L'Été

Dookie Platter's Okra & Tomatoes

This summertime dish is best served with a late-night dinner, when you can let the kitchen get good and hot.

Ingredients:

Olive oil (lotta folks use bacon drippings, lotta folks might not eat that way)
1 medium onion
6-8 tomatoes
8-10 large okras, sliced up
Some salt
Black and Red pepper
'Bout half a fresh jalapeño or cayenne pepper, seeds and veins removed, minced
Pinch of brown sugar (you could use white if you wanted)
2 cups cooked rice

Start by boiling some water. Drop the tomatoes in the boiling water. Once the skin starts to fall off, scoop the 'maters out. Cut off the tops and peel the rest of the skin off.

Next, put your oil or grease into a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. You can borrow one of mine if you ain't got one. Peel and dice up your onion while that grease gets hot, and throw it in the skillet when you're finished.

Let that onion sweat in the grease, and then throw in your tomatoes. Put as much salt as you like on top and mash up the tomatoes in the skillet. Add the jalapeño now, too. Drop the okra slices in, and top that with about a teaspoon each of black and red pepper. Maybe more, maybe less, depending how you feel. Pinch in that sugar, but don't go crazy with it.

Now mix that whole thing up and make sure it's stewin' good at a medium heat. Cover it up for a while, wait 'til everything's good and soft, and don't let it dry up. Pour in a little bit of tomato juice in case of emergency.

After a while, lay some rice on each plate and scoop some of this here okra and tomatoes on top. Stick a wedge of cornbread right next to that, so it soaks up some of that juice. Serves 2-4.