches of asafoetida(hing), ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder, and fry for few seconds until the mustard seeds crackle. Then add the curry leaves and fry them until they turn slightly crisp.
- Now add the chopped onions and a ⅓ teaspoon of salt for the onions to cook faster and saute for 2 to 3 minutes until the onions start to turn slightly translucent.
- Now add 2 teaspoons of ginger-garlic paste, 1 teaspoon of coriander powder, ½ teaspoon of cumin powder, and 1 teaspoon of red chili powder, mix well, and saute for 1 or 2 minutes without burning the spices.
- Then add cut bhindi (Okra) pieces and saute on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Now mix the squeezed tamarind extract with around 1.5 to 2 cups of water and add it to the pot.
- Add little less than ½ teaspoon of methi powder, salt to taste, and 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of grated jaggery, mix well, and close the lid. Cook COVERED until bhindi(Okra) pieces are well cooked and all the flavors in the sauce come together. If you want the pulusu to be thicker, then open the lid and cook until you get desired consistency.
- Check the seasonings and add anything required. A good pulusu will have a perfect balance of all the flavors like sweet, sour, spice, slightly bitter, and salt.
- Add most of the chopped cilantro keeping some for the garnish in the last 2 minutes and cook for another couple of minutes.
- Now garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice, mudda pappu( plain cooked toor dal), ghee(clarified butter), and papad.
Notes
- This bendakaya pulusu is little spicier. If you want to reduce the spice level, then use only half of the coriander powder and red chilli powder to start with and add more later if needed. If you want to increase the spice level, increase the amount of coriander powder and red chili powder. You will have to adjust the other flavors in the pulusu like sweet(jaggery), sour(tamarind), bitter(methi powder), and salt accordingly to balance the flavors.
- Choose only the firm and young brightly colored bhindi (Okra) always. Avoid, soft, squishy, dull, brown ones for best taste.
- I didn't add tomatoes in this bendakaya pulusu, if you want to add tomatoes too, then add chopped tomatoes after adding the spice powders to the onions and cook until the tomatoes are completely cooked and softened before you add bhindi(Okra).
- Bendakaya pulusu usually doesn't need any thickener as the slimy texture of Okra helps with the sauce thickening. But if want to thicken further, you can always add 1 or 2 tablespoons of rice flour mixed with water into the sauce while cooking towards the end.