You know how every week we are think of ways to cook the ingredients – particularly vegetables – that we buy every week? Well, here’s a combination for you to make: okra and potatoes, and there’s no slime at all. By the way, I don’t get how people can say that they like okra but hate its silkiness. Hello, that is what makes okra, okra! It’s like people that say they like pork but not the fat. Sigh. That’s a topic for another time.
There are different ways in which we can cook regularly bought vegetables that will not only shake up the routine but excite the tastebuds:
• Moving away from the same base combination of onions, garlic and herbs when frying vegetables is one way to do so. Instead, how about starting by frying whole spices in hot oil along with onions then adding the vegetables to cook in the spiced oil.
• Another way is to cook certain vegetables together, like pumpkin with callaloo, bora with squash or broccoli with cabbage.
• Simply cooking the vegetables with salt and pepper (as in black pepper) and then finishing the dish with a tadka (chaunkay) as one would do with dhal is yet another excellent way to add flavour to a dish of fried vegetables. The use of whole spices/seeds such a coriander, cumin (jeera), fennel, fenugreek, mustard or sesame seeds are flavour additions. Cinnamon, turmeric, bay leaves and curry leaves are perfect too. Definitely consider thinly sliced garlic and ginger. Use these flavour-bomb ingredients to suit your taste and consider how well they will work with certain vegetables.
• Cooking vegetables with chicken, pork, lamb, beef, salt fish, smoked fish, dried or fresh shrimp is the only way some people will eat vegetables.
Of course, one of the most popular ways to cook vegetables is in combination with potatoes – diced or thinly sliced. One of my favourite combinations is fried bora with potatoes. My late mom’s favourite was baigan (eggplant) with potatoes. I’ve made Callaloo and potatoes (sag aloo) a very tasty Indian dish, several times. It’s delicious with roti, rice or the combination of dhal and rice with a little achar on the side. I don’t know but there is something very satisfying about eating a dish of fried vegetables and potatoes. So good.
Years ago, I saw a friend post a dish of fried okra with potatoes, you know that got my attention right away, not because of the combination but because of okra – one of my two all-time favourite vegetables. My curiosity was more about how to cook the two together given the big difference in cook time for each ingredient. I figured it had to be that the ingredients were staggered when added to the pan so that they maintain their integrity and finish cooking at the same time. I read the recipe and it was just as I thought.
Over the years of making this combo, I have played around with the cutting of the okra – sometimes I cut them lengthways and at other times I cut them into large chunks on the bias. I’d suggest you cut the okras any which way you like or leave them whole if you get nice, young, small ones.
Here’s how to cook the dish.
1. Finely chop up onions, garlic, fresh herbs of your choice and tomatoes, if available.
2. Peel and slice potatoes thinly or cut into small chunks.
3. Cut/slice the okra to your preference.
4. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat and when hot, add the aromatics to the pan, season with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low and cook until everything is soft and fragrant; tomatoes, if used, should be able to mash easily with the back of a spoon.
5. Raise the heat to medium high and cook for 2 minutes, then add the potatoes, season with salt and pepper to taste and toss well to mix with the aromatics. Cover the pan tightly, reduce heat to low and cook for 15 – 18 minutes. Remove lid and test if potatoes are cooked through by piercing with the tip of a knife. If potatoes are cooked through, add the okra evenly over potatoes, cover the pan again and cook for 6 minutes.
6. Raise heat to medium high, remove lid, lightly season okra with salt and pepper and stir the pan once folding the okra with the potatoes. Let cook together for 4 minutes uncovered.
You can change the flavour profile of the dish by changing up the ingredients used as the foundation of the dish. For example, use green seasoning if you like, fry whole spices in oil and work from there, you can even start with a curry paste. Try the dish though, I think you will find it a welcome change to the routine of how you enjoy okra.
Cynthia
cynthia@tasteslikehome.org
