![]() ![]() And don't get us started on it for big holidays-it's a favorite traditional Mardi Gras food and a must-have ingredient for summer recipes over the 4th of July! So whether it's a go-to ingredient for family meals or you're trying it for the first time, you'll want to try these okra recipes. The point is that it's versatile: okra tastes just as good deep fried as it does being simmered to perfection in a rich and hearty jambalaya. Most people cook okra-by sautéing, blanching, or grilling it-so it's not slimy, although some people like it that way! That's because the texture lends itself as a great thickener for stews like gumbo. ![]() Okra pods are "mucilaginous," which means they produce an ooey gooey substance when cooked. ![]() Something else to know about okra? It can be slimy. It's good for you, too! The okra plant, typically in season from summer through early fall, is rich in nutrients like vitamin C and K. Crush slightly with the back side of a wooden spoon. Put the tomatoes and their juices in a medium bowl. Scatter the garlic over the top and drizzle with the oil. Place the okra and black-eyed peas on a rimmed baking sheet. It's a common ingredient in Southern comfort food and it's found in Oklahoma where Ree harvests it in her homegrown herb and vegetable garden. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 400☏. Okra recipes often treat it as a vegetable traditionally used in soups, canning, or frying in a pan. It has a sweet, grassy flavor that's only enhanced in cooking. Wondering, what is okra? It's technically a fruit although that wouldn't be your first guess. "Then you haven't lived." That might seem like high praise for any fruit or vegetable, but that's how The Pioneer Woman describes okra. Note: The sun dried tomatoes I used were not preserved in olive oil, so no more calories were added to the dish."Have you ever picked okra, then walked inside, washed it, cut it in half lengthwise, sprinkled salt on it, and eaten it?" asks Ree Drummond. The sun dried tomatoes gave a wonderful deep colour to the sauce as well as rich flavour and the only risk of adding more calories is to mop up that delicious sauce with lots of crusty bread!! The outcome was more than I expected and the okra were very delicious. I also didn’t know if my the children would like them but as we say in Greece, “Ο Τολμών Νικά” (O Tolmon Nika – he who dares, wins). I thought it would be a great idea to use them, although a little risky as I didn’t know what the outcome would be. Suddenly a light bulb flashed into my head, like in the cartoons. When I was cooking this dish yesterday, when I reached out for the canned tomatoes and the tomato paste I saw the sun dried tomatoes in the cupboard. If I need to add some sweetness to a stew I add a grated carrot and if it doesn’t pair with the dish, I add some honey instead. I find that Greek tomatoes are so sweet and delicious that this is not needed. Sugar is added to the sauces to balance the acidity of tomatoes and although at the early stages of cooking I did use a pinch of sugar in my sauces, mainly because I watched Vefa (the first Greek Cook who had a cooking show on T.V.) using it. Many people add some sugar in recipes with tomato sauces. However, in Greece dill is used a lot and you can buy it anywhere, whereas you rarely find fennel fronds in Greece, unless you live in the countryside where it grows abundantly and you can find it some times at the farmers’ market, so I always have some at home to use. In the traditional Greek and Cypriot recipe, which is the same, no garlic is added but I have revisited some of my cooking habits and now I add it in many recipes.Īnother ingredient I have been using lately together with tomatoes, is tomato paste, which adds rich flavour to a dish.ĭill is another ingredient I was not really fond of because there was no dill in Cyprus (just fennel fronds) and you will not find it in any Cypriot recipes. I now use a non stick sautéing pan and with only 2 tablespoons olive oil (240 calories), the dish is lighter and healthier but keeps all the taste and flavour. In the traditional way of cooking “mpamies” you needed at least 1/2 cup of olive oil (950 calories) to shallow fry mpamies and then they were removed to the saucepan and the sauce was made in the remaining oil. I suppose you are wondering how can I be eating “ladera” when olive oil has so many calories? The answer is the way of cooking. Now that I am on diet, I cook “ladera” at least once a week.įor those of you who don’t know what “ladera” is, this is our Greek vegetarian dishes, which can be anything with seasonal vegetables, cooked with olive oil, because olive oil is their main condiment. To be frank I prefer them because they taste just as good and you save a lot of time without having to do the above procedure. This time of the year there are no fresh okra in Greece so I used frozen ones. Mpamies start appearing at the Greek farmers’ markets around early July.
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