Okra Stew with Meat and Tomatoes
For some time now, I've been keeping an eye on the okra recipes, a vegetable less known to us but very popular in the Oriental/Arabic cuisine. I tasted some okra with tomato sauce at a Lebanese restaurant in town. It was really good and I started testing okra recipes at home. If you look for the nutritional values and vitamins of okra, you'll discover that this vegetable is wonderful and very good to introduce in the family menu.
The only "small" problem is that mucilaginous texture, which some like very much and others definitely don't. I belong to the 2nd category... but, if you cook it in such a way that the food is not soaked in sauce, then the texture is not noticeable and you can eat it. Otherwise, the taste and texture are quite close to the ones of the eggplant. As for the combinations in which you can cook this vegetable, the simplest would be with onion, garlic and tomato sauce, and with meat, according to your preferences.
I made okra with minced beef, to reduce the cooking time. You can make okra ragout-style with diced pieces of meat. If you exclude the meat in the okra recipe below, you'll get the basic recipe with tomato sauce.
At the Lebanese restaurant, I had okra as a cold salad/snack, with tomato sauce. Try and see what you like best. I still don't declare myself a definite fan of okra, but I'm careful and I'm starting to introduce it in our family diet, it's really worth it!
This is what my thawed okra looks like, prepared in the summer - cleaned and scalded beforehand.
I preferred to pass the beef through the mincer, so I could reduce the cooking time.
But you can cut it into cubes and make a ragout.
In a deep frying pan, cook the finely diced onions in oil.
When it slightly browns, add the finely chopped garlic and cook for another minute.
Now put the minced meat and actively mix in it.
Cook the meat until the juice evaporates completely and begins to brown slightly.
Add the chopped tomatoes and 1-2 glasses of water. You can replace it with 1-2 glasses of liquid tomato broth/bouillon.
Stir and simmer for 10-15 minutes over low heat.
Add in the okra, mix.
Let simmer for about another 30 minutes.
If the water or the juice evaporates along the way, add a little more.
I like to boil it until it has almost no juice left at all and that viscous texture disappears. Also, add salt to taste.
I understand that it also depends on how okra is prepared, but I still haven't managed to cook it better :)
Serve hot, it's a whole and special food.
Along the way, you can also experiment with spices, depending on your taste.
Enjoy!
