Fabulous Fried Okra & Conquering a Fear Food

October 10, 2009

I have a very "sensitive" stomach and so cannot eat a lot of fried foods, but fried okra has always been my exception. It's my favorite food! Really, I love okra any way that it can be cooked-I'll even eat it raw, which I know grosses out a lot of people.

In January, I had a colonoscopy and it confirmed that I have IBS, or Irritable Bowel Syndrome, so while it is definitely true that I have logical reasons for being careful with what I eat, it is also true that when I was really sick, I would use it as an excuse not to eat. Eating fried foods, especially fried veggies, every once in a while is still perfectly okay!

So when I was grocery shopping a few days ago and I saw that okra was on sale, I thought to myself, "Why don't I really torture ED?! Why don't I learn how to make fried okra?!!!"

It may sound silly, but I felt like a rebel as I put the okra in my cart. I felt like any minute the eating disorder god would strike me down with lightning bolts, but I metaphorically "ran in the rain" anyway! And I am so glad I did!

I had never truly fried anything before, so I did a little research first and found a recipe from allrecipes.com

Ingredients
10 pods okra, sliced in 1/4 inch pieces
1 Egg, beaten
1 Cup Cornmeal
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

Directions
1. In a small bowl, soak okra in egg for 5 to 10 minutes. In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, salt and pepper.

2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Dredge okra in the cornmeal mixture, coating evenly. Carefully place okra in hot oil, stir continuously. Reduce heat to medium when okra first starts to brown and cook until golden.


Drain on paper towels.
The okra was crunchy and juicy, but the cornmeal did not stay on the okra very well, because I had put the veggies into the oil too soon and it was not hot enough! I guess that means I will have to make fried okra again...Well, I am not complaining!

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