Tempura Fried Okra with Ranch Ice Cream

Deep Run Roots

You heard me right, this is a recipe for ranch ice cream. (Oh, and also fried okra.)

Fried okra is a southern staple, but this one is definitely NOT the usual stuff you'd get at a barbecue or meat-and-three southern restaurant. Frying it whole is actually much easier than frying it in pieces, in my opinion, and the tempura batter isn't as difficult as it might sound. If you like fried okra, you should definitely try it this way!

You can find the full recipe here: https://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/tempura-fried-okra-ranch-ice-cream/

Captions

[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather
[00:07]: on uh this week's episode we are going
[00:09]: to be making
[00:10]: tempura fried okra with ranch
[00:14]: ice cream yes i said ranch ice cream she
[00:18]: said she did this on sort of to be
[00:19]: sort of cheeky in her restaurant but
[00:22]: people liked it
[00:23]: and so it's in the book um
[00:27]: i got a really beautiful delivery of
[00:30]: okra and we fry it whole with a tempura
[00:33]: batter
[00:34]: but first we have to make that ranch ice
[00:36]: cream and to do that we have to sort of
[00:38]: turn back
[00:39]: oh by the way this is in deep run roots
[00:40]: vivienne howard's cookbook
[00:42]: we have to turn back to the cucumber
[00:44]: section because
[00:46]: the ranch that we're using is in from
[00:48]: the
[00:49]: wedge you like a salad with that ranch
[00:52]: and she calls it cucumber ranch because
[00:54]: usually it has a bunch of cucumbers in
[00:56]: it
[00:57]: um but this is that recipe minus the
[01:00]: cucumbers
[01:02]: now the first thing is it says this
[01:04]: recipe
[01:05]: the cucumber ranch recipe minus the
[01:07]: cucumbers
[01:08]: i'm a little concerned because the
[01:11]: cucumbers you add salt to the cucumbers
[01:13]: and there's no other salt in the recipe
[01:15]: so
[01:16]: i'm leaving the salt in and i think
[01:19]: that's probably what i should do at this
[01:21]: point otherwise there's no salt in the
[01:22]: recipe but you know if i
[01:25]: misunderstood that that's on me um
[01:30]: i don't think so but we'll see we'll see
[01:32]: how it turns out
[01:33]: but so first we're gonna we're gonna
[01:35]: start adding the oh
[01:37]: in this bowl i have sour cream
[01:41]: but it's mostly my countertop creme
[01:44]: fresh that i just needed to use up it
[01:46]: was in my
[01:47]: in my refrigerator i needed to use it up
[01:49]: so i'm using it a little bit fancy
[01:52]: the rest of it store-bought sour cream
[01:54]: she does suggest
[01:55]: she does say full fat sour cream so
[01:58]: do that so i'm adding the salt
[02:02]: and then to the sour to the sour cream
[02:05]: slash creme fresh
[02:07]: and then i'm going to add the other dry
[02:08]: ingredient here the other dry
[02:10]: ingredients which are
[02:12]: garlic powder and onion powder equal
[02:14]: amounts here
[02:19]: and then go ahead and add the
[02:23]: wet ingredients the really wet
[02:24]: ingredients um
[02:26]: i have some lemon juice
[02:30]: and then i need some worcestershire
[02:32]: sauce so i'm
[02:34]: just going to measure that out here
[02:36]: because
[02:38]: i wasn't going to use a container for
[02:41]: that little amount
[02:42]: and it's not hard to do i've got some
[02:44]: worcestershire sauce
[02:48]: i probably should take my spoon out
[02:49]: because we're gonna use the whisk anyway
[02:54]: um i have
[02:57]: some mayonnaise this is a little bit of
[02:60]: my
[03:01]: basic cider mayo also from the pools
[03:03]: diner cookbook again just because i
[03:05]: happen to have it in my refrigerator and
[03:06]: i needed to use it up
[03:08]: but the rest of it is our family
[03:10]: favorite dukes
[03:14]: which we always keep on hand
