Lady's Finger in Gram Flour

Gram flour or besan as it is known in India, is chick peas flour.  It can be used in food to thicken the curries and also adds a nice flavor and used widely in bhajjas which are deep fried dumplings with some vegetables and spices and eaten as snacks.  I have very fond memories of bhajjas.  I remember as a child, during the monsoons my mom would send me sometimes to the nearby shop where there was this guy who would sit in the shed and fry onion or chilli bhajjas and would tie them in old newspaper to carry away.  Eating these hot snacks was the best thing one could do in the heavy monsoons.

Lady's finger can sometimes have worms and when you cut them in rings you find the ones which are bad and discard them.  However, in this recipe the lady's finger is almost whole with only slits at the top and bottom.  So you need to be careful to make sure when you cut the slits to see that there are no worms.  

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Serves 4

Chick Peas paste

Ingredients:

100 gms lady’s finger

1 ½ cups gram flour

¼ tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp cumin powder

A few springs of curry leaves

A few springs of coriander leaves, cut fine

¼ cup water

Salt and chilli powder to taste

3 tbsp Oil 

Stuffed Lady's Finger

Method:

Top and tail the lady’s finger.  Make two slits on each one.  Mix all the other ingredients (except curry leaves) using 1 tbsp of the oil to make a thick paste.  Fill each lady’s finger with the paste.  Heat pan on a low fire.  Add the remaining oil to the pan.  When oil is hot, add the curry leaves.  After they stop spluttering, add the lady’s finger to the pan.  Keep turning it over gently, making sure that the gram flour does not stick to the pan.  After the lady’s finger is cooked lightly, pour ¼ cup water into the pan.  Cover and cook on low flame for 5 minutes.  Can be served as a side dish with chappatis.