File This Under "Why Not?"

Okra, okra, okra!  Every where I look, it's all about the okra. As I retrieved the Mobile Press Register from my front yard TODAY, there featured on the front were "Pods of Glory."  Southern Living also featured okra this month.  When it comes to okra, I have successfully flown under the radar for all these years--all these many years--without EVER having cooked okra.  It's not that I don't like okra.  Well, maybe it is.  Maybe the ugly truth is I have convinced myself that in general, okra isn't my thing.  The exception is pickled okra, the kind you buy in the grocery store alongside all the other pickles.  If the jar describes the contents as "spicy" or "hot," all the better.  But the southern standard is fried okra, and quite frankly, up until this summer my attitude has been, "Why bother?"


The big problem with my laissez faire attitude is that my husband LOVES fried okra, simply loves it.  I've been able to rest comfortably on my laurels all these years because my mother, Saint Ann, makes excellent fried okra and cooks it for Paul frequently enough that I have let myself off-the-hook.  But just days ago I got busted, backed into a corner in the worst way a cook can imagine.  As Paul and I were walking into the house, our neighbor pulled up to the curb with the most generous of offers.  "Do y'all eat okra?" she queried.  Don't you love Southern hospitality?  Paul, with all the eagerness of a 3 month old Cocker Spaniel, quickly declared his love for okra right there on the spot and accepted our neighbor's gift of a sack of just picked, right out of the garden, couldn't be fresher green pods of summer.  And hands them to me with a look of raw yearning written all over his face.  Now what?  What is a good wife to do?


My first thought was to shove them in the back of the refrigerator and hope he would just forget about them.  But then, looking at those big brown puppy dog eyes, my heart softens.  It can't always be just about me in the kitchen, right?  Every now and then, I need to cook his first choice, not mine.  The stars aligned for Paul as I reviewed my menu for the evening meal to see how I might incorporate okra and thought about my plan for fish tacos.  Fried fish tacos, that is.  If I already have an egg wash, seasoned cornmeal and hot oil all set for frying fish, how hard could it be to use the same preparation to give Paul what his little heart truly desires for dinner that night.  Count me in!  Fried okra, it is.  I must say, the results were pretty good.  Paul declared me the okra-frying queen and couldn't have been happier.  If marriage works on a point system, I was flush.


But now, having jumped on the okra bandwagon with our very kind neighbor, the okra keeps on coming.  This is not a one time commitment I have made, but now must make regular appearances on the Parker menu. The article in Southern Living this month came to my rescue and gave me a lovely idea.  As I have mentioned before, anything in a taco makes me happy, so how about an okra taco?  Again, not my idea.  Blame Southern Living for this one.  As Paul was traveling out of town this week and I had a fresh batch of okra on deck in the refrigerator and a little time to play in the kitchen, I decided to give it a try.  Why not?

I decided to do my own taste test and put the Southern Living recipe alongside the one I used last week and see how the two stack up.  The article in SL this month calls for a buttermilk bath instead of an egg wash before dredging the okra in cornmeal.  With a lot of okra to play with, I set up my test kitchen with a bowl containing an egg mixed with a cup of water and another bowl filled with about a cup of buttermilk.  My usual cornmeal coating is a little spicier than the SL version, so I decided to go with the status quo there.  So I cooked the first batch dipped in the egg wash, the second in the buttermilk and then mixed some of the buttermilk and egg wash together to see if a hybrid might be the best combo.  My hunch was there wouldn't be a very big difference, but you will see, as I did, a marked difference among the three.  The preparation at the top was with the egg and water.  In the middle is the buttermilk alone and finally, at the bottom, is the combination of egg and buttermilk.  The buttermilk gave the cornmeal coating a much better chance at hanging onto the okra.  Perhaps that is why Southern cooks have been dredging chicken pieces in buttermilk for years before frying it up.  At first, I thought perhaps the oil was at a better temperature by the time I got to the buttermilk coated okra, but then when I got to the last batch and combined the egg and buttermilk, the results regressed.  Now, what about taste?  I have to be perfectly honest and tell you I couldn't detect a huge difference flavor-wise in the three. But let's be even MORE honest and declare that if you are going to fry something, the crunchier the better.  Part of the taste experience when we eat fried foods has to do with the texture, not just the flavor, and the buttermilk won on that count hands down.


For many of you, a heaping helping of fried okra alongside whatever else is on your menu may be just the thing.  But for some of you, taking it a step further and throwing a little fried okra in a taco may be too alluring to pass up.  I thought it was pretty good.  For the okra purists among you and for the taco aficionados, this is for you.  You'll know what to do!

Fried Okra Tacos (adapted from Southern Living Magazine)

1 lb. fresh okra, cut into 1/2" slices 
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup self-rising yellow cornmeal mix
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Vegetable oil

1.  Combine okra and buttermilk in a large bowl.  Combine cornmeal mix, salt, paprika and cayenne pepper in another large bowl.


2.  Heat 1 inch of oil in the pan of your choice to between 350 and 375 degrees (medium high on my electric stove.)


3.  Working in batches, remove okra from bowl with a slotted spoon.  Toss in the cornmeal mixture until well coated.  Remove from cornmeal using a slotted spoon and shake off excess.  (Can use a wire strainer for this step if your slotted spoon isn't sufficient.  All slotted spoons are not created equal!)


4.  Fry in batches about 4 minutes each, turning occasionally to brown on all sides.  Drain on layered paper towel.


For tacos:  Fill warm corn tortillas with shredded lettuce or cabbage, fried okra, shredded pepper jack cheese, guacamole, sour cream and salsa.