Tangy Ladies Fingers. A rather exotic sounding name for a dish, isn’t it? Well, I am not good in giving names to recipes which I create or experiment with but this would do. For this dish, I have stayed away from using sambal to cook ladies fingers (okra) but have opted for something which even children can eat. It tastes sweet and tangy due to the use of sugar and calamansi juice. The use of fried shallots give it a nice smoky aroma and fish sauce complements it well.

Most importantly, this dish is easy to cook and is fuss free. I suppose the time taken to slice the okra (ladies fingers) is longer than the actual time to cook this dish. Do use a really hot wok as you will need to cook this dish very quickly to maintain the okra’s crunchiness.

This is my recipe for Tangy Ladies Fingers

Ingredients

• 200 grammes ladies fingers (cut off ends and slice it thinly about 5 mm thick)
• 5 shallots (sliced thinly)
• 10 grammes of dried prawns (pre-rinsed)
• 50 ml hot water
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil

Seasoning

• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• juice from 2 pieces of calamansi lime
• a pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Method

Heat oil in wok and saute shallots. Just as shallots are turning brown, add dried prawns. Stir well till shallots begin to turn brown. Then add ladies fingers.

Stir evenly and add seasoning whilst sprinkling water to keep it ladies fingers from burning.

Dish up and serve.