Okra rocks: Props for the misunderstood vegetable

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It is a superb soup thickener.

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:36 (twenty years ago) link

It's great in goulash.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:37 (twenty years ago) link

I will probably be eating some fried okra tonight at Cracker Barrel.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:37 (twenty years ago) link

Sarah, I envy you. My friends hate okra. It's such a pity!

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:41 (twenty years ago) link

Blurghk.

― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:41 (twenty years ago) link

Nick, will you eat some tonight if I make it like an airplane landing in your mouth? huh? huh?

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:42 (twenty years ago) link

Hahahaha!!!!!!

― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:44 (twenty years ago) link

Emasculated again. :(

― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:44 (twenty years ago) link

pickled! it rules!

― typo acapulco (gcannon), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:48 (twenty years ago) link

fried okra rocks.

― A Girl Named Sam (thatgirl), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:53 (twenty years ago) link

it's great in gumbo!

― disco donut (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 21 November 2003 21:58 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, okra is the bomb. Hmmm.. i haven't cooked with it in a while, actually. I need to rectify that.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 21 November 2003 22:04 (twenty years ago) link

Okra can be very, very good. I think the best I've had has been in Indian restaurants.

(When I asked for okra at the Afghan restaurant I go to, one of the waitresses laughed and said they took it off the menu because nobody ever ordered it.)

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 21 November 2003 22:19 (twenty years ago) link

(That waitress is adorable, but I think she's married to one of the cooks. Plus she's a Muslim from Afghanistan and I'm a "free thinker" from the U.S.)

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 21 November 2003 22:20 (twenty years ago) link

okra is v. tasty in curry. any sort of curry.

then again, curry is v. tasty in general. i'm just that sort of girl. :)

― janni (janni), Friday, 21 November 2003 22:30 (twenty years ago) link

I don't think I've ever had okra and not liked it. Picked, in curry, etc., etc... it's good!

There was this one Indian restaurant in NYC that referred to it as "the vegetable that nobody knows!!!" and I made the mistake of pointing out to them (while I ordered it and they made the joke about nobody knows!!!) that it was okra. This seemed to make the waiter sad and I instantly regretted it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 21 November 2003 22:44 (twenty years ago) link

Fried okra is the greatest, unless it's undercooked or greasy.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 21 November 2003 22:46 (twenty years ago) link

Okra is ridiculously nasty and horrifying. I think it contains pox.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 21 November 2003 23:34 (twenty years ago) link

Okra is one of those rare foods whose texture is unpleasant regardless of how it's prepared. Boiled it's slimey and gross. Fried it's too tough and cellulosey.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 21 November 2003 23:55 (twenty years ago) link

Okra is the butt slime of the vegetable world.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 21 November 2003 23:59 (twenty years ago) link

It's also called "ladies' fingers", ffs!!

― Markelby (Mark C), Saturday, 22 November 2003 00:04 (twenty years ago) link

dan don't make me raise my middle finger to you.

― typo acapulco (gcannon), Saturday, 22 November 2003 00:28 (twenty years ago) link

Fried in corn-meal it's god-like.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 22 November 2003 02:57 (twenty years ago) link

(As in, if you fuck it up you will be smited.)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 22 November 2003 03:12 (twenty years ago) link

Tracer is OTM. Dan P is a fule.

― A Girl Named Sam (thatgirl), Saturday, 22 November 2003 11:57 (twenty years ago) link

Best restaurants here
are both Palestinian.
They OWN okra ways.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Saturday, 22 November 2003 14:23 (twenty years ago) link

This web page should help.
Veggie Bamia kicks ass
like a psycho mule.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Saturday, 22 November 2003 14:26 (twenty years ago) link

i don't know if i've had okra, but i think it's good.

― minna (minna), Saturday, 22 November 2003 15:45 (twenty years ago) link

i spent five months looking for okra in Cardiff, and could not find it anywhere, until i popped into a shop only two blocks away from the house, and they had bins of the stuff. Had been trying to make a proper seafood gumbo because i was slightly homesick.

― badgerminor (badgerminor), Saturday, 22 November 2003 16:18 (twenty years ago) link

The irritating thing with okra is the way it gets stringy once it's been cooked for a while. I've only made it in curry though. NUM NUM!

― Sarah (starry), Saturday, 22 November 2003 16:30 (twenty years ago) link

Okra is awesome in all forms. Slime is an excellent defensive mechanism--look at all the people that avoid okra. Or earthworms. Or big bowls of ichor. They're missing out.

There's this semi-touristy shop down on Magazine St in NO that has the off-the-hookest fried okra ever. It's revelatory.

