southern style tacos

most of my friends know i love okra. i feel like it's much more prevalent during the nc summer months and so about this time of year i try to patiently wait for it to make an appearance in my sf grocery store. (note however, i have found out i can sometimes find okra year round in indian groceries around the bay area, although i can't believe it's local). anyway, i was in rainbow the other night and behold, they had okra! i was very excited and bought about a pound. basically i like okra cooked just about every way: breaded and deep fried, breaded and pan fried, pan fried no breading, boiled (gotta love the slime) and pickled, especially spicy pickled okra. mmm....

obviously i didn't just whip up a batch of pickled okra, although i do want to take up pickling one day. so, instead i decided to make tacos. that's right, okra tacos. i used to make these way back in the day in chapel hill when ed and i had a huge garden. those were the days. i miss having a garden out here. instead, for now, i am settling for two very teeny tiny planters of lettuce (see pic). depressing isn't it?



back on track now.

for my okra tacos i first boiled some black eyed peas with a smidge of butter and salt. that's right black eyed peas!, not black or pinto. i always have black eyes peas on hand - they are quite versatile and i love to just make beans and rice with them (and they sort of repalce field peas which seem to only be able to get at thanksgiving and christmas via pender county, nc). while the peas were cooking, i made some salsa with two green zebra and 1 cherokee purple heirloom tomato. i tossed in a little lime juice, cilantro, salt, garlic, onion, black pepper, and jalapeno.

i pan fried okra (not breaded) with garlic and a little chopped onion in some olive oil. i salted everything while it was cooking and let the okra get a tad brown. i took the okra off, kept the skillet super hot, and added my corn tortillas one at a time (about 30 seconds each side). a small pinch of pepper jack was added to each tortilla before piling on the black eyed peas, okra, salsa, avocado, and a taste of sour cream.

i have to say this meal turned out pretty damn good. i did get one crtique from my nightly critic, geoffrey. he said i piled the tacos a little too high so he couldn't easily pick them up with his hands. i think he just wanted to eat more tortillas. next time i'll try to remember to take a picture of what i cook instead of just posting a pic of some depressing lettuce.