Stir-fried spicy okra

It is okra season right now, and the farmers' market has great fresh okra on sale. I grabbed a pound to make it "like mom used to make"[*].

You'll need:

• 1 lb okra
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 medium red onion, sliced lengthwise in thin long slices
• 1/2 tsp "amchur" powder, or 1/2 tsp tamarind, or 1 medium tomato
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground coriander powder
• salt to taste
• 2-3 tbsp cooking oil

Cut the okra in the 1cm thick slices thusly: chop off the bottom (hard) part, and about 1/2 inch off the tip first; and then slice it up into rings about 1cm thick. Keep wiping your knife's blade so that the gooey stuff doesn't stick around (har har).

Heat up some oil in a wok. When it's warm, add the garlic and stir them around for 30 seconds. Then add the sliced onions, stir them around. Add the salt to the onions so that they'll release their water and become tender sooner. Reduce the heat to medium, and cover the wok. Every 30 seconds or so, open the lid, stir the onions, and cover 'em again. Keep at it till the onions are well done and tender.

Add the sliced okra to the wok. Stir it around gently, making sure you give all pieces a chance to experience the bottom of the wok. After about 4-5 minutes of this, add the dry spices: the turmeric, red chilli powder and ground coriander. Mix everything around so that the spices are distributed evenly. After a minute or so of mixing, cover the wok and reduce the heat a little. You want the okra to steam a little so that they get cooked. Every 2 minutes or so, quickly open the lid, stir everything and scrape off the dried spices from the bottom, and close the lid. You may reduce the heat some more if you notice a lot of sticking to the bottom. Soon the okra will feel tender. Then, open the lid and continue the process: now you want to dry them out to reduce the sticky stuff. After 10 minutes or so, it's time to add the sour stuff (the "amchur" powder or the tamarind or the tomato). This brings it all together. Keep stirring occasionally, and after 5 minutes or so (longer if you used the tomato), turn off the heat, close the lid and let it sit for some time. This gives the spices time to get to know each other and make friends.

A note about the amchur: it is essentially dried young mangoes, powdered. It is very sour. One should not eat too much of it, as it is very acidic. You can get a 100gm box of amchur powder at an Indian store for $1.99, and it'll last you years. If you don't have amchur, you can use tamarind too. As a last resort, a tomato will do too; you'll just have to cook the okra some more in the open to dry it out, since the tomato has a lot of liquid.

[*] Note: this is not strictly mom's recipe; it is inspired by mom's cooking.