My mother was born in, and grew up in post WWII Japan, and emigrated (with my father) to New York City in the late 60s. Unlike today’s New York where you can’t go a couple blocks without coming across a sushi restaurant, there were no convenient sources of Japanese foods or groceries back then. There were many little things that our parents did to make the dining room table feel “Japanese” for my sister and I. One of these things was fresh steamed, seasoned okra, which we would scoop on top of our bowls of hot steamed rice. To this day, I have no idea if this dish exists in Japan, but I make it when okra is in season and it feels as Japanese as any other rice topping to me.
Ingredients (for 2 servings)
1/2 pound fresh okra (look for pods that are darker green, and feel denser)
1 tablespoon katsuo-bushi (dried bonito shavings)
2 teaspoons shoyu (Japanese soysauce, brewed from soybeans)
1/2 sheet yak-nori (appx. 4 x 8 inches, roasted seaweed), torn into little pieces
1 cup rice (medium grain, Japanese/sushi style), rinsed
Directions
Cook rice.
While rice is cooking, prepare the okra. Rinse/wash the okra pods. Steam for 7 minutes. Transfer to cutting board, and when cooled enough to handle, but still hot/warm, trim both ends, and chop to ¼ inch thickness. Transfer to bowl.
Sprinkle katsuo-bushi over okra. Drizzle with shoyu, wetting katsuobushi and okra. Mix to blend well. Sprinkle liberally with nori.
Serve rice (gohan) in bowls.
Scoop a dollop of prepared okra onto hot steamed rice. Scoop okra and rice for each bite (or mix together). Add more okra as needed. Get seconds of rice as warranted.
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