Chinese Style Okra Fry

About a year ago on a fine day, I arranged a small gathering of friends at our home. The theme of the meal plan was chinese and I included almost easy, many indian based chinese recipes into the menu.

Ofcourse, Gobi Manchurian is one of them since it has been known/tasted by many people. I personally like this indo-chinese recipe. I love the way it is prepared especially the dry version. The crispy cauliflower florets deep fried and slightly coated in the sauce, which gives a nice crunchy taste, a bit chewy with balanced saucy taste makes it an awesome snack. Though it not a pure chinese recipe it can be termed as a fusion recipe, it still won the show amidst other recipes that we had.

A week later after the get together, I was quickly going through my fridge to buy some vegetables for the upcoming week and I noticed a huge quantity of okra/ladies finger which had been sitting idle for about a week. Making a Okra puli kulambu would make use of only few and my husband doesn’t prefer to have stir fries when he sees other options being available. So I planned to make okra fry just like cauliflower manchurian. It turned out to be good and since then I started makeing it often.

Any one who doesn’t prefer to eat okras will definetely fall in love with this dish.The fried okra itself, tasted good before I sauted it with sauces. Worth a Try!!!

Basic Information:

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Servers: 4

Ingredients:

For deep frying okra:

Okra / ladies finger – 250 grams

All purpose flour- 1/4 cup

Corn starch – 2 tablespoons

Salt – to taste

Ginger garlic paste – 1 teaspoon

Soy sauce – 1/2 tablespoon

Water – 1 tablespoon, only when required

Oil – for deep frying

For the Final Sauting:

Oil – 2 tablespoons

Green chillies – 3 nos.,

Red onion – 2 medium size, finely chopped

Ginger garlic paste – 1 teaspoon

Salt – to taste

Ground white pepper / black pepper – 1/2 teaspoon

Soy sauce – 1 and 1/2 tablespoons

Tomato sauce – 2 tablespoons

Method:

1) Wash the okra/ladies finger well and wipe using kitchen towel. You can also spread it in kitchen towel and allow it to dry.

2) Chop it finely as shown in the picture. Let it dry for sometime.

3) In a wide bowl, add all purpose flour, corn starch, salt, ginger garlic paste, soy sauce and finally chopped okra. Mix well. If required, add a teaspoon of water and mix well.

4) Deep fry in batches till it becomes crisp.

5) In another or same kadai, add 2 tablespoons of oil.

6) Add finely chopped greenchillies and red onion. Saute till it becomes very soft.

7) Add ginger garlic paste and continue sauteing it the raw smell goes off.

8) Add soy sauce, tomato sauce, white pepper and salt. Mix well.

9) After few seconds, add the fried okra and toss it well for few seconds.

10) Serve hot with any of your favorite chinese main dish.

Notes:

1) You can skip green chilli and add greenchilli paste instead. Since I love fried green chillies, I added them.

2) Deep fry okra is good to have if you sprinkle some red chilli on it.

3) Mix the fried okra with the manchurian sauces just before serving. Otherwise it becomes soggy.