July 27
Okra and Grits—Not Kid Favorites

Menu
- Stewed Okra and Tomatoes [View Recipe]
Quick View
Ingredients
- 1 small onion
- .5 tablespoon oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- salt & pepper
- 15 large tomatoes (rinsed and dried)
- 30 2-5 inch okra (rinsed and dried)
- .5 tablespoon herbs (cleaned and leaves chopped)
- .5 cup stock
- .5 tablespoon lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
Instructions
We start by heating a large sauté pan over medium low heat. We quarter the onion and discard the peel. The onion pieces are sliced thinly, yielding 1½ cups. We add the oil and the onion to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, while we prepare the rest of the ingredients.
We smash the garlic cloves with the side of our knife, carefully, and discard the peels. We sprinkle with coarse salt and mince. The cherry tomatoes are cored and quartered, yielding 2 cups. At this time, the onion is nicely softened so we add the garlic and cook for a minute until fragrant. Then we stir in the tomatoes and add more salt and some freshly ground black pepper.
While the tomatoes break down, we trim the okra, removing the stem end, and cut the larger pods in half crosswise. We add these to the pan along with the lemon thyme and rosemary. We increase the heat to medium, add the broth, and bring to a boil. We lower the heat, cover partially, and cook for about 10 minutes until the okra is very tender and the liquid has thickened.
We taste for seasoning and add the lemon.
- Grits
- Grilled Salmon
- Grilled Shrimp
- Grilled Corn
We enjoyed the meal. The salmon (which the kids did eat) and shrimp were both perfectly grilled and quite tasty. We are suckers for grits (having been introduced to them by Chris's grandfather when we lived in Indiana). Okra is a wonderful companion for grits—making for a very southern meal.
The one item on tonight's menu that we did not enjoy was the corn. We bought it at one of the stands at the farmer's market Sunday. It may have been too old or that particular stand may have had a poor selection that day. Whatever the reason, the corn was too starchy and not sweet enough. Not even grilling it could caramelize it.
Thankfully the rest of the meal was good.