Fried okra!

Today I had a new southern food experience. Trey, unofficial king of all things southern, made fried okra from scratch at my house! Although I love fried okra, I had no real concept of how to make it from scratch, and I'd never tried it homemade before, so this was an exciting occasion for me. It looked surprisingly easy (just takes some time) so I think I could try to make it again myself someday. He took a bunch of okra and washed it in a big bowl. He then proceeded to cut the ends off with a pairing knife and slice each of the pieces into a few sections and drop them into another bowl. It's OK to get water into the bowl while you're doing all this because it will help the coating stick when the time comes. After all the okra was cut up, the flour went into the bowl and he tossed the bowl around to coat everything evenly (this step can be messy, he went outside). Afterwards it looked like this:


Meanwhile a big pot of oil was heating up, and when it was hot enough to fry, he carefully slipped half the okra into the pot. It boiled like crazy and then calmed down. It's important not to cook it too fast or the outsides will just burn at the whole thing will be crispy. You have to watch them, because once they're done they need to come out fast or they will be overcooked. Honestly, I just remember this taking a long time, I don't know how many minutes it was. I recommend keeping an eye on it and taking them out when they've reached the desired brownness. When in doubt, pull one out and try it.


When ours were done they looked like this:


We drained them on paper towels and salted them while they were still hot. They are really addictive, once you start popping them in your mouth it's hard to stop.