Friday, October 04, 2013

Old Creole Winter Okra Soup - a weekend recipe


In Black Magic Woman,  my French Quarter Mystery No. 4, Wyatt Thomas, and Mama Mulate's latest squeeze Jason Fasempaur travel back to old New Orleans, circa 1845 to implore voodoo high priestess Madam Marie Laveau to help them lift a curse that is plaguing Wyatt. While there, they visit a haunted plantation on River Road and a townhouse in New Orleans. Wyatt also fights a duel with a French sword master. When Jason visits the rustic kitchen of the New Orleans’ townhouse, he enjoys a bowl of cook Sarah's delectable soup that he declares ‘a taste of heaven.’ Here is Sarah’s recipe. Try it, and I think you’ll agree with Jason.

Old Creole Winter Okra Soup

Ingredients
      ·         3 pints Okra
·         6 tomatoes, fresh
·         2 onions
·         2 T butter
·         2 dozen oysters
·         3 T rice
·         1 red pepper pod, deseeded

Directions
Wash and stem the okra, and then slice it very fine. Chop the tomatoes finely and preserve the juice. Chop the onions finely, and then fry them in the butter, in a large pot. Wash the rice well. Slow stew the onions, tomatoes and juice, and pepper in about three quarts of water and one pint of oyster juice for three hours, stirring frequently. Don’t add the okra and rice until ten minutes before serving, then let it come to a boil. Drop in the oysters, boil up once, and serve.

Note: South Louisiana usually has a long growing season, but the Creoles of New Orleans didn’t have fresh okra and tomatoes during the winter. They resolved this problem by canning fruits and vegetables during the months they were plentiful. To follow the original recipe, use one can (jar) of okra, and one can (jar) of tomatoes instead of fresh okra and tomatoes. Either way, it's wonderful.
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Born near Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption, and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma where he continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. He is the author of the French Quarter Mystery Series set in New Orleans and the Paranormal Cowboy Series. Please check it out on his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages. You might also like to check out his website.

3 comments:

mckait said...

LOVED Primal Creatures.. sorry it languished on the shelf for so long. You can bet I am going to be getting more of your books... Thank you for the opportunity to read this one. I am off to write a review for Amazon, LibraryThing and with any luck I can get one into my local paper. Hope you don't mind if I put the book you sent me in the shelf at the library... that's the only way I can get a chance to get the review in the paper.

kath

Book2Buzz said...

So, as I read Black Magic Woman, I have come upon Winter Okra Soup, and Bagna Cauda and want to make both recipes!

I think it would be pretty cool if you made a cook book to go with your books! Feature all the recipes within them and maybe more!

Have you made any of these? Which are your favorite?

Eric Wilder said...

Thanks, Kathleen. Music to my ears.