This Isn't Louisiana

[stoutfellow]

Today, I went over to Shop'n'Save to buy the ingredients for this year's Thanksgiving feast. I found most of what I was looking for easily enough, with one exception: okra. I finally asked a stocker about it; he told me that they usually had it, but it hadn't been in stock for a few days. (I asked him what it looked like, remembering the leek incident, and he showed me a picture.) I bought the rest of the stuff, went home and put it away, and headed out again.

Next try: Schnuck's. After a cursory look-around, I again consulted a stocker. "Nope, we haven't had it for a couple of weeks now. I don't know why." I thanked him, and girded my loins for the rather longer walk to Dierberg's. There, without even needing a stocker's help, I found OKRA! I stuffed what looked like enough into a bag and headed for checkout.

The cashier peered at the bag and asked, "What is this?" "Okra!" "Okay. I don't see it very often, so I had to make sure."

I guess gumbo is not a major culinary item around here....

Comments

[mmegaera]

ROFL Did you buy fresh okra or frozen? I always use frozen. Walmart carries it reliably, even up here, I suspect because they're headquartered in Arkansas.

[stoutfellow]

Fresh; it didn't even occur to me to look in the frozen-foods section. (This despite the fact that your recipe explicitly calls for frozen okra. I cut it up, put it in a Tupperware container, and stuck it in the freezer.)

[mmegaera]

Oh, god. I hate to break it to you, but if you just stuck that raw okra into the freezer, you're going to end up with glop.

Commercially-frozen vegetables are blanched (cooked briefly -- generally in boiling water for about a minute) before freezing to stop the enzymatic breakdown process.

You can use fresh okra in the recipe, but I'm afraid you just ruined your fresh okra by trying to freeze it without blanching it first.

Then again, you're using it in just a couple of days, and it hasn't been in there very long (I hope). Pull it out of the freezer and just keep it refrigerated till you're ready for it. If it's not gone all soft and mushy, you should be okay.

[stoutfellow]

Message received, and hopefully in time.

[mmegaera]

I hope so! Let me know how it all goes [g].