farmer's market stir fry

Stir fry is one of my favorite dinners to make. It's quick, hard to mess up, and versatile. I've been trying to pick up new vegetables at the farmer's market for culinary experimentation, and there is one stand that is always selling unusual bunches of leaves for $1. Recently I picked up a bunch of okra leaves, which I was informed made an excellent addition to stir-fry. I promptly went home to test this advice:


In addition to the okra leaves, I threw in a zucchini, an eggplant (which I always salt and sweat ahead of time, as I do not buy this business about eggplants that are now bred to be less bitter), and some baked tofu. For seasoning, I crushed a few cloves of garlic, then added red pepper flakes, a generous splash of mirin (a Japanese cooking wine--it has a thick consistency and is on the sweeter side), and a dash of sesame oil. Sounds yum, no? Here, have a close up to drool over:


So how did the okra leaves turn out? The flavor is quite mild, similar to actual okra. The guy who sold me the leaves said they would also behave like okra and produce the same thick juices (or "slime" for the okra haters out there) that okra does when cooked. Honestly, I did not notice that there was much of a thickening effect, certainly nothing like what I would have expected from a comparable volume of okra. Still, they were cheap, added bulk, and the taste was good, so I'll probably be adding them into the stir fry rotation again.