Fried Okra

 Well this situation started out as really annoying.  We planted 5 okra plants because Sam likes it.  Then 2 of them died.  That leaves us with 3 plants.  They are producing but so far not that much.  Mind you the plants are as tall as I am.  Every time we go to the garden and have a few okra (which is almost every other day) Kerry suggest “WE” fry them and see if they are good.  “WE” is such a great term, it means me preparing them and cleaning up the mess.  Now I have avoided this by saying there isn’t enough and by pickling them because Kim said she’d eat anything pickled.  After our trip out to the garden and return to the house with 11.6 lbs of goodies I am trying to decide what all needs pickled.  We clearly have a large amount of pickles.  Guess who suggest frying the hand full of okra? After working on the pickles I decied that  I am annoyed,  it’s lunch time and the house work is done so I am going to fry these stupid things just to get it over with.  I am at this point realizing that this is why I don’t have children, I already have the mentality of a 6 yr old pestering me.  But after all is said and done, I don’t actually hate okra and my breading ROCKS!!!

I started by cutting my okra, and yes they are slimy little things.  I put them in a dish and covered with the beaten egg mixture. (no one needs to see egg mixture)

While that soaks (5-10 minutes) I assemble the dry ingredients and pour oil into the bottom of a heavy frying pan (I prefer the tall sided one to keep the grease inside and off the stove top).  Once my oil was hot I tossed the egg covered okra in the flour mix and gracefully place into the hot oil.  Fry until golden brown, place on paper towel to drain and SALT!  ENJOY!!!

Ingredients

1/2 c     Flour
1/2 c     Corn Meal
1 t           house seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder)
1/4 t      cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1             egg beaten (add a splash of milk, cream or 1/2 and 1/2)
~10       okra sliced
More salt for after frying. 
Oil for frying

Since starting this post I have made 2 other batches of the fried goodness.  What I have discovered is that the longer you let the okra sit in the beaten egg mixture the better it sticks.  I am sure that is has something to do with the slim that comes out of the little veggie but hey I won’t complain.  By they way I have also tried this on onions and tonight zucchini.  I have also blanched and froze several bags of cut okra to try over the winter.

Update 1/1/2011

Today we pulled a bag of okra from the freezer.  It was good, but certainly not as good as fresh.  Kerry did say it was still better and less mushy than thee stuff served in restaurants.