Fried Okra
If you are growing okra in the garden, make sure you pick it often while still tender, if it gets too tough it won't be edible. A knife should slide right through a tender pod, if there is any resistance, it's too tough to cook. Lay it somewhere to dry and save the seeds for next year.
SIMPLE RECIPE
Wash the okra, trim the ends with a knife, slice the okra in 1/2 inch rounds. Season with salt and pepper, and other seasoning if desired, coat with plain cormeal, fry in hot oil in a skillet until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve while still warm.
SIMPLE RECIPE
Wash the okra, trim the ends with a knife, slice the okra in 1/2 inch rounds. Season with salt and pepper, and other seasoning if desired, coat with plain cormeal, fry in hot oil in a skillet until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve while still warm.
Okra Soup with Crabs
In early summer, green okra pods are abundant and cheap, selling in the large markets at about thirty cents a hundred. Okra is very nutritious, and deserves the attention of housewives who wish to combine variety with economy in serving their tables.
To make four quarts of soup, peel and slice two onions, and fry them brown in two tablespoonfuls of sweet drippings or butter; fry with the onions a thin slice of ham, weighing about a quarter of a pound, and a knuckle of veal chopped, or about two pounds of any cheap cut of veal containing plenty of bone; while these ingredients are frying, wash two dozen pods of okra in cold water, and slice them thin, throwing away the stems; when the onions and meat are brown, add the okra to them, with four quarts of boiling water, a small fresh green or red pepper chopped fine, and a palatable seasoning of salt, and simmer the soup slowly for two hours, keeping the pot covered. Meanwhile pick all the meat from six boiled hard-shell crabs, and fry it brown, with a small onion sliced, and a tablespoonful of butter, and peel and slice one dozen medium-sized tomatoes. Four soft-shell crabs, fried in quarters, may be used in place of the hard-shell crabs: add the fried crab-meat and the sliced tomatoes to the soup at the end of two hours, and let the soup simmer slowly for two hours longer, keeping it closely covered to prevent evaporation. If, when the time for cooking the soup has expired, it has boiled away, add sufficient boiling water to increase it to four quarts; remove the bones and any pieces of meat which have not boiled to shreds; see if the seasoning is palatable, and serve the soup hot.
PRACTICAL AMERICAN COOKERY AND HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT, By Juliet Corson
To make four quarts of soup, peel and slice two onions, and fry them brown in two tablespoonfuls of sweet drippings or butter; fry with the onions a thin slice of ham, weighing about a quarter of a pound, and a knuckle of veal chopped, or about two pounds of any cheap cut of veal containing plenty of bone; while these ingredients are frying, wash two dozen pods of okra in cold water, and slice them thin, throwing away the stems; when the onions and meat are brown, add the okra to them, with four quarts of boiling water, a small fresh green or red pepper chopped fine, and a palatable seasoning of salt, and simmer the soup slowly for two hours, keeping the pot covered. Meanwhile pick all the meat from six boiled hard-shell crabs, and fry it brown, with a small onion sliced, and a tablespoonful of butter, and peel and slice one dozen medium-sized tomatoes. Four soft-shell crabs, fried in quarters, may be used in place of the hard-shell crabs: add the fried crab-meat and the sliced tomatoes to the soup at the end of two hours, and let the soup simmer slowly for two hours longer, keeping it closely covered to prevent evaporation. If, when the time for cooking the soup has expired, it has boiled away, add sufficient boiling water to increase it to four quarts; remove the bones and any pieces of meat which have not boiled to shreds; see if the seasoning is palatable, and serve the soup hot.
PRACTICAL AMERICAN COOKERY AND HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT, By Juliet Corson