Meaning
A green, ridged, finger-shaped pod vegetable with a characteristic slippery, 'draw' texture when cooked, used in pepperpot soup, rundown, and 'okra and saltfish'. An African food carried to the Caribbean, okra is valued as much for its slimy, thickening 'draw' as for its flavour, lending body and slip to a soup or a stew. Cheap, easily grown, and nourishing, it is a familiar vegetable of the Jamaican pot, and the 'ochro', as it is also called, is a small but constant part of the island's African-rooted cookery.
Examples
-
Add okra to di soup fi thick it up.
Add okra to the soup to thicken it.
-
Okra an saltfish a a tasty dish.
Okra and saltfish is a tasty dish.
-
Di okra draw wen yuh cook it.
The okra goes slippery when you cook it.
Origin
An African vegetable and word (from Igbo 'okuru'); also called 'ochro' across the Caribbean.
How it’s used
Prized for its thickening 'draw'; also spelled 'ochro'. Key to pepperpot soup and rundown.