• Description

Vernacular Names: okra

Parts utilized as vegetable and availability: fruits

Market presence of vegetable:marketed

Habitat: garden, ricefield, homegarden, farm

Availability: all year round; available dry season

Dishes:paksiw, tinuno, pinakbet, nilaga, dinengdeng

Pinakbet with Tinapa

(Shrivelled Sauteed Mixed Vegetables with Smoked Herring or Scad)
La Union

Ingredients

• 1 cup eggplant or talong fruits (Solanum melongena), preferably the round, native variety
• 1 cup ampalaya fruits (Momordica charantia), preferably the round, native variety
• ½ cup sitaw pods, cut in 6-cm lengths (Vigna unguiculata spp sesquipedalis)
• 1 cup squash or kalabasa (Cucurbita moschata), diced
• ½ cup young okra fruits (Abelmoschus esculentus), cut crosswise at an angle
• 1 cup malunggay leaves (Moringa oleifera)
• 5-7 ripe native tomatoes, sliced and squeezed a little to let the juices out and the flesh softened
• 1 medium bulb shallots or sibuyas, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic or bawang, crushed
• Thick coconut cream or 1st gata from 2 large mature coconuts
• 100 g minced pork
• Shrimp or fish paste (bagoong)
• Smoked fish or tinapa (optional)

Procedure

1. Sauté garlic, shallots, tomato, pork and bagoong.
2. Pour in ¼ cup water and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Pour in thick coconut cream and simmer. Add vegetables in the following order at 2-minute intervals: kalabasa, ampalaya, sitaw, talong, okra, and dahon ng malunggay
4. Season with shrimp or fish paste.
5. Cook until oil from the gata comes out.