By Simon Ngena
WELCOME to this week’s instalment of your favourite column. In keeping with our current vegetarian theme, our focus shifts to an all-time favourite, okra or lady’s fingers (English), derere or derere rechipudzi (in Shona) or idelele in Ndebele.
Cultivated okra is of old world origin. Its tender green fruits are used as a vegetable and has tremendous export and local trade potential as a fresh vegetable.
Okra also has some uses in medicine. Scientists use it to bind the compounds in tablets, to make liquids for suspending compounds, as a replacement for blood plasma, and to expand the volume of blood.
Okra is rich in vitamins, calcium, potassium and other mineral nutrients and is, therefore, recommended for people suffering from renal colic, leaucorrehoea and general weakness.
The fruits are useful in controlling goitre due to to high iodine content.
Renal colic is a very severe pain that can present suddenly and without warning. It is usually caused by stones in the kidneys, renal pelvis or urethra. The pain is caused by dilatation, stretching and spasm of the urethra.
However, there is another side to okra unknown to most people.
When roasted and ground or powdered, it can form a non-caffeinated substitute for Arabica coffee.
This writer spoke to Sekuru George Mafondokoto, better known as Mr Greenfields, from Chipinge in Manicaland, who had this to say: “Many people wonder why I grow so much okra. It’s because I use it to make coffee.
“It tastes so nice and I love the roasted okra flavour. The aroma is very much like that of coffee, but rather much better. I feel strongly in these difficult times that okra coffee can easily pass for pure coffee,” says Sekuru Mafondokoto, who is into conservation farming inspired by Pfumvudza/Intwasa.
Below is the most basic okra recipe which has been passed down from generation to generation. In modern times, derere can also be fried. But that’s a subject for another day.
