That is definitely true, Bahia was the primary destination for most enslaved people. But African influences are all over as they were shipped all over.
That does sound yum!
You're welcome! I mean, it's Brazil, there might be a historian who knows where we got this from, but most of us have absolutely no idea. I know okra itself comes from Africa, but how we prepare it... I'm just glad the big supermarkets in the UK have it now, it's my favourite dish.
P.S.: this freezes really well (with the mince or on its own) so I batch cook it a lot and then can just make the rice (beans are also batch cooked!).
This is usually served with rice, beans, and angu (again, soft or hard angu depends on how you prefer it) and in our house we also made shoelace fries to add some crunch. At grandma's there was usually some pastel and pasta, obviously.
How much depends on how much okra you have - this is grandma cooking, there are no measurements, only love. You leave it on low heat until the okra is soft and then you can the mince or chicken to the now okra stew. I don't usually pick the bits of tomato out.
Put it in a wide pan with olive oil and bits of tomato to cut the slime. I don't like slimey okra. Once you're able to lift it off the pan and let it fall without seeing slime, you can salt and pepper it and put hot water on it.
Yay! Depending on where you are in MG, you eat okra with mince or fried chicken (nor breaded, just fried). My parents are from different regions, so I've had both. But the way to cook the okra itself is the same. You chop it in sizes of about 1, 1.5cm, but it really depends how you like it.
My 70 year-old mum is going back to English and guitar lessons and she is a diva of all things
So, as I'm from Minas Gerais, I cook okra quite differently. I wouldn't mash it ever, and I've never seen it in a moqueca - which is not to say that it doesn't happen, just that it doesn't happen where I'm from. Happy to share my recipe though!