Filling a Much-Needed Void

I understand why many people don’t care for okra: it’s slimy.  Or at least it has that tendency.  Even while you’re just trimming it, it exhibits an alarming capacity for oozing a clear sticky substance that sort of splits the difference between Superglue, dog drool, and spider silk.  The bits you pare away often stick quite staunchly to the knife blade.  Or your fingers.  Or the cutting board.  Or the scraps bowl.

When you cook okra with moist heat, as when you put it into a gumbo, for instance, this sliminess becomes more pronounced.  In gumbo, it becomes a thickener, part of what gives gumbo its characteristic texture. In other applications, well, it’s just slimy.  Oozy.  Sticky.  It reminds even me — and I like okra — of the rather amazing microbial cavedwelling life forms known as snottites.

What many folks don’t know is that okra can be prepared to be slimeless.  One way is to pickle it.  The acid counteracts the slime.  I don’t pickle okra myself, I buy it in jars made by the good people at Talk o’ Texas, who are not just whistlin’ Dixie when they claim their pickled okra is crisp.  I like the hot kind, but the mild isn’t bad either.

The other way you can make slimeless okra is to cook it very very fast over very very high heat, with no added liquid at all, in the style of a classic “dry” Chinese stir-fry.  That’s what I usually do.  Sometimes I flavor it in Chinese ways, other times I flavor it in Indian/Bengali/Pakistani ways.  So  I don’t know if this is an actual recipe in Bengali cookery, it may well be. To me, it is the application of a Chinese technique to Bengali flavors and oh, is it tasty. And not the tiniest bit slimy.  It’s all about the intensity of heat and the absence of water.

You must have small, thin okra pods for this to work.  Larger woodier ones will not cook quickly enough and will become slimy from their own internal water being cooked.

About 1 pound cleaned, trimmed small fresh okra pods
2 medium onions, diced
3 Tablespoons or so minced fresh ginger root
about 2 Tablespoons panch phoran
about a half teaspoon ground turmeric
one or two fresh hot chilis, minced (optional)
salt
juice of one very juicy or two not so juicy limes
a couple of handfuls of cilantro, coarsely chopped
neutral cooking oil or ghee

Cook over a high brisk flame at all times. Heat enough oil/ghee to coat the bottom of the pan in a heavy large pan, big enough to accept all the okra in a single layer. WHen it is almost smoking, add the onion and ginger and cook until the onion is thoroughly brown but not burnt. Add the panch phoran, turmeric, and hot chilis if using, and stir-fry until the mustard seeds in the panch phoran begin to pop. Add okra and toss to coat the okra with the oil. Fry, stirring frequently, until okra is just soft, about 5-7 minutes in all. Add the cilantro and toss, stirfry for about a minute, and dump in the lime juice, stirring just enough to deglaze the pan. Salt to taste and serve.