Bamia is a Middle Eastern, Assyrian, Armenian, Afghan, Kurdish, and Anatolian

stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables a ...

prepared using lamb,

okra Okra or Okro (, ), ''Abelmoschus esculentus'', known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It has edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with su ...

and tomatoes as primary ingredients.Claudia Roden, ''A New Book of Middle Eastern Food'', p. 248 Additional ingredients used include tomato sauce, onion, garlic,

cilantro Coriander (;

(coriander), vegetable oil,

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera '' Elettaria'' and '' Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. They ar ...

, salt and pepper. The word "bamia" itself simply means "

" and it is etymologically an Arabic word. Vegetarian bamia is very popular during fasting seasons such as

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samue ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

and

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

Regional variations

In Turkey, bamia (natively ''bamya'') is an

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

n stew that has a

sweet and sour Sweet and sour is a generic term that encompasses many styles of sauce, cuisine and cooking methods. It is commonly used in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been used in England since the Middle Ages. Dickson Wright, Clarissa (2011) ''A Histor ...

flavor. It is prepared using okra, lemon juice, olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper. Turkish bamia is sometimes served as a palate cleanser between food

courses Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

at ceremonial feasts. In Egypt,

sinew A tendon or sinew is a tough, high-tensile-strength band of dense fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. It is able to transmit the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system without sacrificing its ability ...

(tendons) of lamb are typically used, which can endure long cooking times. Ta'aleya, an Egyptian

garlic sauce Garlic sauce is a sauce prepared using garlic as a primary ingredient. It is typically a pungent sauce, with the depth of garlic flavor determined by the amount of garlic used. The garlic is typically crushed or finely diced. Simple garlic sauce ...

, is used as an ingredient to add flavor to bamia. In Iran and Afghanistan, bāmieh is served as a khoresh along with rice and is a popular dish in the southern provinces.

Iraqi Jews The history of the Jews in Iraq ( he, יְהוּדִים בָּבְלִים, ', ; ar, اليهود العراقيون, ) is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BC. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and mos ...

, put semolina kubba in their bamia stew.

Terminology

In Arabic ar, بامية , bamyah or bamia bi-lahm ( ar, البامية باللحم أو شوربة البامية ''okra with meat''; gr, μπάμια; .

Notes

References

{{Cuisine of Lebanon Middle Eastern cuisine Okra dishes Iranian cuisine Greek cuisine Arab cuisine Egyptian cuisine Turkish stews Armenian cuisine

Regional variations

Terminology

See also

Notes

References