Okra with Tomatoes

April 6, 2006

Fancy a dish of ladies’ fingers? The ingredient you will need is okra. Ladies’ fingers is another name given to these ridged pods often seen in the Asian produce section. Okra is an African name, as is the alternative name, gumbo. It’s called bhindi in India and is also known as bamya and quingombo. The botanical name is Hibiscus esculentus which means “edible hibiscus”.

Cut open an okra pod and you will immediately notice it exudes a gummy substance. This juice has thickening properties and okra is often used for this purpose in dishes such as Cajun gumbo soup and the Egyptian stew, bamya. Some people don’t like this gummy texture though it tends to dissipate somewhat when okra is cooked with other ingredients. Traditional Greek cooks soak okra in a little vinegar in the sun for about an hour before cooking, and then rinse it in a little water. This helps reduce the gumminess.

Okra is an excellent source of vitamins A and C and folate and a good source of magnesium. A cup of raw okra contains 33 calories , 7.6g of carbohydrate and 0.1g fat. Okra is high in dietary fibre, supplying 4g per cup cooked. Because of this, it is reputedly good at cholesterol-lowering though I am not sure if is the sort of vegetabe one would include in one’s diet on a sufficiently regular basis for this to work. However, here is one tasty way to prepare it.

Okra with Tomatoes

400g okra
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
12 curry leaves
1 red onion, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small red chilli, deseeded and chopped
2 cans chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon garam masala

Remove the stalk from the cap end of the okra and chop the pods into three, diagonally. Place in a bowl and sprinkle with the vinegar. Mix well with your hands then sprinkle over the water and stir again. Set aside for an hour then drain and pat dry with paper towels.

Heat the oil in a pan then add the cumin and mustard seeds and fry till they begin to pop. Add the onion, garlic and chilli and curry leaves, turn down the heat and sauté gently until the onion is soft. Add the okra and cook for five minutes then stir in the tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes, adding the garam masala after 15 minutes. Watch to ensure the mixture doesn’t burn, adding a little water if necessary. Check seasoning if the tomatoes were unsalted.

Serve with small poppadums, a good chutney and a side dish of two tablespoons of finely chopped mint stirred into half a cup of thick Greek-style yoghurt.

Here is an Egyptian meat dish featuring okra, which you might also like to try.

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