Okra...the only way my family can actually eat it.

Okra is an interesting vegetable. Our southern family grows it, fries it up dusted in cornmeal and calls it dinner. My husband, bless his heart, is opposed to even this traditional offering of okra. He is totally turned off by the slimy texture that persists even with the frying. So when we got a bag of fresh okra in our CSA I was a little afraid.

I drop off a CSA for friends, and while we were assessing our weekly haul I voiced my concern. She looked up at me without batting an eyelash and said. "Easy, Just cook it with tomatoes. It is the best!" I was very skeptical.
It just so happened that there were tomatoes also in the CSA box this week, so I tried it.

OH MAN! It was great! The fresh okra has a fantastic texture. It is crunchy and sweet, and the addition of tomatoes does eliminate the slime. I added onions, garlic and Greek olives. It was perfect, and yes...Keith ate some. His review was: "It's OK, I would not eat it every day, but it's OK." VICTORY!!

Okra with Tomatoes:

Ingredients:

4 cups of sliced Okra
1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion sliced
2 garlic cloves minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
salt & pepper
4 plumb tomatoes diced
1/2 cup pitted Greek olives

Directions:

1. Heat a large frying pan over medium high heat. When the pan is hot add oil and onions. Season with salt and pepper. When the onions are almost translucent add the garlic, pepper flakes and okra. Continue to cook for 3 minutes. Keep stirring so the garlic does not burn.

2. Add the tomatoes to the pan. Stir and bring mixture up to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 5-8 minutes. Stir in olives a few minutes before you serve.

Grilled curried Eggplant

I really love our CSA with Revision farm here in Dorchester. Recently though we have received a LOT of eggplant. Long purple Asian ones, big fat Italian ones, and now these little white ones. They are the only eggplants that I have ever seen that might explain how this veggie got its name. They have a denser and creamer inside than their Italian cousins. I have successfully used them in stir frys, tomato sauce, curries and, (inspired by the curry experiment) Grilled with curry spices.

This recipe uses the foil packet method. (picture below) It is super easy. Cross two pieces of foil, place your oil and spices in the middle, place your halved eggplants flat-side down on the spices, fold the foil over to make an enclosed square and crimp the edges down tight.

Grilled, Curried Eggplant

Ingredients:

3 small white eggplants, stems removed and halved
2 tablespoons coconut oil in liquid form (you can use veggie or olive if if you like)
1/2 tsp Caribbean curry powder (Caribbean curry powders have allspice in them, I like that but use what you have)
1 garlic clove, minced
Salt and pepper

1. Make your foil packet, bend up the edges of the middle where you will be arranging your eggplant.

2. Pour your oil into the packet. Add spices and mix together. Place your eggplants face down into the spicy oil, then wrap your packet and crimp the edges tightly.

3. Grill, oil side down for 15-20 minutes or until the eggplants are very soft when you push on the packet. Unwrap carefully and enjoy

Italian Plumb Brown Sugar Cake

Last week at work we saved several palates of beautiful Italian Plumbs!! The boys and I brought home a bunch, cleaned them, froze two gallon bags full of plumbs, made a batch of plumb wine, and
then THIS.

I found this recipe on Lydia Bastianitch's site. It is a fantastic cake and the layers of plumbs are a fun surprise. It is not super difficult. Joseph pretty much did the recipe himself. It does have a few prep steps, but all the work is worth it.


Italian Plumb Brown Sugar Cake

Ingredients:

cake:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
18 Italian Plumbs, pitted and halved

topping:
2  cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare an 8 inch springform pan by spreading it with butter or shortening and dusting with flour.

2. In a mixer combine butter and brown sugar until well incorporated. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time until well incorporated, then mix in lemon zest and vanilla.

3. In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients. *those of you familiar with cake recipes might be wondering at this point...where is the milk? Don't worry, there is not mistake, this recipe is different, but it works*

4. Spread half of the cake batter in the bottom of your prepared pan, then arrange half your plumbs in a layer on top of your batter. Cover plumb layer with the remaining cake batter, and layer again with plumbs.

5. In a food processor or in a medium bowl by hand combine the topping ingredients. They should be pretty dry and have large chunky crumbles. If the mixture is more wet, and not crumbly add a little more flour.

6. Sprinkle the topping evenly over your last layer of plumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes then continue to cool on a wire rack.