Most of us will recall okra as a not so memorable part of gumbo. It’s always in the background and never the star. Some of us may even have tried to cook okra at home to little success. Often, if not prepared correctly or even not selecting the right type of okra pods will leave a slimy texture and not so tasty flavour.
First step to delicious okra is simply to pick the right pods. Look for pods the size of your pinkie finger or at most an index finger. These are the young pods and therefore less slimy. Smaller pods also have smaller seeds, older pods have larger seeds that don’t blend well and therefore not so tasty.
Look for bight green pods with no blackened age spots. These tend to be fresher. Do the thumb-nail test — take a pod and gently put your thumbnail in it, if it goes in smoothly and leaves a little dent, it’s a good pod. It’s hard to do this test with older pods.
After you’ve selected the best okra, the second step is to cook the okra with minimal stirring. Over-stirring will mush the pods and once again make them slimy. This is the reason for cooking it in the oven, where minimal stirring is needed to get a tasty vegetarian dish.
Oven-baked Curried Okra Recipe
750g Okra
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
2 tomatoes
1/2 tsp gram masala
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cyanne pepper (or, black pepper to taste)
1/8 tsp dry fenugreek leaves (optional)
2 tbsp Oil (we prefer extra-virgin-olive-oil)
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Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Once pre-heated, decrease heat to 375 degrees.
Wash and dry okra pods. We prefer to place okra in a large bowl to wash, strain water and towel/paper dry.
In a large mixing bowl add —
- onion sliced lengthwise (about 5 mm thickness)
- finely grated ginger and garlic
- roughly diced tomatoes
- add in the above spices — garam masala, turmeric, salt, pepper, dry fenugreek leaves (if using) and oil.
Mix thoroughly.
Prepare okra by cutting off the tops and little off the bottom. Slice okra lengthwise into halves and add to above bowl. Mix to coat the okra pods in curry mixture.
Add this mixture to an ovenproof dish. Cook, gently mix few times every 20 minutes. Bake for about 45-minutes to 1-hour until the okra is fully cooked and the mixture is relatively dry.
Note: if you notice okra starts to burn at the edges, decrease oven temperature as needed.
Serve alongside some masala shrimp (recipe coming soon) for a tasty meal. Or, a vegetarian option is to mop up the pods with whole wheat roti or nan.
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