Dry-Fried Masala Okra

I wanted to recreate the okra dish at Sultan Restaurant in San Francisco, so I posted on chowhound to get some advice about it. Here's a link to my post:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/586773

Here's the recipe I made. It came out great. I think I will continue to experiment with different spice combinations, but this was a good start for sure.

1/2 lb okra (2 cups) - cut diagonally into bite-sized pieces
3 T veg oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 c finely chopped onion
1 T minced garlic
1 T minced ginger
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 small jalapeno chile
sprinkle of fried garlic

Make sure that the okra is completely dry before cooking - this means that if you need to wash it, you have to do that way ahead of time and then dry it on paper towels. I just decided not to wash mine (yum. dirt.)

In a wok, heat oil on medium, add mustard seeds until they start popping, and then add the turmeric, cumin, and coriander. Stir the spices into the oil for a minute, then add onions, ginger, and garlic. Stir fry these together until onions get soft...the mixture will also start to turn brown and a bit crispy, which is good.

Once onions are mostly cooked, add the okra, garam masala and the jalapeno. Cook until the okra are tender (I did a combination of covered and uncovered wok). Make sure to minimize the stirring as much as possible so the okra doesn't get gummy, but stir enough so that the okra doesn't burn. The cooking will take about 7 minutes.

Turn off heat, and add salt (1/2 tsp made it quite salty - this can be toned down a bit if you prefer less salty). I think it's important to add salt at the end because adding it too early will extract water, which will make it gummy.

Done! I served the okra w/ some homemade daal, rice and mango chutney. Yum

Beer-Can Chicken

I originally heard about this recipe for the grill, but since it's snowy and freezing here, we decided to try it out in the oven. If I had had some aluminum foil, I probably would have used it to make a tent. We added some potatoes to the baking dish, and these would have been better were there something trapping the moisture in the pan. All in all, the most moist chicken I've ever had.

Easy
Prep: 15 min; Cook: 2 hours

If starting with frozen chicken, defrost for 3 days in refrigerator.

• 3 - 4 pound whole chicken
• any spices you want - I used s/p, paprika and garlic cloves
  
• 1 12-14 oz can beer

PREHEAT oven to 400 degrees F. - rack on bottom.

REMOVE any innards or other items from inside of the chicken.

RINSE the chicken inside and out in cold, running water.

OPTIONAL: seal neck of chicken with skewer (shown) for gravy, seal neck, for moister chicken, leave open.

RUB the chicken, inside and out with your choice of spices.

OPEN a standard can of cheap beer (i used PBR), punch a few extra holes, and quaff off about 1/4 of the beer.

ADD 2 TBSP rub or spice to beer can.

PLACE beer can on ovenproof pan or dish (this allows the chicken to cook indirectly and catches the juices if you want to make gravy.

ARRANGE chicken on beer can, allow the two legs to form two sides of tripod so chicken is stable (picture).

WHEN oven is ready (400 degrees), place chicken on pan or plate on bottom rack. Some cooks 'tent' the bird with foil for the first hour or so to prevent over-browning.

REDUCE oven to 350 degrees after 1/2 hour. BEST when chicken cooks 1 1/2 - 2 hours - check visually after about 1/2 hour and rotate the chicken in a half circle to cook evenly, should brown slowly and evenly.

WHEN chicken is ready, using tongs and oven glove if necessary to separate chicken and beer can, carefully remove to separate platter. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.

REMOVE ovenproof pan or dish, and pour in any remaining beer, stirring, if make a sauce.