Okra gets a bad rap. It’s usually cooked beyond dead, and the result is a mucilaginous mess. When I lived in Texas and North Carolina, I developed a taste for okra in its many forms: Fried, pickled, in gumbos, and stir-fried. The latter is what I did for dinner tonight, as a Cajun dish called maque choux.
Okra pods are hard to find in the northwest because the growing season is often too short to get fruit to set. Luckily, our friends east of the Cascades have the climate that allows okra to thrive. So I picked up some good-looking pods yesterday at the Yakima Fruit Market, along with the apricots immortalized in the previous post. I had most of the other ingredients on hand for the recipe, including corn, onions, peppers (off my plants), and tomatoes. I started by sizzling the corn kernels in a little butter until they started to get caramelized. I scraped them into a bowl, then started sautéing the onions and peppers. I added in the okra pods, cut into 1-inch lengths, as the onion pieces were beginning to get translucent. I let everything cook for 5-10 minutes until the okra pieces got tender. I added some Cajun seasoning during this time. Finally I added the corn kernels back into the pan along with some red and yellow tomatoes, halved. Once everything was heated through, it was time to eat. I’d also made some country-style ribs on the grill. The maque choux was minimally slimy, and the dish complimented the barbecue sauce on the ribs. We drank unsweetened iced tea with the meal, although beer would also be an acceptable beverage.
Should you want to try this dish, pick okra pods that are bright green and unblemished. Size isn’t critical, since you’re going to cut them up anyway. If you live in the northern US, chances are the vegetable was shipped from far away and may not be particularly fresh. If you’re anti-slime, you should choose small pods and keep them whole; however, you’ll want to trim off the stem end. I used frozen corn because I am dubious of any corn on the cob that I haven’t picked myself. If you’re unencumbered by farm girl genes, go ahead and buy corn on the cob and cut the kernels off before or after grilling. Go ahead and use any tomatoes you have handy, even a small can of whole or diced ones. If you don’t have chile wimps in your household, you can even use a can of Rotel tomatoes with chiles. Laissez les bons temps rouler!
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