Before baking…
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Although almost all fruits and vegetables are now available any time of year, they are most desirable in their natural season. One of the vegetables I crave in summertime is okra (bámieh in Farsi). I simply boil them and have with yogurt, or sometimes with mayonnaise, or in curry, or in a Persian style stew, khoresh.
I was at the market to buy some fresh okra when I spotted these tiny okras in the frozen section. To make sure it was not a photo illusion, I asked the grocer if the okras were as small as the photo suggested and she said they were.
Also commonly called ‘lady fingers’, I always look for smaller okras, the size of my pinky, 6cm/2.5″ length, but end up with fat ones about 10cm/4″ long. I had never seen okras this small at a market and was intrigued. I never buy frozen okra but was willing to make an exception. To my surprise, these little babies did not fail me. I was planning to use fresh tomatoes for the sauce, but used tomato paste instead. However, I used some red babies to serve with these green babies.
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Okra Stew • Khoresh'e Bamieh • خورش بامیه
Recipe by: Fae’s Twist & Tango (fae-magazine.com)
INGREDIENTS
For the stewed meat
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 600 g/ 1.3 lbs stew meat, cut in 5cm/2″ x 2.5cm/1″ pieces
• 2 ~ 4 cloves garlic
• 1 bay-leaf
• 1½ cups water
Starring vegetable and for the sauce
• 4 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 250 g/ 8 oz onion, thinly sliced
• 400 g/ 14 oz okra, preferably fresh or frozen
• 300 ml/ 1¼ cup hot water
• 1½ Tbsp quality tomato paste
• 1 tsp hot pepper paste
• 60 ~ 80 ml/ ¼ ~ 1/3 cup verjuice
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp salt + 1 tsp for blanching
• pinch ground black pepper
• smidgen (1/32 tsp) ground saffron dissolved in 1 Tbsp hot water
• 110 g/ 4 oz mini cherry tomatoes
DIRECTIONS
For the stewed meat
◊ Add oil to a medium-sized saucepan and place it on high-heat. As soon as oil is hot, add cut onions and stirring constantly, sauté for 2 minutes. Add meat and sear all sides. Add water, garlic, bay-leaf, put the lid on and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer for 1½ hours, or until meat is cooked tender and soft. There should be ½ cup of liquid left. If needed, add a little water at a time not to scorch. (This may be made up to 2 days in advance and refrigerated or made in quantity and frozen in batches to use when needed.)
Meanwhile
◊ In a non-stick fry-pan, heat 4 Tbsp vegetable oil on high. Add thinly sliced onion. When it starts boiling, lower heat to medium. Stirring frequently, caramelize onion, without burning. Quickly scoop out the caramelized onion and set aside.
◊ In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add 1 tsp salt and then add okra (fresh or frozen) and blanch briefly. Drain and shock in cold water to stop from cooking and to maintain the vibrant green color. When cooled, drain and set aside. (Traditionally, fresh okra is sautéed for additional flavor by caramelizing a bit.)
◊ Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 175°C/350°F.
Pyrex 20 cm sq x 5 cm deep
(8″ square, 2″ deep)=6 cups
◊ In an ovenproof dish (about 20cm square) add 1 cup hot water and dissolve tomato paste and red hot pepper paste. Add verjuice, turmeric, ½ tsp salt, pepper, dissolved saffron, 1/2 of caramelized onion, and stir.
◊ To the sauce, add cooked meat, blanched (or satéed ) okra, and spread the baby cherry tomatoes. Tightly cover with aluminium foil and bake for 1 hour.
◊ Before serving, sprinkle on the other ½ of the caramelized onion. Perfect when served with Persian rice/polo.
~ Noushe jan! • نوش جان ~
A few important points in making an outstanding Persian khoresh:
♦ Don’t skimp on oil… use as much as needed for frying/sautéing. Boiling oil also cooks and adds flavor. It can be skimmed off before serving.
♦ Brown/sear onion and meat very well.
♦ Adding 1/16 ~ 1/8 tsp of ground saffron, dissolved in 1 Tbsp hot water, will substantially add to taste.
♦ Don’t use too much water for cooking, just enough to steam and condense. –Simmer on low heat for a long time. This helps flavor fusion of ingredients.
♦ Best if stew is made a day in advance and refrigerated for taste to meld.
♦ Almost all stews can be frozen. Exception: If stew includes potato(es), potato pieces to be removed before freezing.
♦ There are red [2] stews (using tomato paste) and green [2] stews (using herbs). Garnishing red stews sparingly with caramelized onion before serving not only further enhances taste but visually enhances the dish.
[2] Slang: ‘red’ and ‘green’ are used to specify types of stews or mixed rices, using tomato paste vs. herbs respectively. This concept also helps host/hostess plan an event menu and serve a balance of reds and greens.
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This delicious sweet is also called bamieh/okra!
