Embracing the slime - the Brazilian way with okra

There is a reason why the lovely butter-yellow okra flower at the right looks like a hibiscus. Okra and hibiscus are both members of the  botanical family Malvaceae, as are cotton ,cacao and the dreadful-smelling durian.

Okra (Portuguese: quiabo) is one of those love-it-or-hate-it foods about which few people are neutral. For those in the hate-it camp, the problem is often more about texture than taste. Okra exudes a mucilaginous substance, which gives many okra dishes a more-or-less slippery or slimy texture. Most North American okra recipes go to great lengths to try to reduce or eliminate the texture, often by preliminarily stir-frying the okra, or by the addition of slightly acidic ingredients, like citrus or tomatoes.

Okra is extremely popular in Brazil, as it grows well in Brazil's tropical climate. It was first brought there from West Africa by slaves imported to work in the sugar cane plantations and mines of colonial Brazil. Many familiar Brazilian dishes containing okra come from the African tradition. Some are used as traditional offerings to the orixas, or gods, in the rituals of the Afro-Brazilian religion, Candomblé. Some of these dishes, including perhaps the most well-known, caruru, enhance rather than try to eliminate the slippery, or slimy, texture. If okra itself is a love-it-or-hate-it proposition, Brazil's traditional okra dishes are even more so.

I love caruru and other okra dishes, and seem to have evolved beyond my earlier aversion to its texture. A recipe for caruru can be found in this post.