GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

Sister Julie’s Okra Stew

Sister Julie’s Okra Stew
Origination:Awukuga Ghana, West Africa via New Jersey!

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My great aunt, who we affectionately & respectfully call Sister Julie is someone that truly deserves the title “Great” ! She is the most kind hearted & full of love human being that I know. A truly beautiful peaceful soul that can work 40 plus hours a week, but never fails to make sure to prepare the favorite meals of her nieces, nephews & son. Okra stew is my ultimate –taste so good it makes you dance in your seat- favorite dish. Sister Julie does it best & with pure love!

Okra stew is the original “gumbo” from Ghana. It can be made with all seafood or mix of seafood & any meat you prefer. It is usually eaten with Banku or Kenkey – cornmeal based foods in ball-like formation, wrapped & cooked traditionally in plantain leaves or cornhusks depending on what region of Ghana you come from. In the western world it is usually wrapped & cooked in plastic or foil because of lack of availability of traditional corn husks or plantain leafs.

Africans traditionally sit around together & eat from one bowl in nourishment & togetherness. This is the time when the best conversations are had!

Ingredients
Palm Oil
1medium size tomato
1 large onion
tomato paste
fresh ginger
2 packs of frozen cut okra or fresh okra
Fresh Jamaican peppers or Powdered red hot African pepper
2 Beef Magi Cubes
fresh whole Crabs
Pack of cube-beef
Ginger Powder
Adobo seasoning
Garlic Powder (optional)

Cooking Instructions
Season beef over night with ginger powder, garlic powder, Adobo salt (or season salt of choice)
Steam meat in a separate pot with water until it is tender
In a separate pot Add palm oil, chopped onions, fresh chopped ginger
Add tender meat & 2 teaspoons of tomato paste
Let it steam & stir frequently
Add water from steamed beef
Let it cook for 20-30 minutes
Add Fresh chopped tomatoes
Add crab
Add okra
Add salt to taste & stir frequently.
Let it cook for 30-45 minutes on medium to low heat

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Knowledge is power tidbit:
"Okra is found in it's wild state on the alluvial banks of the Nile and the Egyptians were the first to cultivate it in the basin of the Nile (12'th century BC). It was propagated then through North Africa to the Mediterranean, the Balkans, and India. It arrived then in the Americas at Brazil (1658), Dutch Guinea and at New Orleans before extending in the United States and going up to Philadelphia in 1781."

In the 1800's slaves from Africa used ground okra as a part of their diet, and this apparently led to the use of ground okra seeds as a coffee substitute by other southerners during the American Civil War blockades of the 1860's. Even today, ground okra is used in West Africa to make a "...local soup made from dried and ground okra, baobab leaves or rosselle. Fish may be added into it" http://www.physiology.wisc.edu/ravi/okra/

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