― adam (adam), Saturday, 22 November 2003 17:31 (twenty years ago) link

I hear fried cardboard is pretty tasty too.

― o. nate (onate), Sunday, 23 November 2003 22:28 (twenty years ago) link

Dan P. speaks the truth here, okra is foul.

― H (Heruy), Monday, 24 November 2003 09:57 (twenty years ago) link

I remember the first time I experienced the raw okra extravaganza of slimey cutting board and sticky fingers. Still one of my favorite food preperation memories.

I prefer it cornmeal-battered & deep-fried as Mr. Hand so accurately invokes earlier, and also in many sorts of hot hearty dishes like gumbo or in rice pilaf or casseroles, and ESPECIALLY with curry dishes.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 24 November 2003 18:49 (twenty years ago) link

Gordon Ramsey put Okra in Room 1001 this evening.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 24 November 2003 22:37 (twenty years ago) link

seven months pass...

they were selling small bags of it cheaply at the local asian supermarket; can't decide whether to try & deep fry it (never deep fried anything - not really done in aotearoa - plus I don't know if I can get cornmeal) or to try a stir fry w/some green chilis & beans & bamboo shoots & whatever. does freezing them overnight make them easier to slice w/out getting slimed?

― etc, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 04:30 (nineteen years ago) link

You dont deep fry anything in your town? DONT YOU EAT CHIPS, MANG!?

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 04:43 (nineteen years ago) link

haha wtf was I thinking! I even worked at a chipshop in rotorua! kumara in chip form is probably the most common "vegetable" in my diet! FUSH UND CHUPS &c&c&c.

― etc, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 04:55 (nineteen years ago) link

I still haven't found a place that does deep-fried mars bars in auckland yet, tho apparently mount eden has a hidden takeaway place w/them (& the bakery has nacho pies!!!)

― etc, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 04:56 (nineteen years ago) link

We are talking about okra, people, not mars bars or other deep fried Scottish atrocities.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 05:07 (nineteen years ago) link

can you bake/roast it? if you don't mind the slimy texture, can you eat it raw like a bean?

(btw, until recently I'd called oca (y'know, incan "yams", the shiny red wrinkly things as opposed to big hairy footshaped things from the pacific islands) "ocra" & was getting k-konfused)

― etc, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 05:24 (nineteen years ago) link

I have never wanted to try okra.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 05:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Surely shallow pan frying with oil, chilli, tomato and garlic is an option? But I reiterate: as a soup thickener, it will convert even an okra hater. I know.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 05:27 (nineteen years ago) link

I should really try & make soup that isn't tomato-soup-outta-a-can someday. Care to share a soup recipe involving okra, col?

― etc, Tuesday, 20 July 2004 05:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Well I'm not really a recipe kind of person, but I think in families of ingedients: okra is sort of a sister to black eye beans, onions, tomatoes, green chilli and celery; and a cousin of chicken, bacon, ham and beef. There were quite a few recipes that popped up on google, but this is kind of similar to what I like to do:

http://www.jfolse.com/recipes/soups/vegetable06.htm

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 06:14 (nineteen years ago) link

This thread talks about okra being good/bad on textture - slimey, makes stews thick, etc etc... what does it actually TASTE like though? Is it like eggplant? Is it peppery? Nutty? Like Zucchini? Bland and tasteless?

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 06:19 (nineteen years ago) link

That's a really hard question to answer. How about, a little like green capsicum crossed with asparagus? Hmmm, that really isn't quite right...

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 06:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Maybe just the hint of vine leaf in there too.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 06:39 (nineteen years ago) link

HOLD UP - nacho pies???

NACHO PIES???!

(Okra is a bit like a softer pepper mixed with COURGETTES I think. I don't mind the sliminess but I don't like the stringy bits. I've never had an okra bhaji though, I think that might be rather nice, but frankly when it's taking Starter Sides: the bhaji is always gunna lose out to yer prawn poori).

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 07:25 (nineteen years ago) link

I mean, surely, not.. a pie, filled with nachos and melted cheese and salsa and sour cream and guacamole???

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 20 July 2004 07:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Skipping 5 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I made and am now eating one of my own creations, okra and borlotti bean soup. YUM.

― moley (moley), Monday, 11 April 2005 01:37 (nineteen years ago) link

I heart okra. The gumbo, the fried okra, the pickled okra, you name it. I quit eating at Ruth & Jimmie's and started eating at Ray's Truck Stop because the cook changed jobs and HER FRIED OKRA WAS TO KILL FOR. A fridge without a jar of hot pickled okra in it is only good for smothering children.

