Heerekayi Gojju in peanut sauce / Chinese Okra gravy in peanut sauce

Usually Chinese okra is used in making dal (tovve in kannada), bhajis, chutney. I wouldn't call this vegetable suitable for making every kind of dish since it is very watery. One more problem with this vegetable is it shrinks too much and leaves you with so little after cooking. This dish I am talking about goes very well with rotis, chapathis and even rice. Best part is you can make it very quickly. The same recipe can be used with eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes or combination of the two vegetables and tomatoes.

Here goes my recipe..

Ingredients:

• Chinese Okra - 3 big peeled and diced into chunks don't throw the peel. You can make chutney out of it.
• vegetable or peanut oil - 2 TBSP
• Dried red chillies - 2 broken
• Curry leaves - a few
• Hing - a big pinch
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric - a big pinch
• Salt - to taste
• Rasam powder - 1 - 1/2 tsp or to taste
• Jaggery - a lemon size
• Tamarind - a lemon size ball soaked and thick juice extracted.
• Peanuts - 1/3 cup - 1/2 cup

Method:

In a sauce pan, heat oil. When hot, add mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add broken chillies, curry leaves, hing. Mix it for a few seconds. Add all the vegetables now. Add turmeric, some salt and mix well. You can add some water and cover the lid and let it cook. Chinese okra or heerekayi cooks very fast that it hardly needs more than 5 minutes. Meanwhile, grind peanuts and rasam powder in a mixie. You can add some water to make a smooth paste or leave it like a powder. I like the paste better since it blends very well with the whole mixture. Once the vegetables are cooked, add this paste, jaggery, tamarind extract and mix well. Boil for a few minutes till jaggery is dissolved and the raw smell is gone. Adjust the seasonings if necessary and turn off the heat. You can control the consistency of this gravy by adding desired amount of water. I make it thin if I am serving with rice and thick if serving with rotis.

Tips:

If you do not want to use rasam powder, you could just use red chilli powder but add some cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds to the oil along with mustard seeds. You could try adding some coriander - cumin powder too.

Happy Cooking!! Pin It