thecivilwarparlor:Origins Of Okra- Gumbo And Black Eyed Peas- Soul Food In America- Africa is the so
thecivilwarparlor:Origins Of Okra- Gumbo And Black Eyed Peas- Soul Food In America- Africa is the source of the name for Okra…which appears to be derived from or related to nkuruma, the word for ‘okra’ in the Twi language of West AfricaOkra is an “Old World” vegetable. The exact place of origin is still matter of debate. Over the centuries, many cultures have embraced okra and used it to create traditional dishes. Mediterranean and African recipes combined with tomatoes (a new world fruit) were created after the Columbian Exchange. Okra was introduced to the New World by African slaves. This vegetable is still a favorite in the American south. Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), recorded that okra was cultivated there. The pod of the opkra was steamed, boiled, fried, pickled, and cooked in soups and stews, notably gumbo. The seeds are were ground into meal for use in making bread and oil. Southerners used ground okra seeds as a coffee substitute, especially during the Civil War..The word “gumbo” or “gombo” is another African name for okra. In New Orleans it was applied to both the vegetable and the complex Creole stew made with it…Gumbos migrated quickly throughout America…Since the 1960s, okra has entered the American culinary mainstream, It is a significant component of soul food and southern cookery in general.“—Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford Univeristy Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 211-2)“Some of the new aliments were undeserved gifts from the slaves, who carried seeds of African plants with them to the New World. The black-eye pea, so popular in the South today, was introduced in this fashion in 1674; there were others–okra and watermelon, for instance–but it is in the nature of things that we have no precise dates for their arrival.”—Eating in America: A History, Waverly Root & Richard de Rochemont [William Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 84)—Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 220)http://www.foodnetwork.com/topics/okra.html -- source link
#abelmoschus esculentus#veggies#gumbo#history