Okra ... this misterious thing!

It all started when Ernst saw some okras at the local Asian shop and convinced me to buy them ... after a week languishing in the fridge, I took the courage with both hands and looked up a recipe on the internet ... my first (and last) port of call was a German/English website from a fellow traveller, who also happens to be an excellent cook ... the original recipe is to be found on the following link:

http://www.lotusartichoke.com/sindhi-bhindi-masala/

Okras are a bit tricky, as I don't really know what they exactly are and I had never cooked them before, although I happened to eat them both in India and in Cambodia ... they can get a bit sticky if handled wrongly, therefore, I was a bit weary of them at first, but Justin's recipe of a "dry curry" somehow manages to get the best out of them ...

It's - again.- very straight forward ... I starting by frying some black mustard seeds in olive oil until they popped, then added some dry curry leaves, cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli, onion and garlic (the recipe called for asafoetida or hing, which is impossible to find in Austria, so I just skipped it) ... at this point, my kitchen smelled a bit like Bombay but the fragrance from the wok was incredible ... then I added the chopped okras and some chopped tomatoes (not too much, as I didn't really wanted a sauce to develop, just some fluids to cook the okras with) ... when the whole lot was almost cooked, I added some water and chickpea flour, to make the remaining liquid a bit thick ... salt, pepper, some chopped coriander (omnipresent in my fridge) and voilà ... as I forgot to cook some rice to go with it, I simply accompanied it with some wholegrain bread ... I can assure you that it took us three minutes flat to finish our plates!