I know, I know. I play with that soundalike a lot.
Know what? Annalena never saw a single episode of Ophra during the entire run. Given the number of commercials, and excerpts, it might be like "Grease" or "Saturday Night Fever," which Annalena has never seen, start to finish, but has probably seen four or five times.
You probably have similar situations in your viewing history.
Anyway, anytime I work with okra, I think of Ophra. What can I do? So, now, let's get to okra, and the combination of the moment: okra, lima beans, and corn. This is another example of my newest favorite concept: cooking by accretion.
About two weeks ago, the assistant to Nevia, the goddess of vegetables, was all excited. She was showing me Christmas lima beans. These are beautiful, red and white mottled beans, that are, in fact, lima beans. Or, butter beans, if you like.
Annalena is NOT a fan of lima beans. She's tried. Probably, a childhood of having to eat them, at least once a week, with salt pork and other nasties, in a soup that made her gag. It was a favorite of her stepfather, nicknamed Colonel Klink. Annalena and her sisters used to laugh every time Klink would say "what's wrong with that soup? I grew up on that soup," and whisper "so that's why you never smile."
With the days of Klink long behind her, Annalena decided to give lima beans a try again. They MUST be a favorite to someone, because the farmers market is jammed with them in season. So a few years ago, she brought home a few pounds.
And nearly went nuts trying to get them out of the pod. See, lima beans are WORK. If you aren't ready for fresh fava beans, don't even THINK about limas. They're not as bad as fresh chickpeas (Oh, GEEZ, does Annalena feel sorry for the sous chefs who get the job of peeling fresh chickpeas in restaurants), but they are, or WERE pretty awful.
It was against that backdrop that when Nevia's assistant offered me the beans I smiled and said no thank you. A week later, Nevia wanted to know why I wasn't buying her "new experiment," the Christmas lima beans. I told her I found them too hard to open.
Well, Nevia must have been having a bad day. She picked one up, snapped it and said "THIS is too hard for you?" She did another one. And another one. And then had me try.
Ok, ok, I guess it's like wringing a chicken's neck. It's actually very easy to do once someone shows you how. And rather than tick off the lady who makes all of my vegetables taste so good, I went home with a pound. Then on Saturday morning, I sat there, peeling them and, yes, they opened very easily, and I had a heaping cup of lima beans. Bright red and white.
They would not stay that way. Nevia had told me that, but she said they'd cook to a "dull purple." (Keep in mind , folks, that dull purple, in fabric, is gray). What to do with them?
Well, I also had about a half pound of okra. Not the teeniest ones, and not the biggest ones, but medium sized okras. I didn't know what I was going to do with them, but not another macque choux like we had earlier this month. Annalena's mind began to think "we haven't had SUCCOTASH in a long time." It's peak corn season, the okra and the lima beans were there, and BANG, out came Annalena's version of succotash.
This probably isn't succotash to a lot of people, so just think of it as a corn , lima bean and okra stew. And it WILL get you to eat two vegetables you probably don't eat a lot of, if at all. Here we go.
You need four ears of corn. Shuck the corn, and with a sharp knife, cut the kernels from the ears. THen, take the dull back end of the knife, and rub it hard against the cobs. Look at all the white stuff. Taste it. That's where the good stuff in corn is. Put it together with your kernels.
Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to boil, and add fresh lima beans. A cup and a half was what I had. Let them cook until they are as tender as you like. For me, this was 15-20 minutes, and yes, the Christmas limas faded to dull purple... or gray. Drain them.
Let's address the okra. I have written about this before, but it bears repeating. If the thing about okra that dissuades you from eating it is the sliminess, there is a way to avoid it. Look at an okra pod. To Annalena, it is somewhat like an acorn, with a little cap, and then the actual okra pod. The cap is not edible, and if you cut it from the okra, and then leave the rest of the vegetable whole, it will not start sliming. Okra only slimes when you cut into the pod, and the saponins react with air.
Like that word? Saponin? Look up the word "saponification." No, I'll tell you. It means soap making. The molecules in okra, and cactus paddles, and which surround quinoa, are called "saponins" because they feel slippery and slimy, like soap (if you've ever encountered the soap that sat in a soap dish with water, you know what I mean). Saponins, by the way, are very important in medicine: they are used as immune boosters in vaccines, and while no one has done any work...
Back to cooking. You have your lima beans, your corn, your okra, and now, it's all going to come together. Melt about three tablespoons of unsalted butter in a big wide pan, and add the corn. Stir it to coat it with the butter, and add some salt. COok it for, oh, about five minutes, and then add the beans. Stir them together, for another five minutes.
Finally, add the okra, and cover the pot. Lower the heat and let this cook for five minutes. The okra will keep its color, get tender crisp, and will not get slimy.
Now..... Off with the cover, and in goes half a cup of heavy cream. DON'T USE MILK. Stir it around until the cream evaporates and the vegetables are nice and coated. If you like it hot, add some chopped chili peppers at this point.
And you are done. With more than enough for four people.
I find that this goes REALLY well with simple, pan fried or grilled fish.
Variations? Well, I would keep the corn and okra, but if you really don't want lima beans, put in some other green vegetable that you do like. Maybe shell beans? Or green beans? Or favas.
Let me know what you make if you change this around.
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