In response to a request from ThirdCat for okra without sliminess, Galaxy last month posted about okra without the mucilage, posting two yummy looking recipes that used sliced okra to minimise the slime. And ThirdCat was tickled!
Like Galaxy, I’m not anti-slime, but I knew there was another technique that could let you use whole okra without any unpleasantness. I had thought it was Claudia Roden’s (probably because she is about my favourite cooking writer evah), but I couldn’t find it anywhere.
This turned out to be because it was in fact a technique of Tess Mallos’, from her The Complete Middle East Cookbook:
Wash well, handling okra gently. Trim stem end without cutting pod. If desired trim around conical stem attached to pod, removing a thin layer. This is the correct way to prepare okra, but it is time consuming and only serves to remove the fine brown ring just above the pod and the outer layer of the stem. Middle Eastern cooks prefer to do this as the whole vegetable is then edible.
Fuzz can be removed if desired by rubbing pod gently with a fine nylon scourer. Do this under running water. If okra is young, there is no need to remove fuzz. Dry okra well in a cloth, or spread out and leave until dry. Place in a bowl and pour on 1/2 cup vinegar to each 500 g okra. Toss gently by hand so that vinegar coats okra. Leave for 30 minutes, drain and rinse well. Dry and use as directed in recipes. The vinegar treatment prevents okra from becoming slimy during cooking.
I think one of the real tricks to okra is the gentle handling – use the same light touch you would for asparagus. The other is to go for the little fellers, particularly early in Spring – because, as Galaxy put it so beautifully “you’re not trying to buy the results of the biggest vegetable competition“.
I sliced off the tops just above the little ring and put them in a bowl with a big glug of vinegar on top. I used cider vinegar because there was plenty of it. I also figured that the acid was the important part so using your top shelf fancy vinegar would be wasteful. It seemed to do the trick anyway.
One thing to be careful about in preparing middle eastern food is that elaborate preparation is a mark of great respect to your guests. If the people you are feeding are already impressed and you just want to enjoy a meal with them before 10 pm, you can generally omit a good two thirds of the preparation niceties. Of course, it helps to always do it the long complicated way once, so you can best pick which steps to leave out.
The same applies with the recipes. This one is from Claudia Roden’s superb Tamarind and Saffron, where she makes the point above about preparation and omits a lot of fancy schmancy stuff you don’t need to worry about when it’s Tuesday night after work and you’re hungry.
Okra in tomato sauce
Trim 500 g little okra and splash with some vinegar. Let it sit for a while as you faff about gathering the other things you’ll need.
Heat a big wide saute pan or a largish frypan – you want everything in more or less one layer. Fry a finely chopped onion in some light olive oil until golden. Add 2 cloves of chopped garlic and stir until the beautiful smell rises.
Rinse okra, dry gently in a tea towel and saute for 5 minutes, turning (still gently). Add 500 g peeled and chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper, the juice of a lemon and simmer for 15 or so minutes. The recipe calls for skinned tomatoes, but I don’t do that when I’m busy. It also has 1-2 teaspoons sugar which with sweet spring veg should be unnecessary. You can substitute dried limes or dried lime powder for the lemon, or if you love sour tastes you can use dried limes and the lemon. This is particularly nice if you’re going to eat the okra warm or cold. Dried limes (or loomi) can be a real bugger to find, but wowzer! they’re worth it. I get mine from a local posh cooking shop that stocks Herbie’s spices.
When the okra is soft and it smells delicious, stir through a small bunch of coriander (or parsley). It will obediently wait until the rest of dinner is ready – I like it best just a touch above room temperature. I didn’t do the lovely prep photos like Galaxy, but here’s the finished product:
Which tasted better than it looked. Could’ve wiped the bowl couldn’t I? We ate it with some fat little lamb cutlets, baked pumpkin, and wilted English spinach which had been turned quickly in a little warm garlicky olive oil.
