Okra, Green Bean and Chard Soup

This is a spicy little Indian number. I was researching an Indian okra and yogurt soup that I sampled at the takeout counter at our local organic grocery store a few weeks ago, and I stumbled on this recipe in At Home with Madhur Jaffrey. I will eventually make that soup, but in the meanwhile, this one satisfied the need to use up the abundant green beans and green chard that were crowding my refrigerator.

The soup is silky (but not slimy) in texture from the okra and the addition of coconut milk. The gelatinous texture is greatly diminished when the soup is served piping hot. I used about a quarter of the coconut milk Jaffrey called for, and less chicken stock, and the soup was still not very thick. It definitely became more gelatinous after it sat for a couple of days in the refrigerator. I boosted the cayenne pepper since mine was a mild variety and toasted my own cumin seeds, which made a huge difference.

Okra, Green Bean and Chard Soup adapted from At Home with Madhur Jaffrey

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped

½ lb green beans (about 25 or so), trimmed and coarsely cut up

25 smallish fresh okra, trimmed and cut into 1/3-inch pieces

½-1 lb green Swiss chard, including the stems, chopped

2 tsp whole cumin seed toasted and ground, or 1 tsp ground cumin

¼-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2-3 c chicken stock, preferably homemade (or more to taste)

1/3 c coconut milk (I used light)

Salt

Optional: additional cayenne and whole cumin seed for garnish

Warm the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, green beans and okra and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the chard, cayenne and cumin and stir to wilt the chard slightly, 2-3 minutes. Add 2¼ cups of the stock and bring to a boil, Lower the heat, cover the pan and let the soup simmer for about 25 minutes.

Puree the soup with an immersion blender or in batches in a food processor. (This can be made ahead to this point, and can be frozen.  The flavor improves the second day, although the texture becomes silkier because of the okra.)

When ready to serve, add the coconut milk, thin with additional chicken stock if desired and adjust the seasonings, adding salt, cayenne pepper and, if desired, additional toasted cumin seed.

Serves 6.

Read Full Post »

Chicken Okra Gumbo with Filé Powder

With plentiful okra, gumbo can’t be far behind. I’ve been avoiding gumbo since I typically make it with a dark roux — oil and flour cooked slowly to a dark chestnut color — which thickens and flavors the stew. But with wheat-free people in my life, I’ve been preparing simple chicken and okra stew, allowing the okra to thicken the liquid. I pick the okra fairly small and since it’s so fresh, it doesn’t develop the characteristic slime that turns many away from eating the vegetable at all.

Then I remembered that I have a small jar of filé powder in my pantry, which is a great solution, and traditional in New Orleans and other havens for gumbo-lovers. Filé powder is made of ground leaves of the sassafras tree and acts as a natural thickener. Unlike roux, which is made at the beginning of the gumbo process, filé powder is added at the very end, after the gumbo is fully cooked. It instantly thickens the liquid, deepens the color and adds a subtle, earthy flavor.  Now I’m going to figure out other dishes that it can thicken gluten-free and hassle-free.

Chicken Okra Gumbo with Filé Powder

4 bone-in chicken thighs

Salt and black pepper or paprika

Olive oil

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 green bell pepper, coarsely chopped

1 hot green pepper (e.g., jalapeno, poblano, Anaheim), finely chopped

4-5 tomatoes, chopped

1½ c okra, stems and tips removed and cut into 1/3-inch rounds

½-3/4 c chicken stock

1 tsp gumbo filé powder

Cilantro

Optional: sliced scallions, hot sauce

Salt and pepper the chicken and brown it in olive oil over medium high heat. Remove to a platter.

Pour off all but a couple of teaspoons of oil and add the onion and peppers, cooking them over medium heat until the onion is wilted.

Add the tomatoes and cook for a few minutes until they start to render their juice.

Add the okra, stir to combine and nestle the chicken into the vegetables. Add chicken broth about ¾ way up the sides of the pan, cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked, about 30-35 minutes.

Remove the chicken, skin it and cut it into pieces, returning it to the pan.  If you’re not serving this right away, let the chicken and vegetables cool separately and then combine them to store in the refrigerator. Skim any excess oil from the surface.

To finish the stew, heat the chicken and vegetables and add the filé powder. The stew will darken and thicken. Garnish with torn cilantro leaves and (optional) sliced scallions. Adjust the seasonings, adding hot sauce if you like it spicy. Serve over rice.

Serves 4.

