Discovering okra the delicious way
If you’re a mom like me, you constantly worry about developing healthy eating habits for your kids. How do you get the little munchkins to eat their vegetables? (And I am not including french fries in this challenge.) Drop us a comment and share your tips, but first check out my story about okra and a new recipe I created. (My 9-month-old baby totally loves this!)
As a kid, much to the joy of my parents, I loved okra, the vegetable that’s high in fiber, calcium, and iron: fuzzy on the outside and mucilaginous on the inside!
My introduction to okra was when I visited the exotic city of Ahvaz, Iran, in a stew called “koresh bamieh.” I next saw it in a less-exotic location — North Carolina — where I dined in a cafeteria called K+W, which served Southern-style fried okra. I remember the manager telling me “you gotta try those, honey; everyone around here loves them things. You ain’t a true Southerner if you don’t love Okra.” It actually took me a year or two to realize that okra and bamieh were the same vegetable!
I’ve started to tag all of my favorite okra recipes on Delicious, so follow me if you want to learn more. In addition, here are some interesting facts about okra that I’ve already discovered on Yahoo! Answers, thanks to you guys.
Finally my own koresh bamieh recipe, using eggplant instead of the traditional lamb. Bon appétit or, as they say in Iran, “noosh-e jaan,”
Ingredients:
- 2 large red onions, thinly sliced
- 4 medium sized eggplants
- 10 small yellow tomatoes
- 2 large red tomatoes
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 3 or 4 garlic cloves, minced
- Salt to taste
- Pinch of paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 cup tamarind sauce (recipe below)
- 1 pound fresh whole baby okra, washed and trimmed
- Water
Preparation:
- In a large pan, take about half (2 to 3 tablespoons) of the olive oil and sauté onions on medium heat till golden. Add turmeric and garlic, then sauté for another 5 to 7 minutes.
- Place the eggplant in the pan and brown on all sides. Add salt and pepper.
- Stir in the tamarind sauce and then cook for another 10 minutes.
- In a separate skillet, heat the rest of the olive oil and sauté the okra lightly for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the okra to the pan and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
- Stir in paprika or water, as needed.
- Serve hot with rice, yogurt, herbs, and bread.
Tamarind Sauce:
Place eight ounces of tamarind paste, with pods, in a bowl. Cover with hot water for an hour to soften. Using a spoon, a fork, or your fingers, separate the pods from the pulp to get the juice out. Add more hot water if needed. Discard the seeds and strings. Pour the tamarind liquid in a jar and add a cube of vegetable stock. Store in a cool, dry place.
Thanks for reading!
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This looks so good! I think I’ll try it, but maybe cut down on the onion. I’m yet to try okra myself but with tamarind in it, it’s sure to be yummy
Thanks for posting!
I moved to Mississippi when I was in the sixth grade and discovered okra there. It really is delicious! Try pickled okra too. It tastes like a pickle of course but still has okra texture. It’s so tasty, plus it’s low calories.
I liked your recommendations. I would like to add a couple from the single Dad section. I am a little more bachelor simple with my methodology.
Okra:
I cook okra on an indoor grill with bacon strips on top and a tad of low fat butter or margarine. Cook slowly and well. Add salt as desired.
Asparagus:
I cook fresh asparagus by grilling it on an indoor grill and recirculating a small amount of low fat butter (with the cooked out asparagus juices) as they drain into the collection bin (add salt to the juice/butter mix as desired). Pour the juices into a cup, replace the bin and pour the cup over the asparagus evenly. Repeat during cooking process at least 5 or 6 times. Cook well until the spears are soft and the flowery tips are dark. It tastes good. Get the kids to eat it by telling them it will make their pee smell bad for a while. That works almost every time.
Squash and Zuchini:
I slice these in pieces about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. I add a little cooking spray or low fat butter to a frying pan and cook very slowly on a medium heat setting…I walk up and slide the veggies around every once in a while but make sure they lay flat in the pan. I turn them two or the times during the process. When the yellow squash begin turning a deep golden color…they are done. Add salt as desired.
Green beans:
Boil them until they are very soft. Add several pinches of white granulated sugar to the water. After boiling them soft…drain the water and place the beans on an indoor grill and add a small amount of low fat butter. Recirculate the butter and water over the beans a couple times (as with the asparagus). Add salt as desired.
I hope someone out there tries one of these and enjoys it! I know we sure do.
