Ingredient cooking challenge, Final week: fresh basil and/or pumpkin
We are going to do an ingredient cooking challenge, starting after the blog recipe cooking challenge is completed. This will be a great opportunity to try some new ingredients, new dishes with ingredients, and just to have fun with cooking, and talking about food. There are 13 weeks/13 ingredients, and the last week will be a surprise challenging ingredient. Try to make dishes that have the ingredient as the star, or one of the main ingredients. Get recipes from books, blogs, wherever! Come back, and talk about them.
Feel free to discuss where you've found your ingredients. Some things might be harder to find in certain areas.
1. okra (Jan.25-31) (look in fresh produce, frozen)
2. quinoa (Feb. 1-7) (look with grains, bulk bins, "health" food)
3. kale (Feb. 8-14) (look in fresh produce)
4. plantains (Feb. 15-21) (look in fresh produce, ethnic markets)
5. avocado (Feb. 22-28) (look in fresh produce)
6. edamame (Mar. 1-7) (look in frozen)
7. jackfruit (Mar. 8-14) (look in ethnic aisles, markets)
8. barley (Mar. 15-21) (look in grains, bulk bins)
9. wild mushrooms (Mar. 22-28) (look in fresh produce, spices (or wherever dried mushrooms can be found)
10. collard greens (Mar. 29-Apr. 4) (look in fresh produce)
11. tarragon (Apr. 5-11) (look in fresh produce, spice aisle, bulk bins)
12. nuts and seeds (Apr 12-18)
13. basil and/or pumpkin (Apr. 19-26)
What are people's experience with frozen okra? I can get frozen okra very cheap at the grocery store, but fresh is a little harder to come by. Is there a huge taste difference? Does frozen tend to get more slimy than fresh?
Come to think of it, I've never actually cooked okra myself. I love my aunt's pickled okra, but besides that and a few really bad experiences with fried okra.... I'm an okra virgin!
someone give me ideas for okra.....I have no idea what to do. I currently have a bag of unopened frozen okra in my freezer, but for this challenge I may get some fresh too!
I'm so excited, picking up some okra today!
I haven't had much okra other than fried slices, pickled, and in gumbos/soups. Shell, I would just check around in your books, some blogs, and online! I know that vcon/vwav has some okra things....but I think those might just be soup type things. :hrmm:
I started searching online for some different okra recipes, because it seems that (as AC said) most of the time it's pickled, fried, or put into gumbos. There are lots of Indian dishes that call for okra though, some of them stuffed. I can't get a lot of the ingredients those recipes call for though. However, I found a recipe for Syrian Okra that I might try - it has okra with some dried fruit - or an okra fry bread recipe.
Maybe stuffing the okra with something else besides Indian spices and ingredients would be cool too. I'm pretty inexperienced with this vegetable so I don't know. It will be cool to see what everyone rounds up for this one! :)
oh I hadn't realised there was okra dishes in vcon / vwaw. I'll have a look see and browse the web and report back!
I still don't even know what an okra is, I really need to start thinking if I'm going to be able to get in on this challenge...
eta: looked it up. it's one of these:
http://foodnmore.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/okra1.jpg
So I'm one step closer, but still pretty sure I've never seen one, even at the asian vege place I shop at, and definitely not frozen. So we'll see, I may just have to jump in for quinoa week : )
This is my favorite way to eat okra. Easy, no chopping, and absolutely delicious!
This is my favorite way to eat okra. Easy, no chopping, and absolutely delicious!
This is what I'm going to make first! I've bought a small bag of fresh okra so far (it's kind of expensive right now), and haven't found any frozen. I'll have to look the next store trip.
I started early! This is the fatfreevegan roasted okra
http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs153.snc3/18063_431606560532_507120532_10892465_7820440_n.jpg
We liked it ok. It was definitely very easy, and fast. I used salt ( a bit too much), pepper, and some paprika. I love roasting veggies, so it was nice. It might have been better cooked a little longer, but the outside seemed done. The inside was still a bit slimy (you know, it's okra). It's a good way to have okra, but it wasn't mind blowing.
I have made this Bhindi Masal before and loved it!
I loathe okra...one of two or three veggies I decline to eat.
I'm down with the rest of the challenges though. Good idea.
yeah, I had another look yesterday and no luck finding any okra so I'll jump in next week too : )
I think that I'm going to have a bash at the roasted okra...but the bhindi masal looks great too :)
I am going to try making this since all i have is frozen okra: Fried Okra
http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss15/erthfemme/003-1.jpg
Fried Okra Bread: link to recipe-> http://www.grouprecipes.com/49614/fried-okra-bread.html
This turned out good and tasty! (of course it did, it's fried cornbread with okra :P) The okra is still kind of "slimy" in there but J and I liked it. However, I don't think it's my favorite way to eat okra. I fried each one in a little canola oil and I added some cajun seasoning to the batter. I also cut back on the okra because it seemed like a lot for the amount of batter to me, and used a regular skillet instead of cast iron. Only one of the bread pieces fell apart on me, so that was pleasing to me. We had it with some gumbo, my veggie kitchen's seitan clam strips, and a bit of salad.
***Also, I wanted to say that I used frozen sliced okra for this recipe!
Looks very interesting!
Ugh, okra! But I'm totally down for plantains week. I usually fry them in slices, when the skin is mostly black, but I'll have to try something different...
I once had some fantastic sauteed okra at a Turkish restaurant. It had some sort of really amazing sauce. I think there were tomatoes, olive oil, and garlic, but there were probably some spices that I wasn't aware of. I want to figure out how to make that dish.
I made some okra with Indian spices where you basically stir-fry it. Still a bit slimy, but the spices made the touch of slimy bearable. I served it with rice.
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