Yesterday, made a creole type dish, to use up that okra I had been accumulating for a while. I was originally going to make some Szechwan eggplant - something I've been having a craving for, and something I'll have when I'm finished with this!
Not a one dish meal, though it does end up in one dish. I started by cooking a lb of chopped up andouille sausage, then setting it aside in a bowl, then starting 1¼c of parboiled basmati rice in some salted water, in a saucepan, and turned that of after 20 minutes, to add to the dish at the end. Meanwhile, I cut up a large onion, and started sautéeing that in the Instant Pot, adding 2 diced green bell peppers, and cooking those while chopping up the end of my celery and the leaves (about 2 c total), and adding this, and cooking, while mincing up 6 cloves of garlic, and cooking this about a minute, with a half tsp of cloves, a quarter tsp of ground bay, a tsp of ground Thai peppers, and 2 tsp thyme. After a minute, I stirred in a little over a lb of tomatoes, puréed coarsely, and brought to a boil, while getting the okra washed, trimmed, and sliced into 1/2-3/4" pieces. This is stirred into the sauce, I added a little more salt, in the form of soy sauce, and a little more Thai pepper powder. I covered and sealed the IP, set on Manual/4 min, then let pressure reduce naturally (cooks quite a bit more before and after). While this was cooking, I cooked a lb of sliced mushrooms - washed and drained, then steamed them briefly in a wok, with only a tb of water (more comes out of the mushrooms, from the washing), and as soon as the water is almost gone, 2 tsp oil is added, and they are sautéed about 7 minutes, and they browned very well. When the okra was done, this is stirred in, along with the sausage, then about 2/3 of the rice was stirred in, then the rest (turns out, I guessed right!). The salt I put in the rice was enough, and it didn't need any more salt or heat. I let it sit 5 min, to absorb some of the liquid, and this made it just right.
About 3 cups of okra, trimmed and cut up. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Some onions, garlic, and 2 bell peppers, cooked together, then a pound of puréed tomatoes, and a lb of sausage added, to cook with the okra. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished creole type dish, with okra, andouille, mushrooms, tomatoes, and rice. by
pepperhead212, on Flickr
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