Bheeda par Eeda – Parsi Eggs on Okra

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This one pot recipe is perfect for lazy mid-week meals, when you are fed up of all your usual stuff & not really in a mood to cook a whole elaborate lunch/dinner for your family. It’s still full of protein & so filling enough with bread/rotis without the effort of chopping too many veggies. In fact, I call this my go-to recipe when I’m out of dinner ideas (which is almost every day) & nothing seems to appeal to me. Have you experienced that often before yourself?!! I’m already hearing a lot of Yeahs!! Ha ha!

One can write a book just on the Parsi obsession with eggs or Eeda! They occupy a fairly large place in their daily routine meals & taste just as scrumptious as appetizers, dinner, or in the form of custards & puddings. Being high on protein, they also ensure to keep you full for longer as compared to carbohydrates or vitamins too as per scientific research conducted some time ago.

In fact, eggs are added on top of almost everything, be it Tomata-Kanda par Eeda (onion tomato), Papeta par Eeda (potatoes), Masoor par Eeda (whole brown lentils/sabut masoor dal), Methi par Eeda (fenugreek leaves) or even unique ones such as banana or raw mango & onions with eggs.

Did you know that in fact eggs are in fact considered just as auspicious as a coconut is, in Hindu customs & traditions, & so on any special occasion, an egg is waved around the head of their special guests/ new couples while entering their home & then broken on the side to ward off the evil eye? That explains it all, I guess!

To get back to the point, beautiful & slightly charred small bits of okra, onions & garlic, let out a superb sweet crunchy taste when you bite into one of these morsels, before the creamy taste of the perfectly poached & non runny, not fully hardened egg, engulfs your taste buds & fuzzies up your head. That’s right, just before you reach a blissful state!! There are hardly any spices here, so it’s just these simple minimal tastes in your mouth!

I’m not too much of an egg person as the odour puts me off, however, these few egg dishes that I will share with you during the course of time are the special ones that I truly savour & in fact look forward to eating /cooking. I do hope you will enjoy them just as much. I’d better get going now & leave you to trying out this quick recipe for your next lazy dinner. Ciao!

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Recipe for Bheeda par Eeda – Parsi Eggs on Okra

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Notes:

• It is advisable to keep the eggs out for a while before cooking to bring them to room temperature. Usually takes about 2-3 minutes to poach your eggs perfectly depending on the size, number of eggs & the temperature.
• The more garlic bits you add to this recipe, the more superb burnt garlic flavour you will get.
• This recipe hardly uses any spices, so the sweet flavour of the charred onion & okra comes out beautifully through this recipe in every bite, leaving you craving for more always.
• Do not add any water to this vegetable while cooking. It will cook perfectly in the steam.
• Read on for further notes on handling the okra before cutting:
  • Just remember to select the thin long dark-green coloured ones while buying & cut away any parts that look black/worm infested.
  • Avoid the thick yellowed ones with cuts/spots on them and the already soft & shrunk ones are no good either.
  • While the regular size seeds are definitely edible, avoid the really fat large seeds that truly overpower the taste & texture.
  • It is advisable to cook the okra as soon as possible after buying it as it does not stay too well beyond 2-3 days in the refrigerator, reacting unfavourably to moisture.
  • Residual water or moisture on the okra is what causes the slimy texture to come through, so ensure to wipe each piece clean & dry.

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