When my son was small, he started becoming a very picky eater. I could tell this was getting out of hand, and I refused to cook him his own special meal. I also didn’t want him to go hungry. From my own experiences, I knew that the rule of “You have to try it” didn’t work. So, I made a game of it. I told him to taste and rate the food on a scale of 1-10 to SEE IF I’D COOKED IT CORRECTLY. A 1 meant that he’d only eat it if he was on a desert island and it he was starving. A 10 meant it was the best thing he’d ever eaten. This game opened his mind and made him feel like he had all the power. He tried everything—and liked it. To this day, the only things he will not eat are green peas and gravy.
I have discovered that my kids will eat almost any veggie as long as I give them Ranch dressing to dip it in!
I love Okra too! I live in the Philippines and we include it in a dish called Pinakbet, it’s really good!
This looks so good! I think I’ll try it, but maybe cut down on the onion. I’m yet to try okra myself but with tamarind in it,and its sure i will like it more to eat…
I always tell people “I like okra just steamed. Respiratory therapists are used to slime!”
But I find that if you briefly rinse the okra then squirt on some lemon juice, the slime factor is much less.
I don’t recommend any preparation of okra that isn’t either frying or dry-frying. Otherwise, it’s quite snotty.
By the way, why is the dish called khoresh bamieh? Bamieh is a word related to “bombilla”, or “bulb”. I don’t see any bulbs or even little round things in the dish.
Anyway, my favorite is bhindi masala. There are a lot of ways to prepare it, but this recipe is pretty good:
http://www.ivu.org/recipes/indian-veg/bhindi.html
However, I recommend against adding any water at the end. Bhindi (okra) masala (spicy mix) is best served relatively dry.
If you don’t have amchur powder, you can use something else like celery seed, coarsely ground pepper or coarsely ground coriander.
Also in Indian cooking, any time they call for a spice, it’s better if you roast the spices whole over low heat, then pour them into a mortar and grind them roughly, then return them to oil to saute them. Warm, freshly ground spices are much more aromatic.
good luck!
P.S. I am from the south and grew up on deep fried okra. That’s easy. Just cut okra into half-inch chunks, put in a bag with flour, corn meal, black pepper and a little alt, and the moisture inside the okra will cling to the powder. Then deep fry the okra until the breading is slightly brown.
I love okra! Thanks for the recipe.
For many people who do not love okra as much as I do, they are turned off by the sliminess. The secret to slime control is use a sharp knife and try to prevent bruising the okra.
Oh, I’m sure you’ve never had authentic southern fried okra (or, as we called it, okree). You probably had some deep fried doughy mess with a little okra stuck in the middle. That is not how real southern cooks make it. We simply cut the okra in slices, dredge it lightly in cornmeal… NOT batter… and fry it in a cast iron skillet, lightly coated with oil. HUGE difference. We had rows of okra plants and my mother cooked it 3 – 4 times a week.
Thanks for the wonderful recipe. Can’t wait to try it.
My friend is raising okra, and just found out that you can safely eat it raw. She enjoys it particularly with ranch dressing, Mange!
I love okra. Of course I live in North Carolina. Fry it with cornmeal instead of flour, and it is 100% better. I have also cooked it in vegetable soup. If your children like soup, they will eat the okra, because it gives soup a simply delicious flavor, and barley is good in it with V-8 Juice as the base. Add any other type vegetable such as corn, tomatoes, potatoes, noodles, or leftover dried beans. Serve with cornbread or crackers either one, even hushpuppies.
this is how we dont it in southern african countries.mix the okra(chopped),pumpkin leaves,baking soda n tomatoes. all at once in a pot. and u have it with pap.
it can cleanse the stomach, when i was in elementary my agriculture teacher posted okra rich in vitamin c, would you agree?
We ofter eat okra and here’s the recipe of indian okra.
First cut okra into slices then put oil into pan and fry the okra only until they have changes their color, then add onion let it fry more then add spices( corainder powder, turmeric powder, chilli powder. pinch of cumin powder) and cook till it’s fried well!
We always make okra this way and it tastes really good.
I love okra. Dry okra tests better for me. You have to cook with lamb.
I love fried ocra,cut into nickle cubes and breaded,and deep fried. Boiled ,or steamed ocra, is hard to interduce to a child because it is slimey and they think it looks like snot.,and It is good and good for you.
Okra in a trini dish called calaloo Mmm delicious .
Idiotsgetinfree is SO right. NO batter, that’s just dumb with okra, and it’s the wrong way to cook it.
Yvette, can you post the calaloo recipe? Thanks. D
Pick okra young, between 3 and 4 inches is perfect. Cut into 1/3 inch slices, throw it in a brown paper bag with cornmeal and a little salt until it is coated. Fry in a hot skillet with about 1/4 inch of oil. Don’t crowd it up in the pan, just about a layer on the bottom. Stand there, it burns easily, let it brown on one side and turn it, crispy on the outside, stir frequently while it is cooking. Drain on brown paper or paper towel, and enjoy…best way to eat cooked okra. Okra pickled, also, delicious. Use small ones.