[03:17]: mayo is really easy to make but it's
[03:20]: much easier to buy it
[03:22]: um and we have some buttermilk
[03:24]: buttermilk ranch
[03:25]: this is just a little bit and again she
[03:27]: says full fat buttermilk i'm pretty sure
[03:30]: now she just says buttermilk so i guess
[03:32]: whatever you have i usually buy the full
[03:34]: fat
[03:36]: and then we have some herbs this is flat
[03:39]: leaf parsley and these are roughly equal
[03:40]: amounts of the herbs we have some flat
[03:42]: leaf parsley
[03:46]: and some minced chives
[03:50]: so
[03:54]: convince things i think i've done that
[03:55]: on this epis on this show before
[03:57]: and it's just kind of tedious so i
[03:59]: didn't show it to you
[04:00]: and then so we are just going to we're
[04:03]: supposed to whisk this i'm going to get
[04:04]: as much off of my spoon as i can and
[04:07]: before i whisk it because i got
[04:09]: some of the ingredients on there but i
[04:11]: can mix that in later
[04:14]: all right so we're just going to whisk
[04:15]: this together
[04:18]: all right that looks pretty good it
[04:21]: looks like ranch dressing
[04:23]: um so good
[04:26]: um and there is no pepper
[04:30]: i just want to make sure yeah there's no
[04:32]: pepper in this recipe so
[04:33]: just salt and then
[04:36]: the other things that i mentioned so
[04:40]: we are going to get our ice cream maker
[04:44]: set up and we're going to turn this
[04:46]: according to the ice cream maker
[04:48]: instructions
[04:49]: now the other recipe says that you only
[04:52]: need about a half a cup
[04:54]: of this um for the recipe
[04:58]: for the ice cream for the for the okra
[05:02]: but most uh most ice cream makers
[05:06]: won't actually churn a small amount
[05:09]: the good thing however is you can turn
[05:12]: this
[05:13]: and freeze it and then if you want to
[05:14]: just have some ranch let it thaw
[05:16]: let it melt and it should be good we'll
[05:19]: see how that goes
[05:20]: but she says it should be fine and it
[05:23]: seems like it
[05:24]: should be we'll see but we'll be back
[05:28]: with our ice cream machine
[05:31]: and we're gonna turn it
[05:36]: okay so my ranch ice cream is pretty
[05:39]: much
[05:39]: done it stopped moving so it stopped
[05:43]: really churning
[05:43]: and so i'm going to call that done it's
[05:46]: pretty soft
[05:48]: as expected when it comes out of the
[05:50]: machine
[05:51]: but she says that she likes to serve
[05:53]: this pretty
[05:54]: soft um the picture in the book is not
[05:58]: very soft
[05:59]: but you know sometimes that's not how it
[06:03]: goes
[06:05]: when they do the pictures we've talked
[06:06]: about that before
[06:08]: um so i'm just gonna take this
[06:12]: out of the machine and we're gonna put
[06:15]: it in the freezer
[06:16]: and you can keep it you know for a while
[06:18]: because it's
[06:19]: frozen ice cream um
[06:21]: [Music]
[06:22]: or like she's like i said you can just
[06:25]: melt it
[06:27]: if you want to have regular ice regular
[06:29]: ranch dressing
[06:31]: um you know whenever you would like to
[06:34]: if you would like to use it or she says
[06:35]: use it with other
[06:37]: fried vegetables similarly or make more
[06:39]: okra but it will keep
[06:42]: for a while i don't know if she says
[06:43]: exactly how long
[06:45]: but you know ice cream frozen sponge
[06:49]: doesn't get freezer burn you're probably
[06:50]: good
[06:51]: so i'm trying to get as much out of here
[06:52]: as i can
[06:55]: and we'll be back to show you how to fry
[06:57]: the okra
[06:59]: so our ranch is done it's in the freezer
[07:01]: and i'm ready to
[07:03]: fry my okra i'm going to take the ranch
[07:05]: out of the freezer
[07:08]: as soon as this is done um and i'll
[07:10]: still have a little bit more time but
