Okra

[Uncle Bob]

Yo Daisy...Okra taste.."just like chicken" Just a joke!!

Kinda hard to describe the taste/flavor of okra...It really depends on how it is cooked...Boiled in salted water would be hard to try the first time...kinda like eating your first raw oyster...Cut, rolled in cornmeal..then fried is very popular in my area...Sometimes just cut and fried (no breading) in very little oil is also a treat. Then as others have mentioned some gumbos have okra as a thickning agent as well as adding flavor. Of course then there are okra and tomato dishes as well as Indian recipes as Yakuta described above...No matter how you try it...don't judge it by frozen stuff..try to buy it fresh.

Ok I'll give it a go...how about it taste like Eggplant and green beans...

 

[karadekoolaid]

LOL, well it might as well be hadn`t it, infact IMO it`s a few poppy seeds away from being Frog spawn :P

edit: a thought just occured to me whislt thinking along these lines, I wonder if an Extract of this could be made as a Gluten replacement? Xanthan gum goes almost exactly the same when hydrated and that IS used as Gluten replacement.
Might be worth a shot!

Wonderful stuff. You have not lived until you've eaten okra cooked by the Greeks, the Turks, the Lebanese, the Syrians, and /or especially the Indians. So many delicious ways to prepare it! HAS to be young and tender, though, like any decent vegetable.

One of my favourite ways is to chop it into 1/4" rounds, add salt, chili powder and garam masala, then deep-fry it until crispy.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Yes, it is true (as with most vegetables) that if not frozen, it must be as young & fresh as possible. Never bother buying pods that are soft, or even slightly shriveled or have any brown or black spots. Good fresh okra should be firm & bright green (unless you grow the red varieties ), like a good fresh snap bean.

While, as I said before, I grow most of mine myself, I've found that out of season, high-quality frozen can be much better than old fresh okra.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Breezy is right on target about the good quality frozen vs. poor quality fresh.

'Okra freezes well as we put up "bunches" each year out of the garden.


Been awhile back but we put up several jars of "dill pickle" okra...small 2 inch ones...they were good to snack on along with other vegetables from behind the house.

 

[BreezyCooking]

Oh - one more thing about okra, although it's not human-food related. I have a pet Citron-Crested Cockatoo, & she LOVES the okra I pick from the garden that's too large for me to enjoy. I just slice those big pods up for her raw & she goes to town!!!!

Those of you who grow okra & also have pet birds might want to try this. I bet other birds besides cockatoos would enjoy them. Just slice the pieces according to the size of the bird.

 

[StirBlue]

Okra is not a thickening agent for gumbo. Gumbo is all food. The basic seasoning for gumbo is "file". I've been thinking of matching a batch.
Some of the buffets here have fried breaded okra. It is much fresher than the supermarkets.
When it grows longer than four inches, it has gone to seed.
Someone in the USA is mass producing yellow crocked neck squash. It's plentiful and getting down right cheap.
We were just getting the one squash in the veg bin at $4 a lb. Now there is a whole crowd of them under $2 a lb. Where are they coming from?