Okra and Roasted Tomato stew

We were excited to attend an event called Cooking as Inheritance: Beyond Soul Food in the African Diaspora a talk by Chefs Carla Hall and Pierre Thiam at the Museum of Food and Drink in Brookln, New York. Hall, a Tennessee Native, and Thiam, a chef born in Senegal who has been cooking in New York for over 20 years, had an enlightening discussion tracing the roots of American soul food to similar dishes in Africa.

Afterwards they each used the kitchen in the presentation space to cook their interpretation of an okra stew, Thiam presenting a traditional Senegalese Soupou Kandja, and Hall making this chunky okra stew with fire roasted tomatoes. I really loved both preparations and was excited to try cooking both at home. This was my attempt at recreating Hall’s okra stew, and I’ll be writing up my attempt at the Soupou Kandja separately.

Okra has a bad reputation for being slimy- even this recipe’s chef Carla Hall admitted that she is turned off by some traditional preparations of Okra. However, she presented this as a way to present a smoky, drier okra by roasting the okra chunks in batches and adding it to the bowl of stew after it has been taken off the heat.

Though she prepared it as a vegetarian dish, I’ve added bacon strips to enhance the smoky flavor of the charred okra. I love the chunky texture of this stew and smoky flavor.