Okra (is not my friend)
May 25, 2007
I hate to admit it, but there is a vegetable out there that, to this date, I cannot say that I love with all the fervor I have for other green things. I have avoided cooking okra for some time now. The Baking Fool hates okra (even as a vegetarian), and so I never attempted to cook it for her. But on my most recent trip to Sunflower Market (so much cheaper than Whole Foods), I was sucked in by the pretty presentation of okra in little black boxes so I had to try it - just to see - just to make sure I didn't despise it as much as I imagined.
I decided to try a quick and light sautee of chopped okra in olive oil and spiced with curry powder to go neatly over a bed of Near East Mediterranean Couscous. While the smell was amazing, it was the texture of this oddball vegetable that really made my face green. I long dismissed Baking Fool's comments that okra was slimey and mushy as exaggerations stemming from bad experiences eating okra out of a can or in soup.
Boy was I wrong. First, let me just note that of the 8 cookbooks I own, not a single one had any reference to okra, much less an entire recipe devoted to it. So what is it with this okra that makes people avoid it? Here is my theory: texture. I had the most fresh and crisp okra you could imagine, but the seeds have a thick almost alien like coating of slime on them that makes the vegetable an odd juxtoposition of firm outside and oatmeal-like inside (I loathe cooked oatmeal). Making the texture even more repulsive was that the outer part of the vegetable is covered in tiny hairs it seems that make eating the okra akin to sucking on a hairy eyeball. So while the flavor would have been wonderful, the creeping slime of the okra seeds and hairy flesh ruined my so-called virgin okra experience.
I've given okra a really bad rap so far, so let me give you some facts about okra from Wikipedia: "Abelmoschus esculentus, commonly known as okra or lady's finger, is a flowering plant valued for its edible green fruits. The name okra is of West African origin . . . It was introduced to the United States via the African slave trade route, and is an annual crop in the southern states." It continues:
"[Okra] is cultivated throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions of the world for its fibrous fruits containing round, white seeds. The fruits are harvested when immature and eaten as a vegetable."Now I know most of you are not dependent on your texture taste buds to determine good flavor, so I will say, (so as not to offend the vegetable family generally) that you should give this simple recipe a whirl if you have some couscous lying around your cupboard.
You will need:
- 2 cloves of crushed garlic
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 c washed and chopped okra - stems removed
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- Coucous (I use instant from Near East, found in grocer's aisle by rice)
Step one: Rinse the okra, remove stems, and slice.
Step Two: In a saute pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil and garlic. Toast garlic until just slightly brown. Add okra and curry powder. Toss in pan cooking for about 4-6 minutes.
Step Three: Prepare couscous according to directions on the box. Serve okra over bed of cous cous and try not to wince when you eat!