Read Full Post »

Okra, Green Bean and Chard Soup

Sometimes you just have to suspend your disbelief. Or maybe just put your trust in a proven source. This silken soup from At Home with Madhur Jaffrey solved the overflow of what I previously thought were random ingredients in my kitchen – okra, green beans and chard. It also produced an alluring, slightly spicy and delicious soup with a combination of flavors that defied identification. In a taste test, I would have been baffled, blindfolded or not.  I would have gotten as far as the carrots in the visual test and with some prompting may have picked out green beans in the blind test.  I might have suggested eggplant because of the texture and flecks of white seeds. 

Despite my photo, this turned out to be a pretty soup, flecked like tweed with light and medium green (almost brown) from the okra, beans and chard stems, dark green from the chard leaves, orange from the carrot, and white from the okra seeds. A background of ground cumin and a slight after-burn from cayenne added a perfect amount of spiciness and depth. It was pretty complex for such a simple soup. 

Okra gets a bad rap but I harvest my own (at about 2-3 inches max) and cook it appropriately so that the ooey gooey slime that people find objectionable doesn’t develop. There’s no doubt that the silky texture of this soup comes from the okra but it’s not identifiable as such.  Same with my okra stew of a few weeks ago, which by the way, I subsequently made with chicken thighs

Okra, Green Bean and Chard Soup adapted from Madhur Jaffrey

3 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped

25 green greens, trimmed and chopped (1/2-inch pieces)

25 fresh, small pods of okra (mine averaged 2 inches)

½ lb green Swiss chard, chopped, including stems and leves

1 tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

2 ½ c chicken stock

1 c coconut milk (light is fine)

Salt

Warm the oil in a large pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion, carrot, green beans and okra and sauté the mixture for 5 minutes. Add the cumin and cayenne and stir to combine. Add the chard, and sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Add the chicken broth, bring to a boil, lower the heat so that the mixture simmers, and cook gently, covered, for approximately 25 minutes or until the vegetables are very tender.

Working in batches, blend the soup in a food processor until smooth. Return to the pan and add the coconut milk. Add a little additional stock, or water, to thin it if necessary. Add salt to taste and reheat before serving.

Serves 4-6.

Read Full Post »

Okra and Pork Stew

Okra at our CSA is in overdrive. We are harvesting one, two, and now even four quarts per week. While I’ve already pickled some, the rest has been cooked six ways to Sunday, as I posted last year: steamed, stewed, frittered and fried, not to mention gumbo.

Mark Bittmann of the New York Times recently wrote about an okra stew, which really was a pork stew in disguise. He claimed his okra “went away” in the process. While the recipe ingredients were generally to my liking, I played around a bit with the dish, using both okra and tomatoes in their fresh state. The fact that Bittman thought that frozen okra was fine and used canned tomatoes probably accounted for our different textural results.

 

While I am not a big fan of frozen vegetables (despite having grown up freezing bushels of produce from our garden), I do freeze soups, stews, chili, lasagna and other prepared foods, which can be defrosted easily for busy midweek meals. This one is a winner. I’ve made it twice this week, first to try it and second to accommodate our New York evacuees fleeing the hurricane.  And I hope to have some left over to freeze for a last-minute midweek supper this fall.

Okra and Pork Stew adapted from Mark Bittmann, NYT

2 tbsp olive oil

1 lb pork stew meat or meaty spare ribs, with or without the bones

2 small West Indian dried chili peppers

3 slices thick bacon, in 1-inch pieces

¼ c smoked ham in ¼-inch cubes

1 large onion, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

2 medium carrots, chopped

½ green pepper, chopped

2 large cloves garlic, chopped

½ c dry white wine

Heaping quart of okra (about 1-1¼ lb), trimmed and cut into ¼-inch slices

5 medium-large tomatoes, chopped (2-3 c)

Salt and pepper

Optional: kernels from 2 cobs of corn

Optional: splash of cider vinegar

Herb garnish: cilantro or parsley, scallions

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a Dutch oven. Add the pork and the chili pepper and brown the pork on all sides, removing it to a bowl. Add the bacon and ham to the pot and cook over medium heat until the bacon has rendered its fat and is starting to brown. Add the onion, celery, carrots and green pepper and stir to combine. Cook until the vegetables are tender and the bacon is brown. Add the garlic and cook until the garlic becomes aromatic. Add the white wine and cook for a minute or two. Add the okra and tomatoes and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper. Return the pork to the mixture and place in a 250-degree oven to cook for two hours, stirring occasionally.

The dish can be cooked to this point and cooled, kept refrigerated for a couple of days.

When ready to serve, heat the stew and add the corn kernels if using. Cook until the corn is tender, about 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper and a splash of vinegar if desired. Serve over rice or as is.

