Fried Okra, my love

Dovie sent us home with some okra (picked while we were there!) on Tuesday when we picked up our eggs and milk.  I fried it up this weekend!

I tried a couple of things differently this time {after reading several recipes on Pinterest}, and I want to document what I did!

I put the cut up okra in buttermilk {actually milk soured with vinegar – 1T vinegar to 1 cup milk} and let it cool in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.

The first batch I used this stuff to bread the okra because it’s easy and yummy:

But it was too spicy for the kiddos, so I made my own for the next batch (actually the next day).  It turned out great.  I didn’t exactly measure, but I’ll guess.  I used freshly ground cornmeal.  It was ground very finely mainly due to my not knowing exactly how it behaves in the grain mill.  Then I added sea salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder.  I’m estimating there was about 1 cup of cornmeal, 1 teaspoon each of the garlic, onion, and salt, and a few sprinkles of black pepper.  That was very good and not too spicy for the kiddos.

I took the okra out of the buttermilk with a slotted spoon, allowing as much to drain off as possible.  Then I coated it in the cornmeal mixture before dropping it into hot oil. 

I used palm shortening to fry the okra.  It has a high smoke point and is good stuff!

It’s solid at room temperature – see?

I used my big ol’ dutch oven because it’s the only cast iron thing I have.  {I know, I can hardly believe it myself.  Who am I?}

They were delicious!

The next day when I made the other batch I didn’t actually fry it, I baked it.  I like fried better, but this was surprisingly good too, so I feel I should document it.  The beginning steps were the same but instead of tossing the breaded okra into a pot of oil, I put it on a buttered cookie sheet.  Next time, I know I need to really butter that bad boy instead of just the light layer I did.  The okra stuck, but it wasn’t too awful.  They went into the oven for 40 minutes at 450F, stirring halfway through.