Okra And Tomatoes

As a true Southern gal, I absolutely LOVE okra and tomatoes, so I couldn’t pass up the fresh okra at the Pflugerville Pfarmer’s Market last week. Here’s a tasty recipe from the Simply Recipes website. This recipe is more diet-friendly than many of the traditional ones that use sugar, bacon, frozen okra or canned tomatoes.

okra and tomatoes

Ingredients

5 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 celery rib, sliced thin
1/2 onion, sliced thin
1 jalapeño chile, seeded, sliced thin
3 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 Tbsp tomato paste
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 and 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth (use vegetable broth for vegetarian version, and gluten-free broth for gluten-free version)
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/2 to 3/4 pound fresh okra
5 plum tomatoes, diced
Salt and pepper

Directions

Heat 3 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a large sauté pan or wide, shallow pot over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, sauté the onion, jalapeño and celery for 2 minutes, stirring once or twice. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute or two.

Sautee onions, jalapenos and celery

While the vegetables are sautéing, mix the tomato paste, broth and vinegar until they are combined. Add to the pan with the vegetables and bring to a boil. Add the rosemary and a pinch of salt.

Okra and tomatoes ingredients - rosemary, chicken stock, tomato paste and red wine vinegar

As the sauce is boiling, slice the okra on the bias to create diagonal pieces. The reason for diagonal slicing is to expose as much of the interior of the okra as possible. Wait to cut the okra until the last minute because it helps make them less slimy.

Heat another pan over high heat for a minute or two. Add the remaining oil and get it almost smoking hot, which should take 1-2 minutes. Add the sliced okra and spread out in a single layer in the pan. Let the okra brown for at least a minute before you move them. The goal is to cook the okra quickly at very high heat without moving it too much. The high heat sears the okra and helps limit the slime factor. Sear the okra for 3-4 minutes, stirring only 2-3 times.

Saute the okra in hot oil

As soon as the okra is done, add it to the boiling sauce.

Add okra to sauce

Add the diced tomatoes and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes, no longer. The tomatoes should still be a bit firm, and you don’t want to cook the okra to the point it starts releasing slime.

Add diced tomatoes

Turn off the heat, grind black pepper over everything and taste once more for salt. Add if needed.

Serve over steamed rice or with lots of crusty bread.

More information

Update: Dot’s closed in February 2010. The line for the final day wrapped around the corner. Dorothy “Dot” Hewitt had been serving wonderful southern-style cooking for more than 30 years. A local paper joked that heart doctors in Austin could breathe a sigh of relief for the no-longer-to-be-clogged arteries. We’ll miss the food!

I have been a fan of Dot’s Place for years. When the original restaurant off of Howard Lane in Austin burned down, I cried for a week. I thought I’d never have their chicken with dumplings, catfish or cornbread again. Not so. Dot’s Place is now serving up heaps of comfort in Pflugerville.

Dot's Place

Photo: tomato salad (sliced tomatoes marinated in Italian dressing), catfish, cabbage, broccoli cheese rice, yam pie and a dinner roll. Comfort food deluxe!

Dot's Place in Pflugerville, Texas

Old timers will remember that this location used to be Mr. Gatti’s Pizza.

Texas Monthly and Dot’s Place

In 2005, Texas Monthly rated comfort around the state. Here’s what they wrote about several items on the menu at Dot’s Place:

Pie: It’s hard to obey the rule to never eat anything larger than your head when faced with the monumental dessert portions at Dot’s Place, including an irresistible yam pie and a deliriously sweet peach cobbler with a fabulous crust.
Okra + greens: Greens always have an undercurrent of bitterness—that’s what makes them interesting. The yummy fresh collards at Dot’s Place balance the bitterness with salt. The humble spot’s stewed okra with juicy tomatoes gives that much-maligned vegetable a good name; the seasoning is Southern sweet, and there’s no hint of okra’s dreaded slime.
Meat loaf: A near-Platonic meat loaf emerges from the to-go window of Dot’s Place; the beefy slices crumble as you cut into them, melding with the tomatoey topping to form a sort of glorious, Southern-style Bolognese sauce.
Cornbread: The moist cornbread muffins at Dot’s Place walk the line between sweet and unsweet, so as not to offend patriots on either side of the great cornbread divide.
Chicken and dumplings: Whoa! You don’t get just some stringy bits when you order chicken and dumplings at Dot’s Place; you get whole pieces of baked chicken. The dumplings, somehow fluffy and substantial at once, may be the world’s best use of white flour.

I totally agree with Texas Monthly. I’d add Dot’s catfish and chicken fried steak to this list because they are among my favorite comfort foods at Dot’s Place.

Beef tips at Dot's Place