12/12/06 | Fried Okra
[ Currently Eating: Danish Pastry ]
I have to admit that I only recently made a batch of Fried Okra because I had seen a snippet of Paula Deen making some on TV. By the way, I can’t stand Paula Deen… I’ve no idea why she got her own live show recently. But I do like some of the Southern recipes she talks about. And she’s somewhat more tolerable that Wolfgang Shmuck…
Sometimes people who read Cheap Eats think that I’m some sort of food or cooking expert. My god, nothing could be farther from the truth. This is the first time I’ve ever tried making Fried Okra, or for that matter anything with okra in it. It came out pretty decent, but I’m not sure how often I would make it.
I know that okra is often used to thicken stews and gumbo, and my mom used to make some sort of goulash type of dish that had okra in it. I have to say that I was never very fond of the mega-glutinous qualities that okra posesses. It’s like they have built in corn starch factories inside of them. Ok, I’m trying not to turn people off them by saying that the inside has the consistency of Slimy Boogers - but it can be extremely off-putting if you haven’t had it before. Although, if you’ve had Natto before, okra slime is a walk in the park…
But anyhow, battering and frying it up is supposed to reduce the slurminess. I think they usually dunk the okra in buttermilk and then coat it with a mixture of flour or cornmeal, and other spices. I didn’t have buttermilk, so I used milk with a bit of yogurt mixed in. I also used frozen okra without defrosting it - I don’t know if defrosting it would have made it cook up quicker.
When fried, the okra definitely tasted less slimy to me. And using frozen okra didn’t seem to be a deal breaker either. It’s a pretty nice appetizer with some tabasco or other hot sauce to dip them in. I even re-baked some in the toaster then next day and they came back pretty well.
December 13th, 2006 at 9:25 am
Okra is pretty good. It is one of my fathers biggest weaknesses (next to cocktail shrimp anyway). There is also pickled okra that is pretty good, if you add a spicy pepper to the brine it is even better.
December 13th, 2006 at 7:21 pm
Fried okra has to be one of my favorite foods. I’ve loved it since I was a child. I love okra in gumbo and goulosh as well!
December 13th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
I hope you added a stick of butter. Paula would want you to.
December 14th, 2006 at 6:13 am
The first time I had okra, as an addition to shepherd’s pie, I wasn’t expecting the sliminess. Gross. Although I am okay with pretty much anything fried.
December 14th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
I’ve only ever had them in gumbo too.
But you know what’s REALLY good fried?
Dill pickle spears, dunked in ranch dressing.
I know, I know, I thought it sounded gross too until I tried them, so try them! Fry them!
December 15th, 2006 at 10:17 am
Roasted in the oven is also good. Gotta cook it until it starts to blacken.
December 20th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Can get a pound of fried okra in the frozen section of walmart for $1.89. A little more than making it yourself, but much quicker to just open the bag and fry them.
December 21st, 2006 at 10:04 am
haha i’ve always been turned off by the sliminess too!
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:05 am
icemn - slimy, spicy and sour - should be interesting…
latisha - I’ve been thinking of trying to use it to thicken gumbo next time I make a batch
marvo - actually, I used a scoop or two of shortening… I’m sure she would approve.
g - whoah, in shepherd’s pie? I made the rachel ray version of shepherd’s pie and it was pretty good. but i don’t think it called for okra!
peggasus - I will have to investigate this fried pickle phenomenon…
sylko - what do you roast it with, or is it just by itself?
budderocks - you know, I actually thought about this later. When I checked my supermarket they didn’t have any… do you remember what brand that the frozen okra was?
kiim - you should try some natto…
December 23rd, 2006 at 3:12 pm
My friend made me taste this in america because he likes it. I actually had to spit it out.
December 24th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
The only time I ever threw up at the dinner table was when I was a child many, many years ago at grandma’s table. We had soup with okra and as soon as the slimy texture hit my tongue– out it went all over the table. Although your fried okra looks delicious I don’t think I could try a bite, ever of okra.
December 26th, 2006 at 8:11 am
Frozen fried okra is terrible. It’s deep fried, which keeps in the slime, and doesn’t let the flesh of the okra pods cook. So what you get is fried batter with some warmed-up okra in the middle.
I grew up on pan-fried okra - batter it in cornmeal and fry it slow in a cast iron skillet with a 1/4″ of grease in the bottom - that’s how just about everything Southern is fried. Chicken, steak, squash, eggplant, tomatoes… everything. You batter it in cornmeal (salt and pepper to taste, some use plain flour or a mix of flour/cornmeal) after dipping in a mix of egg and milk, and put it into hot grease in a skillet and fry at a low temperature until it’s done.
Everything else southern is boiled, except desserts and pies, which are baked. To boil southern food, just cut the ingredients up if required, like greens, add a chunk of salt pork (fatback, if you’re from around here), salt and pepper to taste, and let simmer for a while.
A long while.
Southern food isn’t fast.
But it’s good.
December 26th, 2006 at 11:53 am
I do the pan fried too, using cornmeal. FYI, I once had some deep fried spinach at an Indian restaurant. They used garbanzo bean flour. Wonderful but strange.