![]() Juice half a lemon and set the juice aside. The okras are now ready to be used for the recipe but set them aside for now. Rinse the okras under cold running water for 30 seconds. I usually discard them but my mother-in-law adds them to the stew alongside the okras. Turkish canned okras always come with sliced halved tomatoes in them. Drain the cans over your sink using a colander or a sturdy sieve. In my experience, this step was never enough to successfully turn an okra hater into an okra lover, but you can give it a go. Note that coating the okras with 120ml (½ cup) of vinegar for half an hour and then rinsing them before adding them to the stew will help reduce the slime. They are now ready to be added to the stew according to the recipe’s instructions. ![]() If the okras are very long, slice them in half crosswise. Then, trim the tough tips without cutting into the seed pods. fresh okras: Before adding them to the stew you will have to wash them thoroughly to remove their hairs.frozen cut okras: Add them directly to the stew according to the recipe’s instructions.Cut okras will result in a more viscous Turkish bamya. Drain and rinse them as written in the first step of the recipe. canned cut okras: if you see canned cut okras at your supermarket, you can use them, just be careful that they are not pickled okras.If you can’t go to a Turkish store (or can’t order from it), you can still make Turkish bamya with another type of okras that is more readily available to you: It will be written either baby okra, çiçek bamya, or mini gombo on the jar. They are smaller than regular-size okras and will result in a less slimy stew with softer okras. There will be several types on display but be on the lookout for whole baby okras. If you have the possibility to go to a Turkish store, you’ll find okras in glass jars in the canned aisle. I think that to make traditional Turkish bamya, there is nothing better than Turkish canned whole okras. You simply drain a couple of cans, rinse the okras and they are ready for cooking. It was even better since it’s quicker to make Turkish bamya since you don’t have to prepare the fresh okras. ![]() To my relief, I loved it just the same with canned okras. The next time I was visiting her, she taught me how to make the recipe with canned okras, which are widely available in the Turkish stores I go to. Afterward, I moved back to France and realized that finding fresh okras was pretty difficult. ![]() She took me to the market, showed me which okra to pick (the smallest and greenest pods) and then how to prepare them. Feel free to sub the oil for bacon grease if you like.At the first chance I got, I asked my mother-in-law to teach me her Turkish bamya recipe. Well, why bother with that? We're modern, we're lazy, and we like one pot meals! So I've updated this to be both vegetarian, a one potter, and a little more robust on the vegetables. But for some reason this recipe requires two cooking pots. They didn't futz around with 20 ingredients in a dish usually. One thing I love about these vintage recipes is the short ingredient list. This week I'm tackling the tomato okra pilau for no other reason than I saw okra at the farmers market the other week and just had to have it. One of the things beyond studying the historical dishes that have been passed down from generations is to make and update them a bit to better suit how we eat and cook now. One of my favorites is the classic Charleston Receipts, which I received from Patrick when his uncle passed away a few years ago. If you've been reading long enough or just know me, you know I love vintage cookbooks.
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