Bhindi Gosht - (Lamb & Okra Curry)

Pakistanis have a bit (A LOT) of a reputation for just not being OK with vegetables. Going to get real with you here, but growing up if my Mum ever cooked vegetables on their own and served it WITHOUT a meaty accompaniment, it would be quite a rare day. Didn't happen often. We just LOVE throwing in some good ol' red meat or chicken into our pure, wholesome veggies, like in this Bhindi Gosht recipe.

We like to justify our meat usage innocently - when we cook it with vegetables, we reassure ourselves 'It's all good and healthy, LOOK THERE'S OKRA IN HERE', or 'i=It's a good way to get some vegetables in' - some even openly claim they would never eat whichever vegetable concerned if it wasn't cooked with meat! Other examples of such vegetable and meat curries include Karela Gosht, Phali Gosht, Palak Murgh.

So as I write this, we're in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. My local Tesco has pretty much been annihilated thanks to people panic buying. I could only get my hands on a handful of fresh vegetable items which were of the more 'exotic' variety, including this here masoom okra, known as Bhindi in Urdu and Hindi. Unfortunately, couldn't even get my hands on some potatoes - my initial plan was to make a standard Aloo Gosht on this fateful day. However once I came across the packets of okra, vacant and homeless, I had an epiphany - 'I haven't made Bhindi Gosht in AN ABSOLUTE AGE!' *adds to basket, which is empty because everyone has stock-piled everything and I can't even do a basic shop*

(And in case anyone is wondering, nope my local Tesco didn't have any tissue or hand sanitiser)

I used to cook Bhindi Gosht often in the early days of my marriage. It's just something that has slipped out of my routine and now that I've revisited it after so long, I have vowed to pick up that often overlooked packet of okra more often.

I learnt a great tip for this - I can't remember from where - which is to ensure the ratio of meat is roughly double to that of the okra. Additionally, I learnt the ratio of onions and tomatoes should be pretty similar to the okra too. If this all sounds very mathematical, don't worry - all the quantities are here in the recipe so you don't need to do any calculations.

🥄 Method

Here's a walk through of the method, including pictures. As always, the full recipe, including quantities, are listed at the bottom of the post.

To prep the okra, wash it well, then allow it to air-dry before trimming the ends off. Cut it into halves, as shown in the images below. If your okra is particularly short, you don't have to halve it.

We start off by frying some chopped okra in oil. This helps get rid of the slimy consistency that is off-putting for some. If you don't feel too bothered about the slimy texture, feel free to skip this stop.

Once the okra is lightly golden, remove it from the oil using a slotted spoon and set aside for later.

In the same oil, add some sliced onions. Fry these over a medium/high heat, until they take on a slight gold colour. Not too much - we don't need to meticulously brown them for this recipe.

Next up, add your meat. ginger and garlic.

Fry this until the meat no longer remains pink. Once you've got there, add in tomatoes, spices, and water as needed (again, quantities are all at the bottom of the post!). Bring to a boil, cover with a lid and then cook on a low heat for 1hr for lamb, and 1hr 45 mins+ for mutton - it's ready when it's cooked through, but not super tender (otherwise it'll start to shred in the next steps).

Uncover - the meat should look like the image on the left below.

Add in some oil and turn the heat up high - we're going to start bhoon-ing, i.e., sautéing this over a high heat, drying out any excess water. Keep on going, stirring constantly, until the mixture looks glossy, thick and the oil has risen to the top, like in the picture below on the right.

Add in the reserved okra from earlier, alongside some sliced onions and a small bit of water, just to loosen things up. Cover and cook this over a low heat for 10-15 minutes, to allow the onions to soften and all the flavours to meld into the okra + onions.

Fin. Garnish with fresh coriander before serving!

⭐ Tips and tricks

1. As always, use fresh wherever possible! That includes the tomatoes, ginger, garlic, coriander and of course okra. I understand fresh okra isn't always available everywhere year round, therefore just try your best to get whatever you can find fresh and make-do with what you can't
2. Bhindi has a tendency to get slimy. To eliminate this, we fry it on its own before adding it to the curry - this helps get some of the slime out. I have actually tried making this without frying it in the beginning - whilst I don't advocate or recommend this, you CAN do it if you are super rushed for time or aren't too bothered about the sliminess
3. Pro tip: Wash your okra as soon as you bring it home, then let it air dry completely before you cut it and fry it. Why? When you begin to cut okra when it's semi wet or if you first chop and then wash, the slime really comes out in full force - the moisture has this tendency to make the slime worse. If you can't air dry it, dry it completely with a tissue.
4. I use paprika or Kashmiri red chilli powder in this and a lot of my dishes because it gives a vibrant red colour without adding too much heat - something that helps bring some life into the look of the curry. Should you not have this, regular red chilli powder will suffice too but remember to reduce the quantity!
5. The ratio here is, as mentioned above, double the amount of meat as okra. You can totally play around with these quantities! If you want more okra, try doubling the amount of okra and x0.5 the rest of the ingredients except the meat.
6. I really enjoy having Bhindi Gosht cooked with red onions added in at the end. It just adds a lovely sweetness and colour. This particular time I didn't have any red onions (thank you, COVID-19 stock-pilers!) but if you do have them to hand definitely do use them for the 2nd time onions are called for in the recipe

On to the recipe!

Enjoy, with love x

📋 Recipe

Bhindi Gosht Recipe - Okra with Lamb / Mutton Curry

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 25 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 25 minutes minutes

Servings: 3 servings

4.50 from 61 votes

Print Rate

Ingredients

0.5x1x2x3x

• ½ cup (125 ml) oil
• 6 oz (175 g) fresh okra washed and chopped into 1" segments with heads and tails chopped off
• 1 (150 g) medium-sized onion
• 0.8 lb (350 g) lamb or mutton, bone in
• 2 (175 g) small tomatoes, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• small chunk of ginger minced (about 1 tbsp)
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoon coriander powder
• 2 teaspoon paprika/kashmiri red chilli powder
• 2 teaspoon salt or to taste
• 0.5 teaspoon turmeric
• ½ (75 g) a medium sized onion, finely sliced to add at the end
• chopped coriander for garnishing

Instructions

• In a deep pot, heat up the oil. Add your chopped okra and fry this for 5 minutes on a medium/high heat, until the okra begins to get lightly golden.
• Remove the okra using a slotted spoon and set aside
• Remove half the oil from the pot (you can re-use this oil for any future cooking)
• Add in your onions. Fry these lightly on a medium high heat until they begin to turn translucent.
• Add the meat, garlic and ginger, Fry this up, stirring often, until the meat is no longer pink.
• Add all the spices, tomatoes and 375ml/1.5 cup of water for lamb OR 750ml/3 cups water for mutton.
• Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer this on low for 1hr for lamb OR 1hr 45 mins for mutton. Keep checking in between, just to make sure there is enough water and nothing is burning (this shouldn't happen, but just in case!).
• Take off the lid. There should be a bit of moisture in the pot.
• Turn the heat to high and dry this moisture off, stirring constantly. You want to keep doing this until the gravy begins to catch at the pan unless you scrape it off and the oil begins to separate from the curry.
• Add the reserved okra, the onions which were to add at the end and 125ml/1/2 cup of water.
• Turn the heat down to a low, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
• Garnish with coriander just before serving. Enjoy!

Notes

I've written the amounts of tomato and onion in grams in this recipe because it is often difficult to interpret the quantity based on just describing it as small, medium or large. For reference, 175g onion is about 2 medium onions and 175g tomatoes is one large tomato.

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