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Texas Hattie Bailey
I CUP DICED OKRA 1/2 CUP DICED CELERY 1/2 PIMIENTO, CHOPPED FINE 5-6 BIG TOMATOES, SKINNED AND QUARTERED I TABLESPOON BUTTER SALT AND PEPPER Use only short, young okra and boil it tender, but so it still keeps its shape. Cook celery, pimiento (preferably a green one) and tomatoes in a second pan, drain, and add to drained okra in first pan. Dot with butter, season and heat just below boiling point.
A plain stewed okra and tomato side, cooked in two pans so the okra keeps its shape rather than dissolving into the tomato. Everything hinges on how the okra is handled.
- Choose the okra carefullyShort pods, no more than three or four inches, are the point of the instruction. Larger pods are fibrous and their seeds are tough no matter how long they cook.
- Boil the okra brieflySalted water at a rolling boil, a few minutes for young pods (the ingredient list calls for them diced). Drain as soon as they are tender: the recipe insists they keep their shape, and longer cooking slumps them and draws out more mucilage.
- "Pimiento" here means a fresh pepperThe parenthetical "preferably a green one" makes clear this is a fresh sweet pepper, not the jarred red pimiento sold for stuffing olives. Half a small bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped, is the equivalent.
- Skinning the tomatoesThirty seconds in boiling water, then cold, and the skins slip off. Five or six big tomatoes is roughly 2 to 3 lb; in winter, drained canned whole tomatoes are a fair substitute since they are quartered and drained anyway.
- Drain both pans wellTomatoes throw a great deal of liquid, and the dish is meant to be a vegetable side, not a soup. Let the tomato mixture sit in a colander a minute before combining.
- Heat just below boilingAround 190F. Once the butter is in, boiling will break the tomato quarters apart and thin the sauce.
- SeasoningOne tablespoon of butter for this quantity is modest; two is closer to modern taste. Salt the okra water as well as the finished dish.
- YieldServes four as a side dish.