‘Every family has a Queen Mother’ says my Grandma. I quickly identified that my family’s Queen Mother was my mum. On days that I wanted to silly and needed to find a way to her heart only one recipe did the magic. King prawns, shrimps and sea bass slowly cooked in green chilli garlic ginger and onion puree, fresh coriander, onions and finished with bok choy and parboiled okro cuts.
The freshness of this recipe cannot be compared to other okro recipes. It’s light, healthy, juicy and can pass as an everyday lunch option. For me, the secrete ingredient to this recipe is the use of fresh coriander. It provides a magical flavour and taste balance with the bok choy, the king prawns and the shrimps. Another secret is arranging all the seafood before pouring over your chilli, ginger, onions and garlic not forgetting salt. This ensures that the proteins are well seasoned and doesn’t over cook before the okro is added. Explore further by adding other vegetables such as cabbage, spring onions or mushrooms. Food is definitely life when its the Queen mother’s favourite sea food okro.
The Queen mother’s favourite sea food Okro
Course: Soups4
servings20
minutes18
minutes38
minutesKing prawns and seabass cooked in coriander, onions garlic and ginger purée and finished with bok choy, parboiled okro and extra fresh coriander
Ingredients
I kilo king prawns
12 pieces Okro
1 medium size onion blended
Red Chilli
1 bulb bok choy
Green Chilli
Blended ginger
Blended garlic
Salt
Fresh coriander
Sea Bass
1 medium size onion cut
Directions
- Clean sea bass, cut into desired pieces of choice and arrange in a cooking pot. I would usually leave all the fish oils during the fish cleaning which are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids.
- Clean and add your king prawns or shrimps to the cooking pot. My personal preference is to leave the tail of the prawns.
- Add cut onions. I love my onions to be visible when eating my okro. So I would usually cut them into bigger sizes than usual. It gives extra volume and texture to the soup. My grandma would say ‘it serves as extra protein when your main proteins are finished.
- Now add salt to your base proteins. I love using Himalayan salt as is often thought to be much healthier than regular table salt. In the absence of Pink salt. Use any salt of choice. You can at this point add your stock cubes or other spices of choice
- I just love the flavour and taste fresh coriander provides to soup dishes especially okro. I would say this is my best herb when preparing okro. Spread a bunch over the fish and prawns.
- Add blended ginger, garlic and onion and place over low to medium heat
- Cook for 7 minutes
- In the meantime cut your okro in desired sizes. I love to cut them flat so they can melt into the soup during the cooking process.
- Par boil okro for three minutes with a cup of water. Remember the water is dependent on the texture of the soup you desire. Whether thick or runny and also dependent on the quantity of okro and the protein base. Don’t forget to remove from fire as it will still cook if the heat is turn off and the cooker surface or metal is still hot.
- Add bok choy as whole or as cut pieces. Again I love them as whole as it add volume and texture to the okro soup. Salt to taste and cook for three extra minutes.
- Add in your par boiled okro. Salt to taste and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add extra fresh coriander. Food is ready
Notes
- Never fully cook your okro to desired texture. Okro cooks fast and will still cook when off direct heat.