Guest writer: Robin Sanchez
Richard Agan is a long-time vendor at Winnsboro Farmers’ Market. His name may not ring a bell but if I say "The Okra Man" you know who I'm talking about.
Richard has a farm north of Winnsboro with his wife Clois, where he grazes cattle and grows about an acre of vegetables which he brings to the market on Saturday mornings. He grows tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, purple hull peas, cantaloupes and, of course, okra.
He was raised on an okra farm in McKinney and his family would take truck loads of okra to Dallas where some would end up being transported around the country by airplane. "We had over a hundred acres of okra. That's a lot of okra. It filled a two-ton truck up every day," he says about his early years on the family's okra farm.
After spending time working on the family vegetable farm, Agan became a machinist, building parts for the military and commercial items. He has since returned to his farming roots - saving his own seed from the okra that everyone likes the best. "A lot of people ask me about this okra. They want this variety because it has a good taste and it doesn't get hard and you can do about anything you want to with it. It’s what we had when I was a kid."
He does all the work on the farm himself growing tomatoes in tubs, cucumbers in concrete cattle feeders, and baskets of okra.
Richard's favorite way to eat okra is fried but he also recommends making a stew with okra, onions, tomatoes, and carrots.
There was an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats titled "Okraphobia" that I found very amusing but they had some good recipes including fried okra and my new favorite Okra and Tomatoes. It even included an Angry Okra (or was it a Fighting Okra?) mascot!
Nutritionally okra ranks well at only 33 calories per cup (until you fry it, of course). It is high in fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, folate and magnesium. Okra is also a good source of calcium and potassium. The entire plant is edible and the leaves can be cooked as you would beet greens or dandelion.
"But the slime," you say... Try pickling young pods or slicing thin and cooking pods for a long time like in a gumbo. Also cooking with an acid such as tomato or lemon juice helps to cut down on the goo factor - just keep extra paper or dish towel handy for wiping your hands and knife handle when cutting a lot of okra. And, as we all know, everything tastes good fried.
As with so many farmers crops this year, Richard’s okra crop came up a little late due to the wet spring, but you can find him at Winnsboro Farmers' Market selling his vegetables and okra out of the back of his truck on Saturday mornings 8am - noon on Market Street.
Okra and Tomatoes recipe
Ingredients
1 pound okra, rinsed and trimmed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups finely chopped red onion
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 cups peeled and chopped tomato
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon freshly ground grains of paradise* or black pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom
Directions
Cut each okra pod in half lengthwise and set aside. If there are any pods longer than 4 inches, cut them in half crosswise and then lengthwise.
Heat the olive oil in a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add the onions along with the salt and cook until they begin to turn golden, approximately 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute longer. Add the tomatoes and bring the mixture to a boil. Decrease the heat to low and add the ginger, pepper, cardamom and okra. Stir to combine. Cook, uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, taste and adjust the seasoning as desired. Serve immediately.
*Cook's Note: Grains of Paradise are available online and in specialty spice markets. They have a zesty flavor reminiscent of pepper, coriander, and cardamom.
Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown, 2006
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