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Okra Stew (Bemiyeh bil lahmeh) - بامية باللحمة


Okra stew is one of my favorite stews. I love its taste when it combines with the tomato sauce, cilantro and pomegranate molasses. Very tangy and full of texture. I follow my mom's recipe, I love the way she makes it. It's a very popular recipe in Lebanon.
Here in the United States I don't always find fresh small okras, so I buy it from the frozen section at a Middle Eastern store or from the local grocery store but they come sliced since they let them grow too big. Small okra is always preferable though.
This stew is best served with rice and vermicelli (you can find how to prepare it if you go back to my recipe of beans stew or fasolia w rizz that I posted before).

Ingredients:
A frozen bag of small okra (about 500g or 15 ounce)
Canola oil (or any vegetable oil) just enough to fry the okra
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 big can of tomato sauce
2 cups of diced tomatoes (fresh or canned)
4 cloves of garlic sliced
1 onion chopped
1 fresh bunch of cilantro chopped
1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses (optional)
Juice of a lemon
Salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon of allspice
500grs or a bit more than half a pound of lean stew meat

Thaw the frozen okra, drain and fry in hot oil until golden then transfer to a plate covered with paper towel to drain the excess oil, set that aside.
In the cooking pot add chopped onions, butter, olive oil, salt & pepper. Then add the meat, garlic and allspice. Let everything cook until the meat browns then add the diced tomatoes, once they're cooked add the tomato sauce and some water, cover for few minutes until everything incorporates and cook, then add the okra (don't stir!), let it sink in the sauce and cook slowly. Add the pomegranate molasses, lemon juice and fresh cilantro. Let everything simmer until ready.
Serve with rice.

10 comments:

  1. If you never tried this dish before, the smell of frying okra in olive oil, then adding the fresh cilantro and garlic over will make our mouth drilling...
    thanks for sharing my dear.

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  2. Yummy ya Arlette! You are referring to 'bemyeh m2alleyeh bi kezbarah w toum' one of my favorite too, shahhaytini!!!!!

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  3. bamyeh is good any way you cook it...certainly delicious and makes a great lunch dish with white rice on the side...thanks for sharing.

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  4. I like okra's sour taste. Very tasty dish!
    Iffet

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  5. Hi Summer! I agree :) thanks for the lovely comment (like always:)

    Thank you Iffet for stopping by :)

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  6. How did I miss this post? Bamia is one of my favorites and yours looks deeeelicious. Interesting that you used both diced tomatoes and tomato sauce - that must give it a neat texture. I'll try that next time!

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  7. This looks wonderful for a Texas FALL Day!! Thanks Kathy.

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  8. This sounds really good, I love Okra, Cilantro and the other ingredients. Will have to try this.

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  9. Tina, I love okra too, I hope you like this recipe :)

    Kathy, you're absolutely right, thanks for stopping by!

    Thanks a lot Tony, thanks for visiting my blog :)

    ReplyDelete

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authorHello, my name is MAG. I've been running this blog since 2007. Follow me on Social Media!!!
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