Chop the tomatoes into small chunks and place them into a blender or food processor.Add the diced ginger and garlic to the pot and fry for about 1 minute.Fry the onions in the oil until they just begin to caramelize. Place a good sized pot on the stove and heat up the oil.If you wish to try the combination with a little less okra in the stew, then I highly recommend fanta fante, a tomato based fish stew with drops of chopped and steamed okro pods laced around the stew. The sour notes and saltiness in the banku is brought together beautifully with savoury and spicy okra stew. The classic Ghanaian way to serve okro stew is with a side of banku, a fermented corn and cassava dough dumpling. There are just some things that go together in life, like peanut butter and jelly, peaches and cream or bbq wings and a blue cheese dipping sauce. How to serve okra stew the West African way Other varieties result in a thicker, chunkier stew filled with an assortment of meat, offal and seafood. In Ghana’s Volta region, the Ewe make fetri detsi, using finely chopped okro which turns out as more of a soup than a stew. Other times the okra is simply steamed, without any oil and added alongside other stews and soups. In Nigeria, an okro stew made with grated okro is highly favoured. In fact, depending on which part of West Africa you are in, you are likely to find differing textures according to region. When chopped into small pieces and stewed, okro is rather mucilaginous, a trait which people either love or hate.įor anyone put off by the sliminess, it is possible to enjoy the vegetable fried or roasted, where no slime is allowed to form.įor those who are fans of the texture, you can make a stew that is as thick as a smoothie or chunky. (Think dry herbs compared to their fresh counterpart.) When roasted or dry fried, the flavour intensifies, much like any green leaf would when dried. The flavour can be deepened or mellowed out depending on how you choose to cook it. However in its purest form, okra has a mildly sweet and grassy flavour that can be likened to aubergines (eggplant). In terms of taste, it is difficult to say, as the vegetable takes on the flavours introduced to whatever stew it cooks in. Okra, when chosen properly and cooked well, has a pleasantly fresh texture, with a little bite that melts away in your mouth as you chew. The fibres will hold that tip in place and it will not be able to break away cleanly. If, on the other hand it is a tough pod, you will clearly meet resistance. If it is fresh, the tip should snap off quite cleanly, leaving no traces of tough fibers. It is common practice in the street markets of Lagos, Nigeria, for example, to gently press on the pointy end of an okro pod. You want to stick to between small and medium sized okra pods.Īnother thing you can do is a tip test. If you have picked up an okro the size of a baby cucumber, chances are it is overgrown and tough. The first thing you will want to do is use your visual judgement. The good news is this can be completely avoided by taking an extra minute to meticulously pick out the best pods from the rest while at the store or market. This often results from overgrown okra pods. There is nothing worse than tucking into a delicious okro stew only to end up with some tough pulp in your mouth. This brings us to our next point: how to pick the right okra pods. A common type found in West Africa is the cowhorn or the “local” variety which is short, thick and woody in texture. The leaves of the plant are just as hairy. They have highly fibrous flesh that can be so hairy it gives an itchy prick. Okra, sometimes described as lady fingers, are usually green and pointy. Similarly, in Ghana, in the Ashanti languages refer to it as nkuruma. The etymology for the word okro can be traced to the 1670s Nigerian Igbo word, ọ́kụ̀rụ̀. This is possibly due to historic references of the entire Sub Saharan African region as Aethiopia. The okro plant itself is native to West Africa, though sometimes the origin is attributed to Ethiopia. In fact, there are some versions of gumbo from Southern American cuisine, that are directly related to okro stew in West and Central Africa by name and consistency. Different variations of it can be found all over the region and the rest of the world. Okra (okro) stew must be one of the most widely known dishes originating out of West Africa. This Seafood Okra Stew is a classic West African way to enjoy okra (okro): wiith tiger prawns and white fish in a flavorful tomato sauce.
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