Okra Pepper fry - Vendakkai fry

Serves 2

This one's also from my mom's kitchen and is  a family favourite. I'm a big fan of okra and I simple love this dish with curd rice.The way my Mom chops the okra is what makes this dish unique.She wouldn't even use a cutting board she would chop it with the knife in no time. I've found that using a cutting board makes the chopping difficult.Guess those kind of cutting skills used by women of the previous generation is lost these days.Our generation is so Gadget dependent that we don't nourish our natural in-born skills.All that said I was looking for a good vegetable chopper on amazon yesterday,guess that's how our generation is :) This dish tastes great when freshly pounded pepper powder is used.I have a small pepper mill which works great for dishes of this sort.

Ingredients:
Okra - 150 g
Onion - 1 medium (sliced thinly)
oil - 1-2  tbsp
cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Pepper Powder - 2 -3 tsp ( can be more or less)
Salt - 1 tsp or as needed

Method:

-Clean the Okra and pat it dry.Make sure there's no moisture.Trim the crown and the end.To cut it hold it in your hand and put a cross slit on it all the way ,up till little before the end.Then cut the whole okra into two or three pieces.Slice the onion thinly.
-Add the oil to a pan,once it heats splutter the cumin seeds.Add the okra and the onion together and mix well so that they get coated with oil.
-Add around 1 tsp of salt and the coarsely ground pepper powder and mix well.
-Now saute on low heat until cooked,around 10 - 15 minutes.
-You can leave it on the stove and just stir it often.Frying on low flame helps in retaining the colour of the okra.

Note:
Make sure that the okra is dry before frying,else it tends to get gooey.You can add one tsp of curd while frying to remove the sticky nature of the vegetable.Fresh Okras are the best for this dish.

Sending to Walk through memory lane and Gaythri's page,Tomato Blues,Radhika's Page and
Mother's Day Event- Mummy ka Magic