Japanese stir-fried okra vegetable recipe

My husband's grandparents are from Okinawa, Japan so he grew up on an Okinawan/ Japanese influenced diet. Okra is a green vegetable that is grown and popular in the Okinawan diet. I remember eating okra the first time I visited my husband's parents and couldn't believe how tasty it was in his mother's homemade Japanese seasoning. I haven't got her original recipe yet but here's my version of Japanese stir-fried okra, I hope you like it as much as we do in our house!

Ingredients:
Few handfuls of okra
1 tbsp sake (Japanese rice wine)
Half tsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
Shichimi-togarashi (Japanese seven spice)

Instructions:
1. Wash the fresh okra under cold water and drain.

2. Using a sharp knife cut off the top and end of the okra. Then, slice about half an inch thick to allow the flavour to completely absorb into the okra pieces when stir-frying (see pic below).

3. Heat one tablespoon of vegetable oil on high heat on a non-stick frying pan.

4. Toss the okra pieces into the frying pan and after frying for about a minute add the sake and mix using a large spoon. Continue to fry for another minute. Then, sprinkle the sugar evenly over the okra and fry for another minute continuing to mix.

5. Finally pour the soy sauce over the okra. Take off the heat after one minute or less.

6. Season with shichimi-togarashi (Japanese seven spice).

Tips:
- Okra can be found in Asian stores. 

- This dish can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container and eaten hot or cold.
- Leftovers are perfect for a bento box (Japanese lunchbox).

JAPANESE SEAWEED & TOFU SALAD RECIPE

My husband’s grandparents came from a beautiful chain of islands off the south of mainland Japan called Okinawa. Okinawa is best known outside of Japan for enjoying one of the highest life expectancies in the world. This is mainly attributed to their healthy diet which includes tofu, seaweed and sweet potato.

Although Ireland has always had an abundant supply of seaweed it's only recently that we've started to take advantage of this wonderful natural resource. Nowadays, we have a collection of Irish seaweed companies including the Wild Irish Sea Veg, Cleggan Seaweed Company, Carraig Fhada Seaweed and VOYA). 

If you'd like to learn about seaweed and how to cook with it an Irish lady called Prannie Rhatigan wrote a fantastic book called "Irish Seaweed Kitchen".

Here's a very basic recipe of mine using seaweed and tofu.

INGREDIENTS:
3 medium size tomatoes (cut into bite size pieces)
1 tbsp dried wakame seaweed (soak in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes)
280g tofu/ small block of tofu (preferably organic GM free)

Salad dressing
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp wasabi
Half tsp brown sugar

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Put all the salad dressing ingredients into an empty jam jar, put the lid on and shake well until the sugar is dissolved. 
2. Cut the block of tofu into small bite size cubes.
3. Take the wakame out of the water and place on kitchen paper to remove excess water.
4. Place the tofu, wakame and tomato pieces in a salad bowl.
5. Pour the dressing over the salad when ready to eat.

Where can I buy seaweed?
Seaweed is available in Asian markets and health stores and more recently it's available in supermarkets. My local fish shop has a great selection of seaweed.

TIPS:
Depending on your own taste add more or less wasabi and sugar.

NOTES:
See my miso soup recipe with wakame and tofu.
For more info on seaweed see www.seaweed.ie