Beat the heat with awesome okra

This simple and savoury okra, straight off a pot from a construction site, can grace any table 

There are some recipes — so simple and elegant — that they just take your breath away. You savour them and fall under their spell and begin to wonder why and how you hadn’t encountered these earlier. We had this experience last week but let’s begin at the beginning. The morning sun was uncomfortably hot, indicating that the day was going to be a scorcher. The migrant construction workers employed at the site where our dream house was coming up in Gurgaon were busy cooking their lunch. What was simmering in the pot appeared most intriguing — whole bhindi — sans any masala. The aroma being released was enticing. When the middle-aged man stirring the pot called out to his comrades to get ready to eat, we couldn’t resist asking, "When will the spices be added?" He just smiled and said, "No need. The subzi is done."

No haldi, no dhania, no lal mirch, forget the more expensive jeera and garam masala. By now, the cook-cum-foreman realised that we were ‘hooked’. He generously invited us to have a bite. The bhindi was tender, succulent and could be ‘tasted’ as it should be, on its own. No onions or tomatoes overpowered it.

We couldn’t rest till the recipe from the rich repertoire of the poor was ‘gifted’ to us. We share it gratefully with our dear readers this week. We have had okra aka lady’s finger in myriad ways — as bhaja and dopyaja, with alu and bharwan, even cold in dahi, achari and in curry avatar, dum ki Hyderabadi or ethnic Parsi with eggs but believe us, lehsuni puts them all in shade. Great for the hot Indian summer.

The construction workers have since moved to some other site but we shall always gratefully remember them whenever we treat ourselves and our guests to lehsuni bhindi.

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