Okra Nut Bread

Last night kicked off our first evening of cooking! Which really meant I dinner-snacked as per usual while Ramon shopped for a few ingredients, getting home well past my old-lady supper time. Forgive me. We must ease into this whole “not living like college kids” thing.

Upon his arrival, I set to work on our first recipe: Okra Nut Bread. The combination of ingredients sounded a little odd, but I had some fresh okra from PP’s garden and was determined to make something with it. So many of my fondest childhood memories are of his garden: shucking corn in the hot summer sun, eating that delicious sweet corn for what felt like months after our hard work, liking tomatoes for the first time (only his, though), and of course eating my favorite childhood vegetable: okra. I even loved it boiled & slimy. I love that I started out this challenge with something that reminds me of PP so much.

Anyway, the bread turned out great--the ingredients mesh surprisingly perfectly! I noted my few minor adjustments below. The only other thing I’d change is the baking time; our electric oven always works superfast so my bread was just on the cusp of being overdone when I took it out at 40 minutes.

• 1 cup raw okra, chopped, cut or diced
• 2 tsp. shredded orange peel (zest) without the white part
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 cups sifted all purpose flour - used 100% whole wheat flour
• ¾ cup sugar - used Splenda instead
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ cup raisins
• ½ tsp. ground cloves or cinnamon
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• ½ cup chopped pecans

Combine okra, orange zest, raisins and orange juice. Let stand 30 minutes to plump the raisins. Sift together dry ingredients. Combine eggs, oil and okra mixture. Add to dry ingredients, mixing well. Add pecans. Mix and pour into a greased 9X5 inch loaf pan (my 8X8 pan worked fine!) and bake at 350 for 55 minutes. Remove from pan and cool.