[07:12]: anyway take it out of the freezer a few
[07:14]: at least a few minutes
[07:15]: before you want to use it so it's not
[07:17]: super hard
[07:19]: that's the tip but we're going to make
[07:21]: the tempura batter
[07:24]: and for that i want to talk about one of
[07:27]: the ingredients
[07:28]: first this is
[07:31]: wandra flower she says you can also use
[07:34]: rice flour it
[07:35]: wonder flower is a wheat flour it's an
[07:38]: enriched white
[07:40]: wheat based flower but it is a very
[07:43]: fine particles so it's sold
[07:46]: generally in like a canister um
[07:49]: kind of like you know a cardboard
[07:51]: canister of
[07:52]: salt sort of kind of like that um
[07:56]: so that's what this is all right
[07:59]: so our first step with this is to
[08:03]: have one egg yolk so i've got my egg
[08:08]: i'm gonna catch the white
[08:11]: in this bowl
[08:15]: and then put the yolk in my big bowl
[08:19]: and i'm going to go ahead and i'm going
[08:20]: to whisk this up by itself
[08:25]: first
[08:27]: just to get it a little so i don't whisk
[08:30]: up the
[08:32]: sorry the soda the club soda quite as
[08:36]: much
[08:37]: but so now we're going to add some club
[08:39]: soda
[08:40]: and that will
[08:44]: those bubbles will help the
[08:47]: batter be light
[08:52]: sort of light and airy make sure i don't
[08:54]: get too much in there
[08:56]: no we're good all right so i'm going to
[08:58]: put that in there
[08:59]: and we're supposed to whisk this up
[09:01]: together before we do anything else
[09:06]: all right and now we just add the other
[09:08]: ingredients so we've got some salt and
[09:10]: some sugar
[09:11]: equal amounts
[09:14]: we have some cornmeal
[09:18]: and our wandra flour and we're just
[09:21]: going to whisk
[09:22]: these all in and then we will be ready
[09:26]: to fry
[09:30]: now she says it's going to look really
[09:32]: thin
[09:33]: and like it's not going to coat or stay
[09:35]: on
[09:38]: the okra but please test fry one
[09:43]: first so that's what we're gonna do and
[09:45]: we will meet you
[09:47]: um at the stove so we finally got our
[09:51]: oil up to temperature should have heated
[09:53]: it up earlier but whatever
[09:55]: and we're going to test fry one i've got
[09:57]: sort of one of my smaller ones and i'm
[09:59]: going to put the batter on it
[10:00]: and it is kind of thin but not too
[10:02]: horrible
[10:03]: and we're gonna put drop it in
[10:07]: and see i also have um
[10:12]: a sheet pan with a drying rack
[10:15]: set on top of it ready for them to
[10:19]: be put onto and my oven is set to 200
[10:22]: degrees
[10:23]: to keep them nice and um
[10:28]: warm while we fry all of the batches she
[10:31]: says two batches
[10:32]: we'll see how many it takes in hours um
[10:35]: this is peanut oil
[10:36]: uh it's she says to use peanut oil or
[10:39]: canola oil peanut oil is the one i could
[10:42]: find i don't
[10:42]: canola oil tends to go rancid pretty
[10:45]: quickly in my experience
[10:47]: so i decided to buy peanut oil
[10:52]: and i had to buy like a gallon of it to
[10:54]: get enough for this recipe
[10:56]: i didn't measure it exactly but
[10:60]: you know i used about half of my gallon
[11:02]: so
[11:03]: this we're looking at more for more of a
[11:05]: deep fry than a
[11:06]: shallow pan fry on this so she says
[11:09]: each batch should take about four
[11:12]: minutes
[11:12]: these are i mean it's it's supposed to
[11:15]: be a nice
[11:16]: light batter i'm supposed to only turn
[11:18]: it over once but you know i'm
[11:20]: playing with it because it's the first
[11:22]: one supposed to be a nice light batter
[11:25]: and the okra should be whole as you saw
[11:29]: i did cut off the woody ends just
[11:31]: because i didn't want to eat those
[11:33]: you know do what you want hers some of
