Okra

I've discovered that little okra has quite an effect on humans--some hate it with a passion, others--like me--love it with an equal passion.

Let's hear it:

Who likes okra, why, and what's your favorite preparation?

Who does not like okra, and why?

This is how I like okra: as an omelet filling, fried in batter, and as a gumbo ingredient.

I grow the stuff, and when I harvest it, I chop and cook up a portion with garlic and hot pepper in olive oil, add a little stock and then freeze it for my winter gumbos.

For omelets I chop it, saute in butter with onions and then add as a filling.

Fried okra using cornmeal is a southern staple. I like it boiled as well (gumbo).

Ditto on fried w/ cornmeal. Preferably fried in bacon drippings.
Also good as a thickener for homemade vegetable soup. Stir-fried isn't bad either.
I'll eat it any way but boiled, too slimey that way, but my Dad loves it boiled.

All your choices, Thomas, plus pickled Okra -- I just had a delicious version -- brand name on request (I'd have to search the recycle bin, it was that good).

Regards, Bob

PS: The bottle was right on top: Tiffe's Louisiana Hot Pickled Okra -- great stuff. And they have a couple of milder versions for the faint of heart. B.

I've never had any I liked, but I can't say it was ever properly prepared.

I love okra, it has to be small, left whole and fried with a cornmeal coating.
I also love Campbells gumbo soup with okra. I have not had it in years, I wonder if it still tastes good.

I love the stuff. Breaded and fried, yup. In a curry, yup. Stuffed with hot chili and chick-pea flour, then fried, yuppers. Sauteed with tomatoes, cumin, olive oil, and garlic, Lebanese-style, double-yup.

Tayyab in London made the best okra curry I've ever had.

I love the stuff. Breaded and fried, yup. In a curry, yup. Stuffed with hot chili and chick-pea flour, then fried, yuppers. Sauteed with tomatoes, cumin, olive oil, and garlic, Lebanese-style, double-yup.

Tayyab in London made the best okra curry I've ever had.

Does okra grow in Lebanon?

As soon as tomatoes ripen, I'm going to try it, if the godamned slugs don't do in all the plants. It's been perfect slug weather this year. Why do creatures with no purpose even exist?

Why do creatures with no purpose even exist?

Hey, liberals have rights too... (sorry, couldn't resist).

Thomas, I take Randy's point -- with a grain of salt, of course -- but rise to defend the slug. They've fascinated me ever since I first found them on the farm many years ago, and have learned a great deal about them.

There are dozens of types around the world, ranging from and inch to ten inches long. They are almost all are herbivores; the eat fungi, lichens, green plants, shoots, roots, leaves, fruits, vegetables, and flowers, as well as scavenging, eating decaying vegetation, animal feces, and carrion. They have few predators -- the slime that keeps them alive is foul tasting stuff -- but they are eaten by a few animals.

So, they are important in creating humus and improving soil fertility -- earthworms and slugs work very effectively together from somewhat different food sources. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden gives them high marks in the soil improvement world -- perhaps a bit grudgingly, I suppose.

Regards, Bob

As soon as tomatoes ripen, I'm going to try it, if the godamned slugs don't do in all the plants. It's been perfect slug weather this year. Why do creatures with no purpose even exist?

Of course slugs have a purpose. If it weren't for slugs, the earth would be overrun by killer tomatoes.

-Paul W.

Thomas, I take Randy's point -- with a grain of salt, of course -- but rise to defend the slug. They've fascinated me ever since I first found them on the farm many years ago, and have learned a great deal about them.

There are dozens of types around the world, ranging from and inch to ten inches long. They are almost all are herbivores; the eat fungi, lichens, green plants, shoots, roots, leaves, fruits, vegetables, and flowers, as well as scavenging, eating decaying vegetation, animal feces, and carrion. They have few predators -- the slime that keeps them alive is foul tasting stuff -- but they are eaten by a few animals.

So, they are important in creating humus and improving soil fertility -- earthworms and slugs work very effectively together from somewhat different food sources. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden gives them high marks in the soil improvement world -- perhaps a bit grudgingly, I suppose.

Regards, Bob

Bob,

I'll take worms over slugs--they haven't got as fine a palate...

