I love okra plants…those are beautiful! Thanks
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I’ve never seen okra growing like you and @randy, but I sure love to eat it. It really is my favorite vegetable.
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Boromir tossed the stone in the book, and Pippin in the movie. The result is equivalent.
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Thank you! I was wrong in the first place–I wrote Sam at first, then stopped at Pippin. We read the series together again last year, but I’m getting rusty. Wonderful book.
Thanks.
Randy
Wow. I only use it to make gumbo. Got a favorite way to prep it?
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I grew up on it breaded with corn meal and fried in the good southern tradition of my maternal grandmother from Arkansas. It’s exquisite that way, but deadly. I deep fry nothing.
Using fresh okra, I love to roast or grill it whole with a little olive oil and sea salt until it’s starting to brown a bit. I can’t express how utterly delicious (and not slimy) it is. If you’re in a hurry, you can split it lengthwise.
Since it costs at least as much as beef around here, and I have to go pretty far to get nice quality okra, we don’t have lot of it, but it’s absolutely delicious.
And then we can move on to the virtues of it in gumbo and many other stewy dishes. I was at an Indian restaurant once, and it was cooked in a tangy, tomatoey stew, that was gorgeous, too.
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We eat it fried, but really like it roasted. Take small tender pods, toss with olive oil, a little sprinkle of Cajun seasoning to taste and kosher salt then in a hot oven (we use convection and a roasting pan) until a little crispy, usually 15-20 minutes. Also like sautéed with onions and bell pepper, then cooked down with tomatoes, seasoned with garlic, Cajun seasoning.
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Oh, I gotta try that sauted version!
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Have you tried growing them here, Kendel? I did a couple of years ago–they were monsters, even in Michigan, surprisingly–kind of like tomatoes in vigor. I wish I liked eating them better. I agree that cornmeal is a good way, and I also like pickled okra… but I have never tried roasted. That does sound good! Thanks for the ideas.
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Oh, yeah. Forgot to mention pickled! I have not tried growing it here. I’m pathetic with growing actual useful plants. Did you just stick ‘em in the ground or use containers? I’ve seen your rototiller, though. You’ve probably done them in the ground.
Did the deer eat ‘em ?
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I just stick them in the ground in a line, starting about 4 inches apart, and then thinning them as they get bigger. I have a fence around the garden, so I’m not sure if deer would go after them or not, unfortunately. (thanks to my father in law, who is a farmer and helped me put that fence up before going back on the mission field). I was amazed at how vigorous and heavily bearing they were, though–they outperformed everything else. I didn’t know they were that expensive! I couldn’t find anyone who wanted them. I like the flowers, too. Okra is a big food in Africa–they put it in the “miya” sauce, in which they dip their millet and sorghum porridge (“tuwo”).
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Yeah. It has a terrible reputation as being slimy. Fortunately, I had the real deal (fried) before I knew about that.
I didn’t know you could eat the flowers. How neat! What do they taste like?
Africans are the ones who brought it to North America. How to wrap my mind around that.
Now I”m all curious about what’s in the sauce! As well as how they cook their millet and sorghum (which I’ve never eaten).
Oh, I’m sorry-I just mean I like how pretty they are! You made me wonder about that–what do you know–you can eat them! Okra Flowers – Lovely in Your Garden or on Your Plate - Garden.eco
yes, that’s really cool!
Great question. I personally have only made it once, and got the recipe from a friend…I’ll have to look up if I can find it. As I recall, they often use baobab leaves and dried tomatoes, and sometimes peanut oil, peanut pulp (kulikuli with hot pepper). . They make a mush of the grain after pounding it, and dip balls of it in the miya. I’m afraid I really like rice better, but I like the miya part a lot. I just bought some millet flour to see if could make some, though. My wife lived further south, where it was wetter, closer to the coast; and they would use yam (manioc) more–they called that 'fufu." She was a missionary kid in Togo. Where we were was very dry ,so only millet and sorghum (hatse and dawa) grew fairly well (there were famines frequently, very sadly).
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You have me intrigued and also wondering what it’s flavor actually is given how it would be drowned out in gumbo.
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I was trying to think of how I would describe it earlier. Mild? But not really bland. While it’s green, it doesn’t have a powerful green flavor like peppers or green beans. Roasted or grilled, the flavor actually reminds me of a good toasted multigrain bread a little bit, and where it gets browned, it gets crispy and carmelized.
That wasn’t a very good description. Sorry.
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I’m also a big fan of okra. Some of them tree form here basically as a perennial. It’s in the mallow family with hibiscus as well. Most mallows seem to be edible on some fashion. But I would not just try it out randomly on some wild growing mallow.
I like these a lot. I buy a jar every week or so of some brand.
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Well I have no way of knowing until I can try some. When I make gumbo I buy it frozen. Works fine. I can find it fresh sometimes too but frankly I’m lazier than that. 
It will probably take at least a week or two to get to it but I’m looking forward to it. When I was little kid I was very finicky. But now novelty is a plus if it has any likelihood of being good.
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I bet you’re going to like it!
For roasting or grilling, you’ll definitely want to take the time with the fresh ones. Same for any other type of “dry” cooking (rather than stewing).
Thinking more. Roasted to a slightly carmelized brown, They taste a bit like roasted fingerling potatoes. A little bit sweet.
Roasted, too, you learn they have more water weight than I ever expect. So, by the time they’re browning, they’re also getting very light. It’s easy to underestimate how much to cook. But the first few times you have it, you might consider it a taste test.
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I think we might have one brand that’s available here. And it isn’t this one. The pickled okra I have found here is with dill (yum!) and medium hot. A very good heat.
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I’m educating myself about hammerhead worms today, since I saw my first shimmying into the garage. I had the presence of mind to keep my 4 yo from handling it but couldn’t keep him from giving it a quick touch. And then a thorough hand-washing. I found another one and tried to remove it to the street with a stick, but it cut apart quite easily, unlike the first that wrapped itself around the stick I removed it with. So I watched the segments wriggle for a bit, the flat head continuing to “sniff about.”
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