Read Full Post »

Simple Supper: Cabbage Soup, Grilled Cheese and Pickled Okra

I posted this for the pickles. Last summer, I made a batch of okra pickled with vinegar, dill, garlic and red pepper, and we finally got around to eating it.  These babies are great!  The texture stayed firm and the flavor is rich but piquant. A perfect accompaniment to grilled cheese sandwiches made with rustic sourdough and local cheddar. The soup is one of those throw-it-together-and-it-takes-care-of-itself types. I recall that its origin was a three-day cleansing diet some of my friends swore by. I scratched the diet because it involved eating bananas with the soup and I thought that was creepy. The soup endured, and that’s a good thing.

Cabbage Soup

1 small head of green cabbage, cored and shredded

1 medium onion, diced (or a large leek, sliced)

4-5 carrots, diced

6-8 stalks celery, diced

Optional: 2 c green beans in ½-inch pieces

Optional: a  handful of chopped parsley

1 qt + home-canned whole tomatoes and juice or 2 28-oz cans, chopped

Water

Salt and pepper

Optional: rind of Parmesan cheese

Place all of the vegetables, including the tomatoes and their juice, in a large stockpot. Add salt and pepper and water to come up the side of the pot about 1/3 of the way. Add the cheese rind, if using. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook, boiling, for about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat, cover the pot and simmer until tender, about 45-60 minutes.

Read Full Post »

Okra: Steamed, Stewed, Frittered and Fried – Part 3

After the steamed and fried okra served as sides and the pancakes as a main course, we made gumbo. Three ways: with chicken, with fish and a vegetarian version. Gumbo is basically a stew with a dark roux base (flour cooked in oil until very dark brown, like an over-cooked gravy base), stock (chicken, fish, vegetable), poultry or fish with or without some andouille sausage, and okra. I like to add tomatoes and corn to mine, and garnish with cilantro, but I’m probably not making it authentically. Traditionally served with rice, all versions were delicious.

I discovered that making the roux in advance, letting it cool, then adding it to the “stew” allowed it to flavor the dish without making the result too floury or gravy-like. It seemed lighter and more balanced than adding the liquid to the roux and continuing straight on. My opinion. Will probably get slapped around by someone who really knows her gumbo.

Chicken, Corn and Okra Gumbo

¼ c roux (see below)

2 small boneless chicken breasts cut in thirds (or boneless chicken thighs, halved)

Vegetable oil or butter

1 onion, chopped (1/2-3/4 c)

2 stalks celery, sliced (1/2-3/4 c)

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

4-6 plum tomatoes, chopped (or ¾ c chunky canned tomatoes)

2 c chicken broth

½ tsp each paprika and cayenne (or more to taste)

Salt

Andouille sausage, diced (optional)

1-2 ears of corn, kernels stripped

1 pt + okra

Parsley or cilantro

Sliced scallions

Rice

Make the roux. Heat ¼ c vegetable oil over medium heat, whisk in ¼ c all-purpose flour until smooth and cook over medium-low heat, whisking, until medium-dark brown in color, about 15 minutes. Watch it carefully. You do not want little black specks, since that means it has burned and will taste nasty. Remove from heat and set aside.

Brown the chicken on all sides in a little vegetable oil and set aside. Saute the onion and celery in the same pan until the onion is translucent. Add garlic and stir to cook until it releases its aroma. Add the tomatoes and cook them down slightly.

Add the chicken broth and roux and stir to combine. Return the chicken to the pan, add salt and pepper and simmer until the chicken is cooked, about 15 minutes. (Add the andouille sausage with the chicken if you’re using it.)

Meanwhile, top and tail the okra and cut it crosswise into rings. Do this at the last minute to reduce the potential gelatinous character. Add the corn and okra to the gumbo and simmer until they are cooked through, 3-4 minutes. Add parsley or cilantro, scallions and more salt and red hot pepper if needed.

Serve hot over rice.

4 servings

Variation:  Fish and/or Shrimp Gumbo

Substitute fish or shrimp stock (or bottled clam juice and water) for the chicken broth. Substitute fish and/or shrimp for the chicken, and add it to the stew when you add the okra. Corn and sausage are optional.

Read Full Post »

Okra: Steamed, Stewed, Frittered and Fried – Part 2

On we go with a bonanza of okra harvested weekly from our CSA farm. Here we have fritters (or more properly pancakes) that combined cornmeal and flour with buttermilk and eggs, and added okra, scallions and corn. They were served over tomato sauce and garnished with steamed okra and corn and snipped herbs.  This recipe makes a thick pancake. I made vegetable pancakes another way also, with half the flour, no buttermilk and more eggs, which I prefer because it showcases vegetables like zucchini. It doesn’t bind the corn or okra as well, however.

