Broccoli Rising and Okra and Potatoes for Everybody

It’s National Potato Day! So why am I writing about okra?  Bear with me. I’ve got potato recipes too.

Among Trump’s recent lies is his claim Kamala Harris can’t be Indian and Black. Ridiculous! Egregious! Weird! 

We’re not buying into hate-mongering and race-baiting. Because honey, we were all foreigners at some point. 

Immigration made us who we are. Whether our families came here on the Mayflower, on a slave ship, one of the hundreds of ships of immigrants that arrived at Ellis Island, or on a balsa, we all came to this strange new world with the beloved foodways from our homelands.

Take okra. Brought here by African slaves in the 17th century, it felt right at home in the American South, where it grows as far north as Virginia. Jefferson grew it at Monticello and I bet James Hemings, his classically French-trained enslaved Black chef prepared and served it.  One of the South’s great regional dishes, gumbo, gets its name from ngombo -- African for okra. Generations of Louisiana and Lowcountry cooks have added it to this classic spicy stew of indigenous ingredients.

Okra is one of your most stylish vegetables. What other vegetable comes with its own pearls? With its slender tapered pale green pods just a few inches long. you can see why in India, okra’s called lady fingers.

A serving of okra barely comes to 30 calories, but provides loads of vitamins C and A, folate and fiber, even protein.

For all that, okra’s still a hard sell for some, including Lowcountry cook Sallie Ann Robinson. It’s the perceived sliminess factor.  I prefer to think of okra as slightly lubed. And I have a remedy for that.  

Choose lovely little pods without blemish. They’re younger, more tender, less fibrous, with less goo factor. Rinse okra, gently blot dry, then give it a little acidity — a small splash of vinegar or squeeze of lemon before cooking, or follow the wisdom of  generations of cooks the whole world over — cook it with tomato. Tomato and okra are both fruit, botanically speaking, and tomato adds that acidity too.  Plus they’re delicious together:

• They’re in this luscious peanut stew from Mali

• In this Caribbean sauté from Michelle and Suzanne Rousseau, authors of Provisions 

• Okra and tomatoes team up all over the Middle East, including this recipe from Lebanon 

• The Greeks make a similar version 

• In India, okra stars in the kitchen as bindi masala, okra simmered with tomatoes, ginger, garlic and warming spices.  Enjoy this recipe from Michelin-honored Miami chef Niven Patel. He takes farm to table to the next level. He grows his own okra.

Okra is a culturally appropriate food, whatever your culture is.  From Africa to India, okra’s what holds everything together. This is an inclusive fruit. 

So once Kamala Harris announced her running mate would be Minnesota governor Tim Walz, I wanted to include Minnesota too. I’m intrigued by a state Prince, Bob Dylan, and Tim Walz have called home, so I asked my other favorite Minnesotan, Robin Asbell if Minnesota does okra. The answer is no.  Stands to reason.  Okra likes it sultry and steamy.  Even with climate change, Minnesota doesn’t get much of that.

And then I remembered — today is National Potato Day. Like Tim Walz, potatoes are easy to love. I knew about the tater tot casserole known as Minnesota hot dish. This vegan version comes courtesy of Nava Atlas. 

But Robin did me one better, turning me on to lefse, a thin potato-based flatbread from Norway that sends folks into rapture. I can’t pronounce it, but I can make it, and so can you. (Paid subscribers will find the recipe at the end of the post.)  

In the midst of rolling the dough, flipping the lefse, and getting flour everywhere, I imagined how fun it would be to make I would make it again with Robin, Tim Waltz and Kamala Harris. It could happen.  Harris is a kickass prosecutor and kickass in the kitchen too.  

Wherever we’re from, however we identify, we all bring something to the table. Embrace it all, from okra to potatoes. To do otherwise would be damned un-American.

More okra and potatoes 

Here I am proudly holding my fermented okra during my Broccoli Rising interview with SoFAB’s Elizabeth Williams.  I love our chat like I love okra.

Consider fermented okra your entry-level okra recipe. It’s quick, easy, takes just a few basic ingredients, and preserves okra for weeks. It’s like a quick pickle, but better.  Since it’s fermented, it boosts immunity and benefits your microbiome. (Paid subscribers will find the recipe at the end of the post.)

Sallie Ann Robison may not love okra, but her family does.  Her recipe for tomato, corn, green lima, and okra soup is her family’s favorite.  

Cook potatoes and okra together for a knockout Indian curry.

For more potato possibilities, come to papa.

Book news!

September 6,  Books and Books brings bestselling author and empathic storyteller extraordinaire Matt Haig to Miami. I’m super delighted to chat with the author about his new novel. The Life Impossible.  I’m halfway through it and I’m hooked — can’t wait to speak with him.   Get your tix and come join us.  

One of the great pleasures of Broccoli Rising is hearing from readers. One turns out to be Nicholas Delbanco, prolific author, prose stylist, longtime creative writing director at University of Michigan, and before that, creative writing director at Bennington College, where I had the pleasure to study with him. If you enjoy my writing (and jeez, I hope you do), Nick gets some credit. And if you don’t like my writing, don’t blame Nick.  He’s innocent  He’s also, elegant and charming and insightful as ever.  His new memoir Still Life at Eighty proves it.

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