Soupe kandia

As tradition built it

Serves 4. About 30 minutes.

Ingredients

• 500 g okra, chopped
• 60 ml palm oil
• 1 onion
• 300 g fish and shellfish, mixed
• 20 g dried shrimp
• 1 chilli, whole

Method

1. Soften the onion in the palm oil.
2. Add the fish and shellfish and the whole chilli, with a little water, and simmer.
3. Fold through the okra and dried shrimp and finish until thick and ropey with released mucilage.
4. Serve over rice.

What a modern chef changes

The mucilage protected, not fought, the same discipline this coast applies wherever okra is the body of the dish

Method

1. Add the okra last and cook it briefly. Prolonged heat destroys the draw the dish exists for.
2. Two-stage palm oil: early for depth, a final measure stirred through off the heat for colour and aroma, since palm oil's carotenoids degrade under sustained heat.