by Texas Homesteader ~ 

I only planted a few okra plants in the garden. So how will I accumulate the few okra I harvest each day until I have enough to fry?

I keep a dry seasoning mix in my freezer. Then I’ll add the cut okra to that mix each day until I have enough to fry.

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Okra is a powerhouse in the garden. Heat? Drought? Poor soil? It just seems to laugh at it all! My garden struggled this year due to the prolonged cool, wet spring. When the sun finally did come out & the temps warmed, many of the things I’d planted had already given up the ghost. But not the okra.

Now okra will produce you out of house & home if you let it. So I only planted four (count ’em – f-o-u-r) plants!

Those four plants have been about right to supply RancherMan & me with okra. But I’ll need to harvest & accumulate enough okra for frying up for us. Thankfully it’s easy!

Accumulating Fresh Okra

RancherMan & I love, love, LOVE fried okra. Of course we try to eat fried foods in moderation only. These 4 plants should allow me to harvest slowly and have an okra-fry later. But how do I prepare and preserve it until we’re ready?

Each morning when I let the chickens out of their coop I stop by the garden and harvest anything that’s ready. I’ll look over my okra plants and harvest any pods that are about 3″ long. They should be nice & tender.

I’ll bring them inside and wash the outside of the pods and allow them to air dry. Then I prepare them for the freezer

Okra Coating For Freezer

Into a freezer bag I’ve placed a mixture of flour, cornmeal and spices. (recipe is below)

Now that my okra pods are washed & dried I cut them into 1/2″ chunks and toss them into the bag, shaking to make sure all the pieces are coated. Then I return the bag back to the freezer.

I repeat this step each day until it’s time for me to prepare a fried-okra side dish for that handsome man of mine.

Frying Coated Okra From Freezer

I’ll bring out the bag of frozen, flour-coated okra and sift it quickly to separate okra pieces from the flour mixture. The dry mix is sifted onto a piece of clean newspaper for ease of the next step.

I’d previously tried just frying up the dry-coated okra pieces. I figured they’d fry up crispy in the hot oil. But they sure weren’t crispy enough for RancherMan.

So today I mixed up 2 eggs and a little salt/pepper in a small bowl. As the oil in my Cast Iron Skillet was heating up I dropped portions of frozen dry-mix coated okra chunks into the egg and made sure the okra was coated.

Now that my oil’s hot I transfer those egg-coated okra pieces to the dry mix I’d sifted onto the newspaper. They’re coated well with the dry mix & placed into the skillet of hot oil. Those battered okra pieces fried up quickly.

When they were done I transferred them to a plate with a clean piece of newspaper to soak up the oil. They were delicious, delightfully crispy and RancherMan loved ’em.

Ok, I think we have a winner. I’ll continue to accumulate fresh okra from the garden and keep them in this mix in my freezer. Heck we’ll even be able to enjoy fried okra in the cold months too!

Here’s the recipe I use.

~TxH~

Other Side Dishes We Love

• Rosemary Rice
• Buttered Rice w/Fresh Sage & Garlic
• Cilantro-Lime Rice
• Texas-Style Spanish Rice
• Favorite Ways To Flavor Plain Rice
• Ranch-Style Beans
• RancherMan’s Green-Bean Casserole
• Roasted Vegetables
• Fresh Pico de Gallo
• Fried Okra Fritters
• Homemade Cottage Cheese
• Deviled Eggs With a KICK!
• Tri-Colored Homemade Pasta
• Pasta Salad FAST
• Cooking Dry Pinto Beans in An Instant Pot
• Fun Flavor Variations For Plain Pinto Beans

…and MANY MORE!

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