The Happy Home Cook: Adobong Okra

The Happy Home Cook features cherished recipes of Filipino dishes from well-known foodies and contributors. If you have a recipe that you are proud of and would like to share, please send it along with a photo of the dish, your two-sentence bio and your picture to submissions@positivelyfilipino.com.

Okra (Source: cenj.com)

Okra -- that slimy, finger-like vegetable that no one really likes -- has captured the attention of health gurus as a natural way to detoxify. Since it's Lent and Filipinos are upping their vegetable (and fish) intake, here's a recipe from the original culinary diva of the Philippines, the late Nora Daza.

Ingredients

20 pieces fresh, very young okra
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup pork, diced
3 tablespoons patis (fish sauce)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon pepper

Procedure

Wash and parboil the okra in water. Set aside.
Fry the pork. Push to one side of the pan.
Saute garlic, onion and okra.
Season with vinegar, patis and pepper.
Cook until okra is tender crisp. 

Note: Vinegar cuts the sliminess of the okra.
Substitutes for okra may be: kangkong (water spinach), sitao (long beans) and puso ng saging (banana hearts).

Adobong Okra (Source: yummyvisits.wordpress.com)

From Let's Cook with Nora Improved Edition: A Treasury of Filipino, Chinese and European Dishes Compiled and Kitchen-Tested by Nora V. Daza