― Curious George (1/6 Scale Model) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 11 April 2005 02:13 (nineteen years ago) link

TESTIFY

― moley (moley), Monday, 11 April 2005 04:20 (nineteen years ago) link

I wish I liked okra. But the sliminess... it REALLY turns me off. Is there any surefire way at all to start getting into the vegetable? Or should this be a case of "you can't like everything"? (My mom LOVES okra, BTW. Especially fried or pickled. So if I liked okra, I would be compelled to get it more often at the supermarket, and if I did that, I would be able to cook it for her, and her tastebuds would be happy happy.)

― I am that unhip, naive nobody you always avoid. (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 11 April 2005 05:24 (nineteen years ago) link

I dont think I've ever seen okra at Coles or anything here. COl where you you buy it? Speciality shops?

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 11 April 2005 06:11 (nineteen years ago) link

I've never really understood the slimy thing, but then I also like that other slimy vegetable, the mushroom. Lamb and okra Turkish stew is one of my favourite things in the world.

― Madchen (Madchen), Monday, 11 April 2005 08:59 (nineteen years ago) link

YUM

1http://www.pallensmith.com/newsletter/2004/images/051404_okra.jpg

― sgs (sgs), Monday, 11 April 2005 09:41 (nineteen years ago) link

haha whoops
http://www.pallensmith.com/newsletter/2004/images/051404_okra.jpg

― sgs (sgs), Monday, 11 April 2005 09:42 (nineteen years ago) link

I eat okra just about every day on account of an Asian cooks for me (I wash up). Okra is spermy, there's no avoiding that. So how you feel about it depends on how you feel about "the silvery thread of life". If you relish life (and its threads) you will bite down on okra and relish the way it squishes, resists your teeth for a moment with its soft but strong texture, then consents to being destroyed and swallowed.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 11 April 2005 09:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Be blind, my mind's eye!

― Madchen (Madchen), Monday, 11 April 2005 10:00 (nineteen years ago) link

momus swallows!

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Monday, 11 April 2005 10:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Momus, what's your description of natto? (I had high hopes for it when I was a vegan, but ultimately I found it disgusting. It's possible I have never had really well prepared natto cuisine though.)

― RS £aRue (rockist_scientist), Monday, 11 April 2005 10:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Natto is Cowper's produced by someone who's been eating too much cheese.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 11 April 2005 10:23 (nineteen years ago) link

okra is the best ever. much love right here.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Monday, 11 April 2005 11:48 (nineteen years ago) link

isn't there a way to cook it that renders it much less mucusy?

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 11 April 2005 11:55 (nineteen years ago) link

OMG Momus, you are seriously my new best friend. That was awesome.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 11 April 2005 14:05 (nineteen years ago) link

How come nobody posted this yet?
http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/530/536207.jpg

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 11 April 2005 14:11 (nineteen years ago) link

Pickled, it's great. In corn meal and fried it is sublime.

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 11 April 2005 14:12 (nineteen years ago) link

(Michael, come do some translating on the watching people sleep thread.)

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 11 April 2005 14:15 (nineteen years ago) link

OMG Momus, you are seriously my new best friend.

I'm fine with that as long as you don't make me look at websites with human geysers on them, Dan.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 11 April 2005 14:59 (nineteen years ago) link

You're right Momus, okra is the masochistic vegetable that willingly submits to being bitten; it only provides enough resistance to dramatise its own capitulation.

― moley, Monday, 11 April 2005 20:38 (nineteen years ago) link

I want to devise a method to scoop a pocket into the okrawomb for which to stuff maybe garlic or cheese or spices or sausage crumbles or whatnot all mixed together. I'm not surely how sound the logistics of my plan are, but that's never stopped me before! See also: skittleloaf.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 11 April 2005 21:36 (nineteen years ago) link

How 'bout mini sausages, nicalizioso? Or better yet, tootsie rolls!

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 11 April 2005 21:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Hmmm, I'd hit it. Fondue fork to clean out the innards?

― Curious George (1/6 Scale Model) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 11 April 2005 21:52 (nineteen years ago) link

eating okra right. now.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Monday, 11 April 2005 22:29 (nineteen years ago) link

You'd need to grow some genetically-modified super okra to make the scooping and filling worthwhile.

I've never eaten okra that wasn't fried, this semen thing is news to me.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 11 April 2005 22:31 (nineteen years ago) link

Grew up in a household where we rarely ate out, and my parents tended a big garden every year, so there was a lot of southern home cooking. If there wasn't enough okra in that day's picking for a mess of fried, the pods just went into the pot of blackeye peas and stewed. Those were not so much fun -- rather mucilaginous. But what was gross to the 12-year-old would suit the 41-year-old just fine.

