I've finished my first "science fair project" using ground okra in place of xanthan gum or guar gum. I learned a lot and I'm ready for my next okra experiment.

Okra, the whole plant, is sticky, gummy. I have to wash my hands after picking it in the garden. The water that I cook okra in is gummy. So I thought the whole plant might be useful. I decided to start with whole okra, dried in the dehydrator. I was too impatient to let it air-dry.
So the first lesson I learned is: Let the okra air-dry. Ha! The dehydrator shrunk it to miniature size. The air-dried pods remain their full size. Since it would have been impossible to get the seeds out of the tiny dried pods, I ground up the whole pod with my mortar and pestle.
This is when I learned lesson second lesson: Only grind the seeds. The pods are too tough and stringy to turn to powder.
For my first okra baking challenge, I used water I had boiled fresh okra in and 1 teaspoon of dried ground okra in my usual lame porridge bread recipe. The texture was slightly improved over my normal loaf. Here is the test loaf:

For my second experiment I will try 2 teaspoons ground okra seeds, and forget about the okra boiling water. I'll let you know how it turns out.
And just because I can't resist, here's a guest entry in the Lily of the Day column.

It's a zinnia with a party going on in the center. Looks festive!

While the zinnia had a party, this day lily decided to do a little sunbathing.
2 comments:
The bread looks great Kay! I'm really impressed!!
Kay,
if you're looking for a great, non bean based binder, have you tried chia (salba) seeds? they're really quite easy and work well! I wouldn't have thought to mess with okra!
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