Wednesday, July 9, 2008

You Gotta Try This!


My cheap-o camera doesn't do this justice!


Last night I was suffering from FMG, or Farmers Market Guilt. It's what happens when you have leftover, slightly shriveled produce in your fridge that was picked at the height of its deliciousness by someone's loving hands and simply Must. Not. Be. Wasted. The modest cast of characters included: A few small pods of okra, one ripe tomato, two ears of sweet corn and half a vidalia onion. So, I searched my good friends the innernets and came up with a slight variation on something I found on allrecipes.com.
Here's what I did: I chopped up a few slices of bacon and threw it in a skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil, then sauteed until it was just turning crisp. Then I added the diced up onion and stirred it around until it wasn't brown but just translucent. Then I added the corn (after scraping it off the cob and supplementing with a small bag of frozen white kernels) and the okra, chopped up. I stirred it around for a minute or two, just until the okra started giving up some of its lusciousness, which more unappreciative folk might call "slime." Then I added the cored, chopped tomato and gave it a few more stirs until it was just softened. A little course salt and pepper and voila! Summer in a skillet.

This was Soooo good, y'all, and so darned pretty you almost don't want to shove giant spoonfuls of it in your mouth while standing over the sink. But, maybe you can't help yourself after sitting in traffic in a thunderstorm with panicky kids and a growling tummy. Or, maybe that's just me. Anyway.

I kept thinking how excellent it would be as a side with some grilled fish, chicken or maybe some shrimp skewers. But last night, since the tiny punks needed to be fed too, I found it paired beautifully with Gordon's fish sticks and red grapes.
Try this sometime this summer. Okra lovers rule!

2 comments:

dawn said...

those innernets peoples done got some good ideas what say you? this looks yummms. i must give you props for actually cooking a dinner after that fierce storm we had, and two panicky kids. for me, i'm afraid it would've been the ole chik-fil-a!

Tracy said...

Hey, thanks, and since I was actually jonesing for some C-F-A chicken salad and coleslaw, there was a teeny bit of sacrifice involved. But after sitting in traffic and joining the kids in a unified shriek when lightning hit a utility pole right in front of us (we're talking scary fireworks display for about 10 seconds), my nerves couldn't handle sitting in a drive-thru! And BTW, I can't believe I put a pic of my stove, which was riddled with bacon spatters after this recipe, out there for all the innernets to see. Note to self: When planning to post recipe with pic, get the Method wipes out and clean as you go!