I had been planting Okra since day 1 I started my Mini-Farm because everyone in the family love eating it. It is a very easy and simple growing plant and the harvest is always plentiful. I just started a new plant recently and I was wondering whether to prune it or not. I have no idea why I thought of it, the pruning part, even thought I had never had any problem with it. Yesterday I had my pruning shears with me and I wanted to start pruning it but a little voice told me no, no, NO! ... So here I am
Do not prune okra. It will shed the lower leaves if it needs to and they will wither and turn brown. Then you can snip them off. As pretty as that one is,,just let it be.
Hi KK - how do you cook your okra? Okra is not too very popular in this part of the US, but I love the flowers so I bought some seeds and have planted a few. Not germinated yet, but its only been a few days. If they do ok and I can harvest any, I figured I could always chop some into vegetable soup.
Okra down here is most often eaten sliced, dipped in beaten egg then rolled in corn meal and deep fried to a golden brown. But it is also a key ingredient in Gumbo and several other Cajun dishes. If you put it in soup, pick the very small ones, cut off the stem without cutting into the gooy part of the pod, that way the 'slime' will not leak into your soup, and when they cook you can eat them whole without cutting.
Good tip Toni - thanks. So can I assume that when cut, battered and fried - the slime is not an issue? And when the pods are very small and in soup, you don't notice the slime in a whole pod?
Oh, also about eating okra....harvest the pods when they are less than about 3 inches long. Any longer than that they are hard and almost not edible. The longer ones are really only good for drying and painting to look like Santa. Nope, when fried there is no slimy texture because of the cornmeal and frying. Just make sure you fry them till they are crispy....soggy is not a good thing. Fried okra was a summer pleasure for us, since back in the day you couldn't buy very many veggies out of season and very few backyards had gardens. In soups I have never tried so I can't say what they taste like when you bite into one. I had a friend in Florida who added them to almost every soup she made. I do love a good pot of stewed tomatoes and okra, cook some bacon, remove bacon but leave grease, add sliced okra and a can of stewed tomatoes (including the juice) to the pan, add salt and pepper and simmer for 15 minutes stirring often. Put the bacon back in and serve.
Hi Cuatro-gatos, we usually have it stir fried with garlic and dried shrimps. Just suate the crushed garlic and dried prawns till fragrant then add in the okra and fry it until the texture or doneness is to your liking. O remember to flavor it with some salt and if you are more adventurous you can use nampla. If you like it spicy then add some cut chili in it. The trick of not getting it gooey is just to nick the okra a little and break it. Sometimes instead of just cut chili we make use of sambal. Another method is more less like what Toni mentioned but we deep fry it in batter - Tempura style. We just make a simple batter and fried the okra whole and eat it with a dip. We use it in fish curry to. Vegetable soup ... never tried that before. Toni gumbo sounds good, I have always wanted to try it but never did it. Maybe I can try it this time.
I add okra to soups and stews,,it is excellent. I use a larger okra pod and slice as if you are frying it. Then saute` in a bit of oil before adding to soups/stews. Doesn`t take long to saute` lightly. That keeps slime down to a minimum.