K+W! I live in NC and that’s my favorite resteraunt. Best food on earth.
How about fried okra and fried shirmp and onions together fry some bacon put aside than fry cut up okra till it is not slimy put aside then fry shirmp oh yeh I forgot sautee your onions after bacon and set aside sorry do this all in same pan don’t use much oil so you won’t have much oil to get rid of then melt a little butter in pan add all the stuff and then add salt garlic powder not garlic salt but garlic powder and pepper and a little very little cumen. And fry that all together and serve over white rice. I bet they will ask for more. Mine do.
Fresh out of the garden, I love ‘em raw! Ranch dressing is a good idea, but you ought to try Vegenaise Original!
I am not a mum, but my friend has a trick she uses with her young daughter.
She gets a couple of carrots and she peels them, then slices them into long, very thin strips. She then lightly fries them with some vegetable oil and diced tomatoes, then takes them out and mixes them with some mixed vegetable sauce. Popping this in a bowl, and grating a bit of cheese on top, makes it look exactly like spag-bol! Her daughter loves it!
I loved the recipe. I am in North Carolina also. I only could get Tamarind sauce (kind of like for Thai noodles) but it worked and tasted great! Although, you have all these tomatoes in the recipe but no instruction on when they go into the cooking process. I suggest the end – never want to over cook tomatoes unless you want sauce or paste.
Hey, I come from an arab household in Australia and let me tell you, what we call “bamya” is the most delicious thing you’ll ever eat.
What we do is we make this really thick tomato soup with lamb bits in it with the bamya (‘okra’) and serve it with basmati rice. We usually mix in the soup with the rice and eat each spoonful with some lamb or bamya!
i, too, only recently released what Bamya was in English.
To prevent the mucilage in the okra, use baby okra and parboil it for a few minutes, rinse in cold water and then add to recipe.
Frying sliced okra will dry out the mucus.
Although i don’t remember ever being a fussy eater except for brussel sprouts, cabbage & mushrooms (which i still refuse to eat nowdays) my ma used to play a game with me where i’d close my eyes & had to guess the vegetable/food given to me.
As kids do they look at food & it LOOKS disgusting therefore they wont eat it so closing my eyes focused me on the taste. Just make a game of eating dinner & kids love it
a good recipe is spegettti, onions,garlic, parsely and pure tomato sauce…its yummy
Fried okra is the greatest! Aside from my Mom’s, the best I’ve ever eaten was at Spring Creek Barbecue in Cypress, Texas. Delicious, buttery flavor, and lightly salted. They’ll serve you either a basket of fried okra or a basket of french fries with your brisket sandwich.
I’m still trying to get my tongue to believe that anything described as “furry & mucilaginous” could be pleasant. I’ve had fried okra before, and you’re right, the center was rather mucilaginous. It’s nothing I’d like to try again. I do see why people fry it though. Just about ANYTHING tastes good fried, and disgusting okra is probably no exception.
Okra is ok. If i had somthing better to eat id eat those first. but if I dint I guess okra will do
to make okra that is not slimy all you have to do is add a tablespoon of vinegar to the water when you boil the okra. try it youll like it
OK everyone, here is one of best Okra dishes you have ever had and or will have for the next 2000 years.
2 pounds of Fresh Okra, the smaller the better.
1/3 to 1/2 pound of beef, lamb,1/2″ X 1/2″ cube… with alittle bit of fat
10-20 glove of Garlic, do not worry, there will be no bad breath.
10-16 oz. of tomato past + 2-3 cups of water.
Salt & black pepper to test, you may also use white pepper.
Heat up your none stick cooking pot, the pot that is big enough to hold all of the above,
Drop you cube size meat, it’s better to use a bit of fat as I mention above.
keep on cooking the meat until it’s golden brown, then add as much Garlic as you heart can desire, after all fresh Garlic is good for the heart, and it will give you a boost of energer to last you all day long.
Then add the Okra after you slice them 1/2″ long.
Add all the tomato past you heart can desire, or just follow the amounts stated above.
The after mixing the above, please add the water while mixing until you get a gravey like consistancy.
Bring to boil, then let all simmer for about 1 to 11/2
hours.
Then make your rice using vermatchlli noodels, you may post your request for the rice receipe, and I will be glad to give it.
The out come is a 3,000 year old reciepe, and it’s the one way to make you coming back for more and more.
I like your recommendation and I will definitely try the recipe.
Thank you for posting.
Faranak