A mother-daughter conversation on food and cooking (mostly)

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Okra Indian-Style


We ate a lot of meat over the weekend: Genoa salami on pizza Friday, burgers and salmon Saturday, bacon for breakfast Sunday. By Sunday night I was ready for a meatless dinner, and I wanted good Indian food after an overly rich and generally disappointing Indian restaurant experience the week before. So I made:
  • Lentils with spinach and onions -- no particular recipe, just lentils boiled and then sauteed in with onions, garlic, spinach, and a bay leaf
  • Cubes of sweet potato roasted with salt and olive oil -- one of the world's best foods
  • Madhur Jaffrey's sweet and sour okra -- turmeric, cumin, coriander, garlic, dried red chiles, lemon juice, and okra
The Jaffrey recipe was a bit cumin-heavy but otherwise glorious. I predict that some variation of it will become one of my favorite okra recipes. I'll tweak it a bit and post it soon.

3 comments:

Bettina said...

This is exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately the okra I bought at the farmers market was too tough, even after I slow-cooked it in a corn chowder for several hours. But this recipe might make me try again....

Eva said...

I was worried that Colorado okra would be too tough. It's pretty delicate stuff, and after about four days off the plant it's quite tough. I'm glad you're willing to try again...I think lots of people encounter either woody or slimy okra and never try it again.

Recipe soon: I promise!

Bettina said...

The unfortunate part was that the okra was absolutely beautiful; a deep purple shade. But it was about 6 inches long and I don't think it ever stood a chance...

I'm making your lentils tonight!

xo