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Okra
Okra When I think of okra, I remember okra being cooked with fresh field black-eyed peas, butter beans and ham hocks. The aroma of these ingredients still linger in my minds eye palate. Served over rice, this concoction was a complete meal. It was a country meal. A meal served because that was what you could grow and afford to place before your family. Even though I enjoyed the sliminess of the okra when cook in a broth, for me the real treat was when we used "fat back" (bacon with skin on it) chopped up, rendered out the fat and quickly fried the okra that had been cut across the okra pod. The okra would be allowed to cook until almost burnt. Cooked this way, the natural sugars in the okra would be caramelized making the okra a sweet side dish served with the main meat dish at dinner time. We also pickled the young pods with red peppers for a tasty snack or chopped it to be used like a chutney. Ground okra seeds were used as a thickening agent for stews and gravies. And best of all, we would cut it across the grain, flour it , egg wash it, drench it with corn meal and deep fry the okra.
What a greasy food treat. Everyone needs grease every once in a while. This is what we ate because this is what we had. The interesting thing about growing okra was that it seemed to grow so quickly. You would plant it, and it seemed to me that in less than a month you would see a five shaped flower, which assured you we were going to have okra to eat real soon. You had to be quick once the flower showed itself. The little pods of okra, the best for eating, would appear. If you did not cut them from the plant the day you saw them, the next time you looked the pods will have grown into the 5 to 10 inch elongated stick like things that were to tough to eat. I hated the gathering of okra. The plant has little needle like hairs that as you reached in to get the tender okra pod these hairy needle like things would prick your skin making it itch. On a hot morning this could be unbearable. When we cooked okra, we never made it into a soup or stew. I would not experience this soup/stew gumbo preparation until I traveled to New Orleans. I had see this item they called gumbo, but sounding foreign to me I had never tried it. My first experience with gumbo, I was surprised to find it was not much different from the okra meals I had grow up eating with exception that gumbo was more of a stew with all kinds of meats and vegetables we never used. This gumbo was almost like a gravy to me. In New Orleans, gumbo is severed a thousand different ways. Each establishment has its own recipe. The one thing I did learn about gumbo was that most of the recipes called for an ingredient called "file". When you shop for "file" you will find it as "Gumbo File'." That's right, file'. File' is made from sassafras tree leaves. The file' ground into a powder.. To get the best flavoring from file' add the file' just before serving your gumbo. A quick few words about sassafras. Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) is a tree that can be grown where the rain fall is from 30 to 60 inches a year. Sassafras trees need a high humid average temperature 20 degrees Fahrenheit to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The sassafras tree is fast growing with aromatic distinctive mitten-shaped three lobed leaves. I now know why I felt sting when picking okra, it is because the okra plant belongs to the same species as the cotton plant. Having experience the picking of cotton and seeing the leaf patterns, I should have guessed that. But sometimes working on a farm your too busy to do research. To trace the origin of okra, a well traveled plant, it's hard to determine where it first sprung up. You can find okra in Africa, Middle East, Balkans, Turkey, Asia and even in Russia. Using language as a means of determining origin, some say Ethiopian Highlands is its origin but this is undocumented. The unique thing about okra is that you can take a few seeds, travel anywhere in the world, and it will grow as long as temperature and water requirements are met. In America, okra seems to have been introduced in Brazil and traveled north from there. Again, no one is sure but most likely okra traveled with the slave trade. Okra is a cheap and easy crop to grow and all of the plant can be used. The okra young pods can be eaten raw or cooked. The okra seeds can be roasted to make a non-caffeine coffee like drink. The okra leaves can be cooked and used like turnip greens or chopped and put into a salad. The oil pressed from the okra seeds can be used as an edible oil high in unsaturated fats with oleic and linoleic acids that have health benefits. The okra can be ground into a powder that may have a diuretic effect of cleansing the kidneys. There are many ways to enjoy this nutritional plant the okra. Searching the internet give you thousands of regional and cultural uses of the okra. Good Health. Happy Life.
"Okra
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 30 kcal 150 kJ
Carbohydrates 7.6 g
- Dietary fibre 3.2 g
Fat 0.1 g
Protein 2.0 g
Folate (Vit. B9) 87.8 μg 22%
Vitamin C 21 mg 35%
Calcium 75 mg 8%
Magnesium 57 mg 15%
Vitamin A (660 IU)
Percentages are relative to US
recommendations for adults."
From Wikipedia Research :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okra
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/sassafras/albidum.htm zzzzz |
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This intel was contributed by The MUSEUM
The MUSEUM
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May, 2012
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