Quick Stewed Okra and Tomatoes

I just got back from Charleston, SC, where I had an amazing time and ate way too much food.  If you haven't been there, I can describe the food as French-influenced low country cooking with a healthy dose of Southern backbone.  So take all of the soul food you love - fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, shrimp and grits, collards - and put it alongside po' boys, remoulades, beignets, and all manner of creole food.  There's a kind of third culture mixed in - the Gullah people - who descended from slaves in South Carolina and Georgia.  They too are technically creole people, so it should come as no surprise that they also claim dishes like shrimp and grits, fried okra, and a wide variety of other dishes that come from some hazy part of the South that I can't quite seem to put a dotted line around.

The point of this ramble is simple - they have excellent food in Charleston.  And the trip there reaffirmed my love of okra, an underappreciated vegetable here in the North.  For the first time, I tried a new dish I hadn't heard of before - stewed tomatoes with okra - that I thought was spectacular.  Served alongside eggs, bacon, and the best grits I've ever eaten, this dish would replace a broiled tomato or a bowl of stewed tomatoes, which I have historically despised.  But if you add in okra's earthy vegetation and change up the texture of tomatoes by adding in the okra pods and seeds, it becomes something entirely different.  I made a version of this dish tonight based on what I thought it should taste like, and while the dish wasn't as brightly red colored as the one I had at Kitchen 208, they were also plated more thoughtfully, and had the same amazing flavor I've been craving for a whole week since my return.  So don't be afraid of okra, brave cooks, and push yourself to tackle this otherwise forgotten mallow.

Stewed Okra and Tomatoes
Adapted from Patrick and Gina Neely

• 4 slices bacon
• 1 onion (preferably Vidalia), chopped
• 3 cups sliced okra
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, or 4 large peeled tomatoes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 small sprigs thyme, stripped from stems

Not too much involved, but a small number of ingredients has a ton of flavor.  Go for applewood smoked bacon if you can find it.

In a heavy bottomed saute pan over medium-high heat, add the bacon, and render until crisp. Remove from pan and reserve. Add the onion and saute until tender, about 3 minutes.  Add the thyme and cook for 30 seconds.

Notice the brown bits in the pan, which I have started to scrape up.  The residual moisture in the onions should be enough to lift all of this goodness out of the pan, unless you have the heat too high.

Add the okra and tomatoes, making sure to add the reserved juice from the tomatoes to the saute pan. Stir in the crumbled bacon. Season with salt and pepper, and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.