+1000

As a friend said, "It's like eating giant boogers -- but with not as good a flavor."

In gumbo ... very good.
Cut, breaded, fried ... very good.
Sautéed with tomatoes and onions, served over rice ... good.
Whole, unbreaded, pan-fried in butter until scorched black areas appear ... excellent.

Y'all--
I just want to say:
You use fresh okra. Rinse, pat dry, slice. Most people discard the tops.
Slice fairly thinly, maybe a quarter to a half inch medallions.
Dredge the sliced okra in seasoned cornmeal (i.e., cornmeal with a dash of salt).
Fry in a heavy iron skillet. Oil should be heated before adding the okra. Stir every few minutes or so. Don't let it brown too much on one side before the top has been turned. IOW, reasonably even browning.
Here is the critical part. Okra is done not just when the cornmeal has browned--that's a few seconds or minutes too soon--but when the okra appears to shrink slightly.
Drain on paper towels if you prefer.
The okra should be dry inside, never slimy. If the latter, you didn't cook it long enough.

Correcting an earlier post as to blackeyed peas as an accompaniment. The preferred peas are purple hull peas. Blackeyes will work, butterbeans will (more or less) work, but homeshelled purple hulls are the best. (No one has the time to shell these, of course, and they couldn't even be procured unless you live in the South and are at a farmer's market, I suppose. I am speaking theoretically. In practice I just open a can of blackeyes.)

Don't even try any of this unless you can also serve sliced tomatoes.

Addendum: Okra can also be used in gumbos, more or less interchangeably with file (diacritical mark?). Gumbo is probably more common in Louisiana (southern Louisiana, not northern) than in other parts of the South or was at one time.

Okra boiled with tomatoes? I've never tried it though I've seen it canned, on grocery shelves.

If okra were always boiled, I can see why many or most people would dislike it intensely. But fried until dry, per above, it is entirely different. Even then, I suppose it is and will remain a regional preference. But fried okra is not even remotely like boiled okra.

ETA: Cooking temperature should be medium to medium-medium-high. Low frying temperature would result in soggy okra. High temperature would brown the outside too soon before the inside had cooked. I don't know if type of cooking oil matters. So long as it doesn't add a taste, any ought to do. We use canola, but Crisco is authentic, at least back for one or two generations or so.

Edited again. Some people mix half flour and half cornmeal plus a bit of salt. That works too, some families one preference, others the other. I've used both versions. And some people (such as my husband) use neither, just the okra fried in just enough oil, a tablespoon or so, to keep it from sticking to the skillet.

Traditional Southern Standard

In a large saute pan or iron skillet,
Render up some bacon or finely diced salt pork/hog jowl.
In the fat, saute' onions and some garlic.
Add okra, preferably small tender pods whole, or lager pods in 1" pieces, discarding the tops from large old pods.
Afer a few moments, add a can of diced tomatoes, hot sauce and sauce to taste, cover and simmer over low heat until the okra is tender (no more than 10 minutes for baby pods, longer for big'uns).

No sippery sleazy sliminess!

Best with fried hot water corn bread...

Which is an art form in and of itself. :)

Best regards,

William

Fried? Yum. Surrounded by Gumbo? Double Yum. All by its lonesome? It's second cousin to the milkweed! I wouldn't touch it with your fork!

I grew up eating okra curry (Indian household), and couldn't stand it till my early teens. Now my family has it a couple of times a month, and we grow okra in the summer.

I'm not really sure about how it's prepared, but I know the okra is shallow fried to remove most of the sliminess.

BTW, I love the deep fried okra at my local bar!

Here's a tip for those who like a little heat with their fried okra:

Slice a Scotch Bonnet (or habanero) pepper into a few large pieces (so you can easily pick them out from the finished batch) and throw into the frying oil while it heats up. The oil will infuse with some nice, flavorful heat from the pepper. You are, of course, free to eat the pepper itself if you so desire.

The oil, however, will not be easily reusable for other frying jobs unless you want to impart the flavor/heat to those dishes as well.

I love me some pickled okra!

think I will get some for this weekend, pickled okra and fine cheese ;)

Mmm thanks, have the three in bold, just need the Okra now.:)

Yep. I'm surprised that only you and I have mentioned this form of enjoying okra so far. ;)

Best regards,

William

You'll know how fresh your okra is by how much your hands itch after preparing it...

In a pinch, the frozen cut okra from WalMart is edible when fried properly. Not that breaded crap, though...

I can't imagine gumbo without okra. ;)

And who could forget Okra Cola? :p

:raiseshand:

+1

I've been to Okracoke, NC. Is that close?