On May 24, I planted okra in the garden.
Clemson Spineless Okra seed – May 24
On June 16, it looked like this:
Okra Plants-June 16
Since then, it has grown… a lot. Here it is today.
Okra – August 3
It’s up to my chin, and looks like a row of trees in the veggie garden. Animals take shelter in its shade. I had to shoo a couple of lumberjacks out of it yesterday who wanted to cut it down with their chainsaws. Hawks perch at the top of the plants looking for small prey in our yard. You get the idea. It’s big.
It started blooming last week. And it has very pretty blooms too, about 3 inchess across with a burgundy center.
And then it started making little pods. Finally, my dream of fried okra can become reality.
Assemble the ingredents:
Ingredients:
- 10 okra pods, between 4 and 6 inches long
- 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 4 tablespoons butter
This recipe is very flexible. You can use regular salt instead of the seasoned salt, or onion salt or garlic salt, whatever. You can also add more seasoning, or use less.
Wash the okra, cut off the ends with the stem, and then cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices.
Look how neat it looks on the inside. Kinda pretty.
Add the cornmeal to a zippered bag,
and the salt,
and the pepper.
Shake the bag to mix up the ingredients, and then add the okra.
Close the bag, and shake it up.
Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat,
and add the okra.
Stir well to coat the okra on all sides with the butter.
Reduce heat, about midway between low and medium heat. You want the okra to fry without the butter scorching. Turn okra occasionally to fry evenly.
When it is lightly browned, and looks like this, it’s done.
Oh my goodness me.
Dig in, there’s more where that came from. Okra produces until frost, so there will be a lot of fried okra to be had between now and then.
