Okra

Okay, let’s get this straight: okra is a lovely, tender, sweet-tasting vegetable—that is slippery, slimy, mucilaginous. If the mere idea of such a texture repels you, you shouldn’t bother with it. Just about every cookbook that addresses the subject implies, in some fashion, that this slipperiness can be avoided if you will just cook the poor pod properly. I disagree: the deliciously smooth, light, clean slick that okra exudes is supposed to be there.