The other day my roommate and I went to the farmer’s market, where 5 oz of okra was part of my farm share. I’ve never had okra before, to my knowledge, but my roommate is from Tennessee and waxed poetic about fried okra. So, with plenty of time on my hands, I decided to try it.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the taste and texture. With my eyes closed it could have been fried zucchini. (My roommate just came home, tasted one, and said, “Good job.” High praise from someone who’s been eating her mama’s recipe her whole life.)
I used this recipe from Allrecipes, and I would definitely do it again. My one complaint is that there was more than half the cornmeal mix left over once all the veggies were in the skillet. Next time I’ll throw in some other vegetables for good measure.
The okra, just begging to be eaten.
Since there was so much leftover batter, I made what my mom calls pancakes but are secretly fritters. When I was a kid, my oldest sister was a vegetarian for several years. She loved my mom’s chicken schnitzel but couldn’t eat it. So my mom would take leftover batter and cook it up with the chicken. Pancakes! Basically all I did was take the cornmeal (there was maybe 3/5ths of a cup), add a beaten egg and a couple tablespoons milk, and fry in the leftover oil.
Eat me.
Everything came out delicious, but it doesn’t take much to realize these are gut bombs, and therefore, sometimes foods. I look forward to the next sometimes.
Adventures With Vegetables 