Awesome veggie dish worth a sweaty, sticky garden trip to procure okra

I never thought I’d see the day: me—Kay—racing outdoors, snippers in hand, to stand in the punishing sun and prowl around among the sticky-leaved okra plants—hoping against hope that enough baby okra had matured overnight so I could clip a few morsels for a dinner entrée. Normally the bane of any gardener’s existence this time of year (too much okra—more than anyone knows what to do with), I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum: too many good okra recipes and okra not surfacing quickly enough to get them all prepared.

The enticing recipe this time was a recipe called Okra-and-Corn Maque Choux. That one sent me scurrying to do a little research. The dish sounded divine, but what was a Maque Choux? Had I spelled it wrong? Good ole Wikipedia told me it was a traditional southern Louisiana dish—the name pronounced to sound like the words “mock shoe”. Actually it’s a combination of cajun and American Indian cultural influence (I suspected some Native American might be lurking in there somewhere, since it bore such an unusual mixture of veggies).

Wikipedia states that besides the ingredients in this recipe, some Maque Choux combos include celery; others add a bit of sugar and a dash of hot sauce (I actually added a few hot sauce dots myself); others, instead of sausage, will contain bite-sized portions of chicken or crawfish or even will have shrimp dumped in at the final stage. Interesting ways to try it another time, but for this first adventure I stuck with the Okra-and-Corn Maque Choux recipe I found on www.myrecipes.com.

All I can say is, this divine ole Mock Shoe was worth sweating in the okra patch with its resultant stickiness to bring in enough baby okra for this delicious recipe. The turkey sausage gave it just that added touch. We wolfed it down quickly and were wanting more. From the looks of the baby okra still to be harvested outdoors, we should have plenty of opportunity.

Okra-and-Corn Maque Choux

1/4 pound turkey sausage, diced

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

3 cups fresh corn kernels, removed from cob

1 cup sliced fresh okra

1 cup peeled, seeded, and dice tomato

salt (or salt substitute) and black pepper to taste

Sauté sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat for 3 minutes or until browned. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes or until tender. Add corn, okra, and tomato; cook, stirring often, 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.