― Curious George (1/6 Scale Model) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 11 April 2005 22:48 (nineteen years ago) link

I have come to like them in gumbo. As thickeners go, it's got to be better than corn starch.

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 11 April 2005 22:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Okra is great. Who misunderstood it??!?! I thought everyone liked it!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 11 April 2005 22:53 (nineteen years ago) link

If we tell Calum, that A. Dworkin hated it, he'll probably claim to like it too.

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 11 April 2005 22:55 (nineteen years ago) link

At the end of the summer, when the last pods are overgrowing for next year's seed, they get huge, and look like those penis-sheaths that some South American tribesmen wear.

― Curious George (1/6 Scale Model) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 11 April 2005 23:00 (nineteen years ago) link

Southerners can fry nearly anything and make it edible, in my opinion, okra is not one of them. BLEHHH...that stuff is nasty, send that stuff back to the old country with the turnips, parsnips and beets.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 00:45 (nineteen years ago) link

I eat it...my dad had a garden when I was growing up, and we always got it fresh. Okra is no good when it gets too big. It's always over-breaded when you order it out, frying it is a simple matter of a little cornmeal, black pepper and white onion. You just wanna get it crunchy, a little bit. There used to be a cool soulfood joint downtown Nashville that had amazing spicy fried chicken and excellent boiled okra, with butter. I like it any way, especially in Indian dishes, and of course in gumbo. It's good w/ stewed tomatoes over rice, too.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 07:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Okra and chilli were made to dance together in the pan. Eternally in love, they gaze into each others's eyes and swear their allegiance each other in tones both tender and delicious.

― moley, Tuesday, 12 April 2005 08:09 (nineteen years ago) link

I would like to see Kate Mongrel illustrate that.

― moley, Tuesday, 12 April 2005 08:13 (nineteen years ago) link

Which old country exactly are Okra from?

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 08:50 (nineteen years ago) link

Ethiopia and western Africa to start, upwards to Egypt by 13th c, across to South America in the 17th c, established in the U.S. by the 18th. (/Oxford)

― Curious George (1/6 Scale Model) (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 11:24 (nineteen years ago) link

why does anyone ever even need to know that!?

― stelfox, Tuesday, 12 April 2005 11:43 (nineteen years ago) link

So they know where to send them back to!

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 12:24 (nineteen years ago) link

The stuffing the okra thing...it didn't really work too well.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 12:35 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm fine with that as long as you don't make me look at websites with human geysers on them, Dan.

Hahaha oh no! I shouldn't assume that everyone knows about poor ol' Tubgirl.

(I don't feel bad talking about Tubgirl on this thread because I feel about her about the same way I feel about okra.)

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 12:53 (nineteen years ago) link

If we tell Calum, that A. Dworkin hated it, he'll probably claim to like it too.

Andrea rocks: Props for the misunderstood feminist!

― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 12 April 2005 13:12 (nineteen years ago) link

three months pass...

I need a bindi bhaji recipe — can anyone help me?

― Truckdrivin' Buddha (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 24 July 2005 21:49 (eighteen years ago) link

nine years pass...

okra is sublime. eating masala bhindi that i cooked right now

― marcos, Friday, 29 August 2014 17:22 (nine years ago) link

^^^ mmmm, want. Also, Southern style stewed okra and tomatoes is one of my favorite side dishes ever.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/ff/2a/b4/ff2ab40fd938656e8b280d02b81a0923.jpg

― Okay, there's lil' Zipper again (Dan Peterson), Friday, 29 August 2014 19:04 (nine years ago) link

okra is amazing dried and salted.

― polyphonic, Friday, 29 August 2014 19:40 (nine years ago) link

^^ that sounds v interesting! where have you found your supply of dried, salted okra?

― Aimless, Friday, 29 August 2014 19:53 (nine years ago) link

okra doesn't need to be slimy; don't wash it, treat it like a mushroom with damp kitchen roll, if at all.

Fry an onion with cumin seeds and asofetida, if you can get it, add the okra after a few minutes and fry high fast for five minutes. You can then either then add a little tomato and coriander or mint and yoghurt. Some red chilli at the end would be nice. YUMM!

― kraudive, Friday, 29 August 2014 20:26 (nine years ago) link

i've been told that amchur (dried mango) powder helps with the sliminess when you cook it.

― marcos, Friday, 29 August 2014 20:33 (nine years ago) link

a couple years back, we were signed up for a veggie box, and during the summer started getting a big bag of okra each week. That stuff gets old real quick. Only so many ways to cook it without it tasting all slimy. Pretty much drove us to give up on the veggie box.

― odd proggy geezer (Moodles), Friday, 29 August 2014 20:34 (nine years ago) link

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