The Whole Okra: A Seed to Stem Celebration
Author: Chris Smith
Chelsea Green, 258 pages, $29.95
How do you describe Chris Smith’s “The Whole Okra?”
It’s a gardening book. It’s a cookbook. It’s a history. It’s a biography. It’s a well-researched scientific tome. It’s a love story. It’s all of the above. It’s also a James Beard award winner.
The author is a native of Great Britain and has a degree in creative writing, which shows throughout this entertaining and fascinating piece of culinary work.
In 2006 at the age of 26 he experienced okra for the first time: Slimy and fried from a greasy-spoon diner. Six years later at an engagement party for his South Carolinian wife he encountered it again. “Yes it is true. I married someone from South Carolina called Belle, which technically makes okra the second southern thing I fell in love with.”
As he developed a fascination with “the pods of the gods,” he researched the plant and began to experiment with it in his own kitchen, discovering an extraordinary range of delicious ways to cook and eat this healthy delight from tip-to-tail: pods, leaves, flowers and seeds. Smith includes interviews with chefs, food historians, farmers, homesteaders and gardeners in this rich collection of okra history, lore, recipes, craft projects and growing advice.
“The Whole Okra” includes classic recipes such as fried okra pods as well as such things as okra seed bread and pancakes and okra flower vodka.
Okra has practical uses beyond the edible, and Smith also researched the history of okra as a fiber crop for making paper and the uses of okra mucilage (slime) as a preservative and a hydrating face mask and hair conditioner, using himself and his wife and daughter as test subjects) He also includes a comprehensive descriptive list of varieties around the world.
His description for preparing Brunswick Stew with a roadkill squirrel and, of course, sliced okra is epic.
“How do you feel about okra and squirrel stew?" I asked Belle.
“‘Hell no," she said.
I’m still not forgiven for trying to skin a squirrel in the kitchen sink.
Tim O’Connell eats okra in Ponte Vedra.
August 02, 2020 at 06:13PM
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Book review: A Brit learns to love okra - The Florida Times-Union
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