Vinegartart

At the Penticton Farmers’ Market a week Saturday one of the vendors was selling Okanagan grown okra.  Okra is not something I have cooked very often.  It generally looks rather unappealing and beat up in the grocery store so the urge to buy it never arises.

The okra at the Market looked stunning.  Beautiful red and green pods cried out “Buy me.”  So I did.  I wasn’t quite sure what I would do with the okra but given I also purchased fresh ears of  corn I thought I would try to put the two together.  It is definitely an odd vegetable.  When cooked it produces as thick liquid.  When over cooked it is slimy.

There is plenty of good eating left in our farm garden: beets, broccoli, cauliflower, yellow and pink Swiss chard, parsley, celery, celery root.  There are even, surprisingly, tomatoes.

End of Summer Stew:  Pepper, Zucchini, Okra and Corn Stew

Four Servings

2 tablespoons oil

1 cup onion, chopped

1 cup red pepper, chopped

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon jalapeno pepper (use your discretion – my jalapenos were screaming hot)

1 small 6” zucchini, cut into matchsticks

1 cup okra, trimmed and cut into 1/2” slices

2 cups ripe yellow or red tomatoes, quartered

2 ears fresh corn, kernels scraped from the cob

2 teaspoons Elderberry or Red Wine Vinegar

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Fresh parsley for garnish

Method

1. In a large sauté pan, over medium heat, add oil.  When hot add onion,  red pepper, garlic and jalapeno pepper.  Season with salt and freshly ground pepper and cook for 10 minutes or until red pepper is tender. 

2. Add tomatoes, okra and zucchini.  Lower heat.  Cover and cook for about 10 minutes or until okra is tender.

3. Add corn.  Fresh corn just needs to be heated.  Add vinegar and adjust seasoning, if necessary.  Serve with rice.  Alternatively, spoon stew into 4 small baking dishes, break a raw egg on top of the stew in each dish and bake in a 350 F oven for 10 minutes or until egg sets.  Sprinkle elderberry or red wine vinegar on egg yolk.  That is what I did and it was delish.

What you accomplish with the recipes I share with you is what makes me eager to share more.  Thank you for following!