Produce Guide - O

Okra

The world is divided into those who love okra, those who hate it, and the vast majority who have never even tried it. Its champions revel in its tender, viscous texture and sweet, fresh taste; its detractors can't get past its exceptional slickness (they say sliminess). I'm a huge fan myself, and I especially love okra breaded with cornflour and pan-fried in butter.

Okra is native to Africa and was brought to the New World by slave traders in the 16th century. Integral to Creole cuisine, okra is the ingredient that lends gumbos their characteristically thick consistency. It is also widely used in the Middle East, the Balkan states, India, and Asia, where contrast in texture is as important to a meal as yin-yang flavours.

With a peak growing season of mid to late summer, okra is generally available year-round. If you're not familiar with the vegetable, ask for it, or look around for ridged green bullet-shaped pods. They're pretty easy to spot. The smaller ones are your best bet, no bigger than your index finger (unless you've very small hands), as larger, mature pods may be dry and woody. Think of snap peas when checking for firmness, and avoid any limp or blemished ones. Okra will keep fresh for up to 4 days when kept in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

Onions

Onions are the single most important cooking ingredient in the world and perhaps the least appreciated. Maybe it's because we use them so often that we take them for granted - almost every other recipe seems to start with "Chop an onion...." But nobody ever stops to ooh and ahh over a display of onions, and although it's true that even the most gorgeous red onion doesn't inspire me to grab it and take a bite, just try and imagine life without onions. Now that's something worth crying over.

The onion belongs to the allium family. There are dozens of varieties, but all of them have in common, to lesser and greater degrees, a characteristically pungent odour. This onion smell is due to volatile chemical compounds that lie just beneath the skin, which also explains why chopping onions can bring you to tears. However, the sharp odour and taste of onions is quickly transformed when they are cooked, which is why a mess of fried onions is about the tastiest, sweetest treat around.

The most frequently used onions are the yellow cooking onion, the sweet "eating onion," the shallot, and green onions and scallions. The yellow onion is an all-purpose cooking variety. The papery outside skin is golden brown, while the flesh inside graduates from yellow to white as you peel away the layers. Too strong to eat raw, it takes on a mellow, sweet flavour when fried, boiled, or baked, and is usually used as a base for other ingredients. The smallest ones are also good when braised whole in butter and white wine or added to casseroles. The little baby, button, or pearl onions, which look like miniature yellow onions except for their white skins, are frequently used for pickling.

Oranges

Oranges are certainly the most diverse of the citrus fruits. To begin with, the fruit divides into two separate species, bitter and sweet. Of the former we are most familiar with the Seville orange, while the latter embraces a number of varieties and hybrids.

While Florida has long been marketed as God's orange country, this most popular of citrus fruits actually originated in China. The bitter orange made its way into Europe by way of the Arabs in the 12th century, but it was another half-millennium before the sweet orange showed up in Mediterranean gardens. Columbus introduced the orange, along with so many fruits and vegetables, to the New World in 1493, and a hundred years later the seeds were literally sown for Florida's enormous citrus industry. These days, California's orange output rivals that of the Sunshine State, and the United States and Brazil together account for 70 per cent of world production. Specialty oranges and hybrids tend to be concentrated in specific countries, although the Americans are doing a good job in taking over these as well.

The main varieties of cultivated oranges include the common sweet orange, the navel orange, the blood orange, and the bitter orange. There are also a number of orange-like fruits belonging to the species Citrus reticulata, which includes mandarins, satsumas, tangerines, and various hybrids of mandarins and oranges or other citrus fruits. Because we tend to treat these as types of oranges, I've included them here.

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