When I last visited Edinburgh to see my best friend Sarah, we ate out at a wonderful Indian street food restaurant called Dishoom. My favourite dish that we tried were their okra fries and this weekend I finally got round to making them. Please don’t take my recipe as gospel, I had to do a fair few batches to try and recreate my Dishoom memory, so use it as a guide and feel free to make your own adjustments. We don’t have a deep fat fryer which would make them more ‘fry like’ and crispier but I think using the oven gives a pretty good result too. These make a great lunch, sharing starter or are also good to have with a beer in the sun.
Ingredients
Serves 4 or 2 for lunch
For the okra fries:
300g okra
1 egg
2-3 tbsp gram flour
1 tsp smooth mango chutney
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garam masala
Pinch of salt
A good glug of rapeseed/vegetable oil
For the yoghurt dip:
5 tbsp greek style yoghurt
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp smooth mango chutney
Squeeze of lemon juice to taste
Salt to taste
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Prepare a tray by lining it with greaseproof paper and drizzling it with rapeseed or vegetable oil. Put the tray into the oven to heat through.
- Wash the okra and cut in half lengthwise.
- To make the batter, mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and add in the egg. Mix to combine well. The batter should be a fairly thick coating consistency so adjust accordingly by adding a little more gram flour or loosen it with some water.
- Drop the okra halves into the bowl and fully coat with the batter.
- Get the tray out of the oven and place the okra on the tray, making sure there is enough space between each okra half.
- Cook for 10-15 minutes until they are crisp and golden brown.
- Meanwhile, make your yoghurt dip by combining all the ingredients and seasoning to taste.
- Once the okra fries are out of the oven, leave them to stand for about 3-5 minutes as as they cool a little, they crisp up further. Before serving, sprinkle with some coarse sea salt.
- Serve with the yoghurt dip. Enjoy!
