Cooking okra in oven for gumbo

Just cook it in the roux with the trinity. No slime

I grow a LOT of okra every summer-------60+ plants------and I generally cut up about 5 lbs. at a time and cook it down on my stove in a big pot with onions, garlic, some diced tomatoes and various wet and dry seasonings.

I'll let it cook for no less than 3 hours, let it cool and then bag it up in quart freezer bags to be used later in soups and gumbos. No slime to deal with and makes it easier to make gumbos without having to deal with smothering down okra.

I've never cooked it in the oven, but I've heard it is a good alternative.

From the recipe collection:

Smothered Okra for Gumbo

"I'll say it again, If people on this board would start pre-smothering their okra they would never go back. You get a true okra gumbo as opposed to a gumbo with chunks of okra in it.

About once or twice a year we smother tons of okra, then freeze them in ziplocs. So we have portioned smothered okra whenever we need to make a gumbo. There are even a bunch of old ladies in Chauvin that sell bags of smothered okra for gumbos. The extra work makes a huge difference.

The reason the okra is smothered so long is that it becomes part of the gumbo base. It's in the stock, it's in every bite you taste. When you just "chop up your okra and throw it in with the roux," the okra is just another solid ingredient, like the shrimp tails."

Procedure
In a good size heavy bottom pot, bring a little oil to medium-high. Add chopped onion and sliced okra and sautee for about 10 minutes. Next, Add about an inch of water and a small amount of vinegar and back the fire down to low. If you want diced tomatoes now is the time to add them.

Cover the pot and smother for a few hours, periodically adding small amounts of water. Never let the pot dry out. When you are done the okra should be completly broken down into a pourable texture. Also make sure there's no standing water in the pot when you are finished....let any water cook out towards the end.

Tips
Before the crock pot days my mom would do just as you did. Instead of leaving it on the stove all day she would put it in the oven and smother it. 275 for 5-6 hours, stirring every hour or so. - CHEDBALLZ

Source: Honky Lips

quote:

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"I'll say it again, If people on this board would start pre-smothering their okra they would never go back. You get a true okra gumbo as opposed to a gumbo with chunks of okra in it.

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Like I've mentioned already, I grow a LOT of okra in the summer months and find myself picking 50-70 pods a day for almost 3 months time before I finally pull the plants. I do pickle, grill, fry and give a good bit of it away to family and friends, but much of it is smothered down on my stove in the manner you describe, put in quart freezer bags and frozen until needed.

I probably have 5 gallons of it smothered down in my freezer now, along with 5 one gallon bags of it just sliced in rings and vacuum sealed to smother down when I run out of quart bags.

When I make gumbos or soups I use the okra in, I'll thaw the bags in a pot with quart bags of my homemade stocks----chicken, beef, crawfish, shrimp, oyster liquor, fried turkey, boudin etc. depending on what flavor profile I'm aiming for. When all is defrosted I'll add it to the pot at the onset of cooking so it breaks down even further.

I've had people ask me why I didn't use okra and when I tell them it's in the gumbo they are surprised. The only tell-tale sign are the small cooked round seeds still pretty much in tact.

Cut up you okra about 3/8" long pieces. Put it in a magnalite pot, add 1 diced onion, 1 can of rotel and about a 1/4 of vinegar. Cook it either on the stove or in the oven for 4-5 hours. You can also use the same method in a crock pot, that takes about 6-8 hours.

A grocery bag full of okra will yield you about 3 quart bags full.

Here's an excerpt from Mosquito Supper Club Cookbook:

quote:

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Smothered okra is slow-cooked until it breaks down and thickens to a texture almost like that of creamed spinach. It’s the base of other recipes in this book (see Maxine’s Shrimp Okra Gumbo, Mosquito Supper Club’s Shrimp, Okra, and Crab Gumbo, and Chicken and Okra Gumbo) and can be added to soups and stews as a thickener. It’s also a way to inject dishes with loads of nutrition.

Most folks are scared of okra’s sticky, gelatinous texture, but you just need to know how to handle the slime. Yes, okra is very sticky when you cut it. Your hands and knife will be slimy. Stay with it—it will wash away. When cooking okra, you need to add acid to neutralize the slime and enhance the okra’s flavor; in this recipe, that acid comes from a tomato.

Smothering okra is a slow process, so be sure you pick a day when you’ll be home all day to try this recipe. Perhaps on a rainy day, or one set aside for cleaning the house. When Louisiana’s heat is reaching its all-time high, I’ll cozy up with a book, reorganize my spice cabinet, or clean my baseboards while smothering okra. Start with the amounts listed here to get the hang of it; then, if you want to do more, you can move on to smothering 10 pounds (4.5 kg) at a time.

MAKES 1 QUART (980 G)

Canola oil
5 pounds (2.3 kg) okra, trimmed and cut into ¼-inch-thick (6 mm) rounds
1 small tomato, diced

Warm a heavy-bottomed pot large enough to hold all the okra over medium heat. Pour in oil to coat the bottom of the pot—just enough so the okra won’t stick. Add the okra, reduce the heat to its lowest setting, and cover. Cook, stirring the okra every 15 to 20 minutes, for a total of 8 hours. The covered pot will create steam and the steam will drip into the okra, keeping it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. If you feel your pot is not creating enough steam, add a tablespoon of water when you stir.

After 7 hours, stir in the tomato.

After 8 hours, the final product should be a mess of dark swampy green okra and pale pink okra seeds. Let cool to room temperature, then transfer the okra to ziplock freezer bags and freeze to eat or use in gumbos or other meals. Okra holds its flavor and texture in the freezer for up to 1 year.

FOR THE LOVE OF OKRA

My love for okra is deep. Okra plant blossoms are my favorite flower. Their beautiful, delicate, pale yellow petals open to meet the sun and reveal a vibrant maroon center. You can quickly tell that okra is related to the hibiscus family. In the age of nose-to-tail eating, okra is your veggie. You can eat the flowers, leaves, and stalks. You can roast and grind the seeds and steep them into a refreshing beverage that was once used as a substitute for coffee. And okra has many medicinal and nutritional benefits, including your daily dose of fiber.

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i just saute it for 10 or so minutes at the end of the trinity. Its never slimy at all