Could it have gotten its name from vegetable bamieh/okra? 🙂
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So, what’s cooking in your kitchen?
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This is something I have never seen or tried! It looks wonderful Fae!
I’m sure you had okra, maybe blanched and plain? If not, give it a try. It would be a new discovery.
We are not used to okra in Italy…. unfortunately! I tasted them the first time in a Turkish restaurant when I moved to Montreal, and of course, love at the first bite! I bought them even frozen and they were ok…I’m sure your dish is amazing! Interesting to know that you eat them boiled with yoghurt…. I would love to try!
In the last few days, on TV, I saw a couple of Japanese salads made with okra. Barely blanched, super thinly sliced (to look like stars) and dressed with other vegetables. They looked awesome! 🙂
I’ve never had Okra Stew, but it looks and sounds so good–it’s perfect for summer!
Yes, being in season, it really makes sense.
I have never seen such tiny okras before. They make the dish look so pretty along with the cherry tomatoes. We make a similar dish although the okras are fried crisp before adding to the meat. But the blanched version sounds healthier and looks tasty
Traditional recipe calls for frying the okras before stewing too. Caramelizing the vegetables makes the dish taste better. As you mentioned, to use less fat, I make it up with more caramelized onion. also, in this case, okras being so tiny, I wanted them to shine with their color in the stew. 🙂
Love okra we call them also gombos Fae and we have a similar dish in Algeria (yes an other one)…The addition of turmeric and the caramelized onion make your dish so delicious and tempting. Sometimes frozen vegetables are very nice too. I wish I had sweet bamieh with my tea fro this evening! 🙂
Too bad we are so far away from each other, otherwise you would have had the sweet bamieh to have with your tea. 🙂 Something about cooking and sharing the season’s harvest/bounty makes the meal so special. I love to see your gombos recipe someday. 🙂
Yummy! This looks delicious. I like the idea of small okra. i will have to see if I can find them at my local grocer. It is nice to see others that appreciate OKRA!
Hi Dee Marie, My husband who was a finicky eater when I met him, to my surprise, liked okra. go figure. I hope you find them at your grocer. Also try the Middle-Eastern market too. 🙂
This looks so good, Fae. I think okra is one of those underrated and underutilized vegetables. I love them and think they make a a great side dish alone and a really great addition to a stew like this. Yum!
I totally agree, Amanda. I was so delighted when I saw big piles of okras at the markets of African islands, and variety of dishes made with. And, okra curry was a delightful discovery. Yum, indeed! 🙂
I LOVE okra! I can’t live without okra! I never tried with red meat, I usually eat it with chicken, but this looks delicious too!
Hello dear Aslihan, My friend makes the stew with chicken’s dark meat and it is fabulous. It also tastes good with lamb, if you like lamb. 🙂
I’ve never had that stew before, I have a love hate relationship with okra, when it gets slimy I’m not so crazy abut it. I heard you should not wash okra if you don’t it wont’ get slimy. The stew looks so colorful and delicious. Bamieh is wonderful and they do resemble okra.
Suzanne, if you can find these small ones, give them a try, they are barely slimy. I have not heard about the washing part, but if you fry them before cooking with the sauce, it tends to be less slimy. I was cooking these tiny ones for the first time. Since they were frozen (I had never cooked frozen okras) I just briefly blanched them to enhance their color, and didn’t fry them because they are too small and I thought I would have brown round things in the stew 😀 )))
I think, sweet bamieh was named after okra. 🙂
Love okra after a trip to New Orleans 🙂
That’s right! Okra is big in the south. I have to check how they prepare them. 🙂
I gave my mother a challenging time when she made the Iranian version using the larger okras but loved the lebanese/syrian version instead. These tiny okras are mostly used in Egypt and the levant countries. The recipes there are a bit more tangy tasting than the Iranian or the Gulf countries (Iraq, Kuwait). Instead of tumeric and saffron, their recipes call for a pinch of cinnamon and allspice to the meat when it is cooking, and most important component is a grind made of cilantro, garlic, and lemon juice which is fried for a few minutes and added to the stew 10 minutes or so before cooking time is over.
Your version is the best of both worlds and looks delicious! I love how you baked yours here. I don’t cook that often but when I do I use the oven for a lot of recipes, and so when I visit my family in Iran I love to turn on their ovens for a change! Caramelized onions is my other secret!
~new fan and follower (masi)
Hello dear Masi! Thank you for becoming a fan and follower. xx 🙂 Also, thank you for the informative comment. I appreciate any insights. Some Iranian home-cooks use varieties of spices (advieh) when they cook meat for stews. However, the grind made of cilantro, garlic and lemon juice is new to me and sound very interesting. After using these small okras, if I ever have the choice, I will pick the smaller ones. People who are turned off by the slimy part of okra may change their mind. 🙂