Okra-Corn Pancakes with Tomato Sauce

½ c fine stone-ground cornmeal

½ c sifted all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 egg, lightly beaten

½ c buttermilk at room temperature

¼ c sliced scallions

1 c corn kernels (lightly steam if using older corn)

1 c sliced okra (lightly steam if using large okra)

Herbs such as parsley or cilantro (optional)

Salt and pepper

Tomato sauce

Garnish: steamed okra, corn, herbs

Sift together the dry ingredients. Thoroughly combine the egg and buttermilk and add the dry ingredients, stirring to combine. Fold in the vegetables.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a preheated griddle or skillet. Cook slowly until browned on one side and the batter stops bubbling on top. Flip and cook until brown on the other side. Keep the pancakes warm while you finish making the batch and serve with sliced tomatoes or a light tomato sauce, possibly seasoned with hot pepper.

Read Full Post »

Okra: Steamed, Stewed, Frittered and Fried – Part 1

With okra in great supply over the past month, I have been making it in all kinds of ways, often combining it with corn and tomatoes. Some people object to the texture of okra, which can get gelatinous. I harvest my own, between 2-4 inches and cook it soon afterwards, and it’s not gooey at all.  I think the trick is to use very fresh vegetables and to prepare them quickly and simply, except in the case of gumbo.  This Part 1 covers some steaming, some stewing and some oven-frying. Future posts will cover gumbo, fritters and even pickles!

The earliest okra of the season was steamed, tossed into a slightly warm salad of red potatoes, corn, halved cherry tomatoes, chopped red and green peppers, and herbs, lightly salted and dressed with a little olive oil and white wine vinegar. Simple and seasonal.

We went on to make a light stew with tomatoes, sometimes with okra being added plain and other times oven-fried and added at the last minute to a tomato-based vegetable stew.

Oven frying is a cinch. The way I do it is to plunge the sliced okra into buttermilk and then toss it quickly in a light mixture of 50% finely ground corn meal and 50% flour, seasoned with salt and a little cayenne if you want it spicy. Place on a baking sheet coated with vegetable oil, stir to coat the okra and cook in a preheated 375-degree oven for about 10 minutes or until crispy, turning once or twice. You can roast the okra at a higher temperature as some recipes suggest, but it doesn’t always cook through and the coating turns into a rock.

Read Full Post »

September: Harvesting the Fields

I love to see how things grow, so for me nothing’s more gratifying than a morning in a field harvesting what we’ll have for dinner or put up for the pantry. Okra is fun to watch grow, with hibiscus-like flowers (same family of plants), furled buds, little okras growing vertically on stalks in the shade of large scratchy leaves. The plants are now about five feet tall so passing through long rows is a jungle experience. In September at our CSA farm, in addition to okra, we’ll be harvesting green beans and edamames, cherry and paste tomatoes, blackberries and raspberries, hot peppers and specialty eggplant, many varieties of basil and other herbs, tomatillos and husk cherries, and dozens of flowers.  Plus I still have many beans, tomatoes, herbs, chard and pumpkins in my garden. (Don’t ask about the pumpkins in a small home garden. They just appeared courtesy of our homemade compost. Little Shop of Horrors has nothing on us.)

Read Full Post »

Corn, Okra and Squash Medley

Without the beans, this probably doesn’t qualify as succotash, which is typically characterized as a combination of corn, lima beans and tomatoes. But it was a delicious combo of vegetables from our CSA farm, the farmers’ market and our garden. The corn, first of the season for us, came from the CSA farm. Other than a long forgotten (unsuccessful) experiment some time ago, the farm typically doesn’t produce corn, but this year it has a new location and hence some new crops. The ears were small and plump and the kernels dark yellow. The temptation was to expect old, end-of-season results but no, these were fresh, light and, well, “cornier” than the Silver Queen that has become the local standard.

 

Saturday was the first picking of okra at the farm and I had beautiful golden zucchini from the farmers’ market (our CSA had a crop failure). With such fresh ingredients, I – queen of the roasted vegetable –decided that the best preparation was steaming. I separately steamed the corn kernels cut from the cobs, the okra cut into dime-sized coins, and diced golden zucchini. Sprinkled with a little olive oil and salt and tossed with lemon basil and tiny cherry tomatoes from my garden, this was sheer summer on the plate and palate.

Read Full Post »