This morning's po'boy post set my thoughts wandering to New Orleans, where Anna and I went a little over a year ago, before the hurricane. And what could be more Louisianan than gumbo? For some reason I could not bring myself to make a gumbo, but I developed a real craving for okra, its essential ingredient. It is the okra's slime that makes a gumbo thick, and the name itself is said to come from some African word for okra.
I got back from my trip only the day before yesterday, and after 35-45 degrees in the outback the frost at home is no fun. Braving the bitter cold anyway (I want to go back south!), I made for Vii Voan, the Asian grocer in Hakaniemi where I once found durians in the freezer, and bought the last two packs of fresh okra and some dried tamarind. A block of tamarind looks very much like dates, and tamarind is sometimes even called the Indian date. I read that the name itself comes from the Arabic tamr hindi, Indian date.
You can also get halal meat in Hakaniemi, though frozen, which is hardly orthodox. I take no position on halal slaughter and the animal cruelty that may go with it. It just happens that halal shops are the only places where I have managed to find goat, a meat I crave. In Finland goats are practically never raised for food but kept mostly as pets. There is said to be a farm somewhere near Mäntsälä that sells goats to order, but buying a whole carcass for a one-person household makes little sense. So for the time being I depend on frozen meat from Sweden. The recipe allows lamb in place of goat.
Instead of gumbo I decided to make bamia, a very common dish in North Africa and the Middle East. The name is Arabic and simply means okra. It is a meat stew based on okra and tomato, and it takes very little effort, though not very little time, since the meat needs its while to cook.
I cut off only the stalk ends and tips of the okra and leave the pods otherwise whole. A whole pod keeps most of its slime inside, so it pays to stir the stew gently and keep the pods from breaking. The tamarind brings a sour, slightly prune-like taste to go with the tomato, and I press the soaked pulp hard in the sieve, because the flavour is in that liquid. I boil the meat briefly first and pour the water away, taking the grey scum with it. In the bowl in the picture the okra has stayed whole, and the sauce has turned out fairly thin.
Recipe card
Bamia, Goat and Okra Stew
- serves four (350 kcal per serving)
- Boiling the meat 5 + 30 min
- Simmering with the okra 5 + 30 min
You will need
| 500 g | goat or lamb |
| 400 g | fresh or frozen okra |
| 4 | garlic cloves |
| 1 1/2 tsp | salt |
| 1/2 tsp | black pepper |
| 100 g | dried tamarind |
| 400 g tin | chopped tomatoes |
| 300 + 900 ml | boiling water |
Method
- Dried tamarind is sold pressed into a tough block. Cut it into small pieces and leave them to soak in 300 ml of boiling water.
- Rinse the okra and cut off the stalk ends and tips of the pods. Soak for 5 minutes in cold water and drain well.
- Trim the meat of excess fat and cut it into cubes of a couple of centimetres. Boil the meat for 5 minutes in plenty of water, then pour the water away.
- Peel the garlic cloves and fry them, whole or halved, with the meat for a few minutes, until both have taken a little colour. Pour 900 ml of boiling water over the meat and let it boil for 30 minutes.
- Strain the soaked tamarind, pressing the pulp hard, and keep the liquid that runs out.
- Add about 300 ml of the tamarind liquid, the salt, pepper, tomatoes and okra to the meat. Bring back to the boil for 5 minutes, then simmer gently for another 30 minutes. Stir lightly halfway through, taking care not to break the okra pods.
The finished bamia can be eaten as a stew with rice or on its own as a soup, in which case the recipe will amply feed two.
2 comments
Ai jai. Kunnon gumboa, johon tulee mausteista makkaraa ja kanaa, ei mikään voita 😉
Mmm, tuo mausteisen makkaran huono saatavuus olikin kai se varsinainen syy miksen jaksanut tehdä gumboa. Sellon citymarketista saisi hyviä raakamakkaroita, mutta sinne pitäisi lähteä erikseen...