SC - Okra

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Cathy Harding wrote:
> 
> Good Evening all,
> A qustion came up after dinner tonight.  Where does okra originate?   Would
> it have been available or used in the area which is now armenia or other
> parts of the middle east prior to 1600?  Does anyone have references to it
> in period recipes?
> 
> We have looked in the Andalusian  recipes in the Miscellany, and did not
> find it.

Off the top of my head, I believe okra is of African origin. It is now
common across North Africa and the Middle East, but I don't know how
common it is, or was, in Spain. Dried okra is, I think, a common Middle
Eastern staple (I can buy it strung on threads in the local Lebanese
grocery), and it seems like this would be a good way to ship it to
places where it is inconvenient to grow it, if it was something people wanted.

Of course, the absence of a given food from the Andalusian recipes
sampled in The Miscellany doesn't necessarily mean they're absent from
the primary source. It may simply be that His Grace and/or his team-mate
redactors haven't gotten to an akra recipe yet, or that okra may appear
in another recipe collection from Al-Islam.
  
Adamantius
Østgardr, East
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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