Fried okra

Well, I finally made fried okra. Twice, in fact. It's funny: the first time I make something, I pay very careful attention to reading a recipe and getting it as close as I can to perfect. Then the second time, I get really sloppy and it sucks.

Case in point: mayonnaise. The first time I made mayonnaise it was awesome. A thing of beauty. I have to admit that right up until I finished that last 1/4 cup of oil or so, I was concerned that this constantly-whipped glop was not going to turn into a smooth and creamy mayonnaise and then... it was. And then the second time... I got lazy and did larger streams of oil than is proper. Apparently. And I hadn't yet read that the way to turn back broken (fer real) mayonnaise is to add egg yolks.

And also, if you were wondering, you should really only use certain types of vinegar like cider vinegar though some recipes also call for white wine vinegar. Because if you use white distilled, the mayo just hates you and looks more like a mustard slather. I have to credit J for teaching me that.

But on to my tale about okra. Okra is really best straight outta the skillet. I'm so spoiled for straight-out-of-the anything. Fried chicken, deep-fried spring rolls, ... okay, maybe that's it so far.

My okra gets just a wash and then gets sliced into nice 1/2 inch sections. Toss in buttermilk (or I just use milk or half and half, whatever I actually have in the fridge). Meanwhile, mix up some cornmeal with s+p. When the skillet is about hot, I drain the okra in a strainer and then toss it in the cornmeal and then I strain that in a nice little collander to get all the extra cornmeal off and toss the okra in the skillet.

Heat is actually rather important so that you get nice lightly crispy outside and a soft and gooooooooey inside. If you get impatient and turn up the heat too high, the okra gets too brown and then it sucks. Then you get sad because you have all this fried chicken and no okra to go with it.

Well, that's what happened to me.