Dahi Bhindi (Lady Finger in Creamy Yogurt Gravy)

I dont remember when i fell in love with okra but I am glad i did. Okra/Bhindi/Lady Finger is one of the few vegetable which is loved by everyone, i have not seen a single person who doesnt like okra. Personally i love okra stir fried with onions, serve them hot with rotis drizzled with ghee and its perfect and satifying meal. Just thinking of it makes me drool!! Today I am going to share a recipe of okra in creamy yogurt gravy. This is one of my favorite curries and if you love okra then you got to try this. I had first tasted this dish few years back at a friends house and fell for it. Over the years i have prepared this many times and always makes me want more! The taste is very much similar to Kadhi which i have posted earlier with addition of crispy okra pieces. The challenge here is to make sure you donot curdle the curd. Serve hot with little ghee drizzled and its perfect for rice or roti. The recipe below serves 4. Ingredients: 1/2 kg Okra washed,dried and chopped in 1 inch pieces 2 onions chopped finely 1 cup curd beaten 1 tbsp fresh cream (optional) 1 tsp sugar or jaggery powder 1 tsp ginger paste 1 tsp amchur powder 1 tsp red chilli powder 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp coriander powder 1/2 tsp cumin powder 1 tsp garam masala or kitchen king masala Salt to taste Ghee and Coriander leaves for garnishing For Tempering: 2 tsp oil 1 tsp urad dal 2 dry red chillies broken 1 tsp cumin seeds 5-6 curry leaves a pinch of Asafoetida/hing 1 bay leaf

Procedure:

• In a pan heat 1 tsp oil and add the chopped okras, cover them on medium heat until light browned and crispy on the edges. Turn off the heat and keep aside.
• In another pan heat 2 tsp oil for tempering, add mustard seeds, urad dal, red chillies, hing, curry leaves and bay leaf. As soon as the urad dal starts getting light brown in color add in the chopped onions and fry them until translucent.
• Add in the cooked okra pieces along with the rest of the masalas. Add few tbsp of water and cook for few mins.
• Lower the heat and add in the well beaten curd and fresh cream and mix well. Again you can add few tbsp of water to achieve the required consistency.
• Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
• Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and drizzle some ghee, serve hot with rice or roti.

Eggless Vanilla Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

I am not a big fan of muffins but as I had a box of strawberries in my fridge which I had bought last week and I had to use them as they were getting spoiled, I thought why not lets make vanilla strawberry muffins, vanilla and strawberry go well together. Even while making strawberry milkshake I always add little dab of vanilla which gives nice flavor...hmmm..I love vanilla. When i started making these muffins i realized, I was out of eggs...hence made eggless version using milk and yogurt. I always used to prepare eggless cakes using milkmaid or condensed milk but somehow i dont like the flavor of condensed milk which empowers the cake, on the other hand yogurt is an excellent binding agent and it also helps to make the cake moist. I have used plain yogurt here but you can also use vanilla yogurt. The strawberries which i had bought were not very sweet, to make them sweeter, I chopped them fine and added little sugar to it and kept it aside for few mins, you can also reduce the sugar in the recipe accordingly. Finally after making the batter, I added few chocolate chips and wow the results were surprisingly good....I took these muffins to a friends place and they were gone in seconds..:) The recipe made 12 medium sized muffins.

This is my entry to the event Egg substitute - Yogurt/Buttermilk hosted by Madhuram, you can find the event details here

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of All purpose Flour

1/2 cup sugar (I have reduced sugar little as I had added sugar in strawberries as well)

1/2 cup yogurt

1 - 2 tbsp milk

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup butter at room temperature

2/3 cup strawberries finely cut

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

Procedure:

• Preheat the oven at 180 degree C.
• Sieve all purpose flour, baking soda and baking powder together and keep it aside.
• Beat butter and sugar together until creamy.
• Add yogurt in the butter and sugar mixture and beat well.
• Add the dry ingredients in the yogurt mixture along with milk little at a time and beat well. Check the consistency, donot use the entire milk if not required. Sometimes yogurt may be very thin because of which you may not require all the milk given in the recipe.
• Finally add vanilla essence, chopped strawberries and chocolate chips.

• Mix gently, donot overbeat as the strawberries may get mushy.
• Grease the muffin pan or fill them with paper liners.
• Fill in the each muffin mold upto 3/4 level.

• Bake them for 25 to 30 mins, until a knife inserted comes out clean.
• Remove the muffins from oven and cool them completely on wire rack.
• Serve them with cold milk or enjoy them like I do with jam... :)

The muffins turned out to be moist, not too sweet and just perfect for my taste. You can skip chocolate chips and add any other dry fruits of your choice.