Cretan Psari me Bamies (Ψάρι με Μπάμιες)

Psari me bamies belongs to Crete in high summer, when okra is small, tomatoes are heavy with juice, and the fish is whatever the day's catch allows. It is not a fancy dish. It is a baking dish of bamies, okra, softened in tomato and olive oil, with firm white fish laid over the top so it cooks gently in the sauce.

The okra decides everything. Salt it with vinegar first and give it time to sit. That small treatment tightens the cut edge, pulls out a little moisture, and keeps the pods separate in the pan. Skip it and you haven't saved time. You've made glue with a fish on top, and no Cretan auntie will thank you.

Use good tomatoes in season or honest canned ones outside it. Use a firm fish that won't collapse before the okra is ready. I don't invent it, I find it, I test it, I write it down, and this one asks for only three virtues: small okra, clean fish, and good olive oil.