The best defense against slugs are ducks--appears to be the only animal that eats them, but of course they walk all over the seedlings with feet that used to get draftees a 4-F.

Used to be able to cut down slug damage with DE--they dried in it or something, but this year they seem to care nothing about whatever it is that DE did to them in years past.

I tried beer, but all I got were sober slugs eating what the drunken slugs did not.

Hand grenades work, but after throwing one I can't seem to find the garden for about two months.

Carpet bombing works too...but you know what happens there.

Tayyab in London made the best okra curry I've ever had.

I remembered your comments to that effect but unfortunately when I visited my companions were in the Fear Okra camp and we focused on other dishes.

But I was definitely impressed with the food so will be going back for more. Although, the atmosphere was so chaotic I was amazed that you managed to focus on the slew of nice wines you described.

"Carpet bombing works too...but you know what happens there."



Badgers and porcupines eat slugs, too, Thomas; we had both in Wisconsin, but maybe not in your area?

One thing that does work is salt -- we had long pans with a layer of salt in the bottom we put around the perimeter of some high value vegetables. The salt dried out the slugs and they would avoid it, or die.

Not very practical but ok with a short term, high value crop.

[Jenise]

I really like the flavor of okra but I'm not crazy about the texture, and so I just never fix it.

"Carpet bombing works too...but you know what happens there."



Badgers and porcupines eat slugs, too, Thomas; we had both in Wisconsin, but maybe not in your area?

One thing that does work is salt -- we had long pans with a layer of salt in the bottom we put around the perimeter of some high value vegetables. The salt dried out the slugs and they would avoid it, or die.

Not very practical but ok with a short term, high value crop.

I have seen neither of those animals around here, which is likely why the slugs are not only big, they are prolific--colorful too, if I say so myself.

A few weeks ago a pair of wild ducks discovered the sunflower seed droppings from one of our bird feeders--some birds are quite wasteful. Anyway, the ducks visit each evening at around 6 to sample the day's seed dropings. I have tried to coax them over to the garden for a potential slug fest, but I've failed at the task. I'm told domestic ducks can be coaxed but not wild ones, unless you have food in your hand, and I refuse to carry a handful of slugs to the ducks...

One would think that the slugs would get a whiff of the ducks nearby and they would pack up their slime and slither over to the neighbor's place, which I suppose may be too far for the little bast--er, lovable creatures.

Bob, I've used salt too. It does work but it wets down overnight with the dew and then it is useless. So it prevents the early sluggers while it does nothing to stop the late bloomers.

Fried is good. But my all time favorite is pickled...especially spicy pickled. I've always got a jar or two in the house.

Richard

So far, the "I don't like okra" crowd has been rather quiet. I know that Robin is one of them...

I like it a little. My favorite is grilled and then tossed with a sautee of corn and tomatoes, EVOO, S&P.

rwj

I like it a little. My favorite is grilled and then tossed with a sautee of corn and tomatoes, EVOO, S&P.

rwj

Throw a little cayenne in that and I'll take it...

Sauteed with tomatoes, cumin, olive oil, and garlic, Lebanese-style, double-yup.

Lebanese style? I looked for "lebanese okra" and got a bunch of stews.

My current favorite prep for okra is true sauteeing (over high heat) okra that's been sliced into 1/4" rounds. If it sounds daunting to slice the tiny okra pod into such small pieces, it is, but luckily the Cuisinart slicing disk does it instantly. I use a big non-stick skillet and toss every 10 seconds or so, almost like stir-frying, and the pieces brown and have little slime. I combine this technique with pretty much any recipe you can imagine for green vegetables, though basil and curry both work very well.

Walt

Okra sauteed with onion, tomatoes, garlic, corn. For a full meal I will add either shrimp or hot links and serve over rice with cornbread on the side. Yum!

I like it Japanese-style, cooked with dashi and mirin, and topped with some sesame seeds.

cheers,
al

Jo Ann, I've read your posts with great pleasure, but your tagline leaves out a very important caveat that appears in Farrar Capon's excellent article in the New York Times in 1982:

"Yet to cook without salt (save for sound and personal medical reasons), or to undersalt deliberately in the name of dietary chic is to omit from the music of cookery the indispensable bass line over which all other tastes and smells form their harmonies."

Free link here, I think, subject to registration

Regards, Bob