Okrappy Pattycake

The Portuguese Spiced Beans I made that tried to emulate the flavors of chorizo got me craving the real thing. However, I made two mistakes when making my Chorizo and Clams. The first was that I didn't splurge and buy whole clams, because that would've been more fun to make and eat. The second was omitting tomatoes from my recipe, because I think that would've added nicely to the sauce. Despite these 2 things, I still enjoyed this dish, in part because it is simple and flavorful, but mostly because I ate it with soft, fresh sourdough bread. Still, I'd recommend you use whole clams and add a diced tomato or two if you're going to render this one yourself.

I found a recipe for Okra Patties and after my experience with the Mediterranean Eggplant Cakes, I figured that combining a vegetable with batter and frying it is a good way to go with basically anything. That was wrong. This was okra's last chance to impress me and it failed. It was definitely more edible than okra by itself, but it wasn't exactly savored. The flavor of pepper and onions came through more than the okra itself, I thought, but I let Shannon have one of the crispier bites, (let might be a bit misleading, since I was technically chasing her around the apartment making airplane noises with a forkful in my hand) and she basically gagged. The texture and flavor of this one just isn't really cutting it, though I did thing it was significantly better Fried with Plantains because there was no gumminess.