Okra

I cook it every time I get my hands on it ~~ not easy around here.

I grew some last year. It likes lots of sun, heat, and water.

Pookie, boiled okra is pretty limp and has that "slime" that some people object to and some people (me ) like.

If you ever get it again, try this: using oil or a butter&oil combo, gently fry the whole small or cut-up okra. As they cook, they'll begin to throw off the slime -- first getting wet, then looking white, and finally becoming "dry". If they're nice young tender okra, they'll still be bright green at the end of cooking.

Cooked as above, they could then be put into gumbo or other soup towards the end of the soup's cooking time.

You can also remove them from the skillet in which they were cooked -- the oil doesn't absorb into them! -- and fry some chopped onions quite well, then add chopped tomatoes and fry them until they're dry. Add the okra back into the other ingredients, along with any herb(s) you'd like to use plus salt & pepper. Toss and heat it through. This is good served cold or at room temperature.

That's how my grandmother made them.

Bixa I might have to have another go at them with that recipe. I like just about every vegetable but this one has me undecided.I don't often see them fresh ,mainly frozen.

When I was doing my Wiki stuff, I did see that okra had become very popular in India and Pakistan. Of course my former Pakistani colleague always referred to them by that name "ladyfingers."

The famous gumbo of the U.S. Deep South and particularly New Orleans is particularly slimy due to the okra, and that's the way we love it.

Not slimy? Then why do they sell "gumbo filé" (sassafras powder) to make it even slimier if the okra has not done the trick. Slimy is good.

I'm sure I wouldn't want to eat your dry, crunchy, dusty gumbo, Bixa.

Pouahhhh!!! No way!

HW, it should grow beautifully in that climate. Can you get seeds? I had to bring my seeds here from the US, but it's so worth it!

I say food porn ;D

I'll be happy to, Pookie. Lemme gather my thoughts & write something down & you'll have something lovely & non-slimy to serve your family.

child.

Hadn't thought of the seed option, will see.

I've had gumbo here but it wasn't really slimy.

I've been intrigued by southern/ Cajun cooking since I first read about 'blackened red fish' lots of years ago in Time magazine.

Anyway, the place that has gumbo also has jambalaya but I've not had it yet.

Back to okra, you all have dirty minds. It's just a sweet innocent vegetable!

The slime of okra would probably make them a good casing for organic suppositories.

I had okra the other day for dinner.
My girlfriend doesn't really know how to prepare (they were young and still small but she still cut them lengthwise) it but she knows I like it so she bought some at the market.
She also got some young watermelons (really young, just about 2 inches in diameter), small round green aubergines and a regional bean type (looks nothing like beans).

Then she prepared the shrimp paste (kapi, similar to balacan and trasi from Malaysia and Indonesia) dip.

It looked somewhat like in the picture except we didn't have the mini- mackerel but a different, bigger fish. The beans are on the right (with the frilly edges) and on the left (already cooked with a drop of oil to give it a sheen, it's not milk):

thank youuuuu!