[11:35]: them have them some of them don't just
[11:38]: personal preference i'm sure so i think
[11:41]: this is actually going to be pretty
[11:42]: good and
[11:46]: when they are done
[11:49]: before we slide the first batch into the
[11:53]: oven we should sprinkle them with salt
[11:56]: so the salt in this recipe is sort of
[11:58]: half in the batter and then
[12:00]: half goes on after they're done frying
[12:03]: and i think that we are pretty good here
[12:05]: with this one
[12:07]: and i think she said seeing the oil
[12:10]: bubble in between
[12:11]: is fine but you don't want whole sheets
[12:14]: to fall off
[12:15]: but if it's all falling off and not
[12:19]: staying on
[12:20]: then you should add another tablespoon
[12:25]: of cornmeal
[12:28]: so i'm gonna fry a couple batches of
[12:30]: this
[12:32]: and then i will salt
[12:35]: salt them in between and put it in the
[12:38]: oven
[12:39]: at 200 degrees to stay warm
[12:42]: and then we'll be ready to eat and i'll
[12:44]: dish up our ice cream
[12:48]: and our okra and we'll let you know what
[12:51]: we think
[13:00]: on this episode of cooking the books
[13:02]: with heather you watched me make
[13:04]: tempura fried okra with ranch ice cream
[13:06]: out of vivian howard's deep run roots
[13:09]: cookbook
[13:12]: now this was an interesting recipe
[13:15]: because of the ranch ice cream um
[13:19]: we did we let it sit out for a little
[13:21]: bit before we scooped it which was
[13:24]: i think very important because um we've
[13:26]: had it a few times
[13:28]: since then since we first made it
[13:30]: because we still have quite a bit
[13:31]: in the freezer um and it gets
[13:34]: it's very hard if you don't let it sit
[13:36]: out but if you let it sit out
[13:37]: it kind of scoops up into a very creamy
[13:40]: airy
[13:41]: um ranch dressing that's colder than
[13:44]: usual i don't know
[13:46]: uh the kids were not super thrilled with
[13:50]: ranch ice cream um they will eat it
[13:53]: they let it melt and dip some stuff in
[13:55]: it and it's fine
[13:57]: it is very heavy on the garlic flavor
[14:00]: now it might be because the um
[14:04]: powdered the garlic powder that i use i
[14:06]: usually use pensies that's what i had
[14:08]: and so maybe that's sort of
[14:10]: extra garlicky i don't know but it is
[14:12]: very heavy on the garlic
[14:13]: flavor but and so the
[14:17]: okra was fried uh whole
[14:20]: and the tempura batter everything worked
[14:23]: out perfectly
[14:24]: um it was really
[14:28]: not so bad it's actually i think it's
[14:29]: easier to fry them whole than to fry
[14:31]: them and
[14:32]: then to fry the little pieces um you
[14:35]: know like a pan fry which is sort of
[14:37]: the standard southern way that home
[14:40]: cooks make
[14:41]: okra is cut into you know disc discs
[14:45]: and then with a with a
[14:48]: light cornmeal or flour and cornmeal
[14:51]: mixture
[14:52]: and then pan fried and so i feel like
[14:56]: this was actually a little bit easier it
[14:57]: required more
[14:58]: oil but
[15:02]: there are fewer pieces to worry about so
[15:03]: it all ended up a little bit more
[15:05]: consistent
[15:06]: the um the tempura batter was
[15:11]: it worked out better than i expected i
[15:13]: know that temporary can be a little
[15:14]: fiddly
[15:15]: um and i did get the wonder of flower
[15:17]: that she suggested on here
[15:20]: um and it it worked out perfectly so
[15:23]: that was good
[15:24]: it all did what it was supposed to do um
[15:28]: wasn't that hard the hardest part was
[15:30]: the ranch ice cream actually so
[15:32]: you could obviously fry the ochre this
[15:35]: way and
[15:36]: not make the ranch ice cream and just
[15:38]: dip it in whatever you want
[15:41]: and so that's great i do not keep
[15:45]: wander of flour or rice flour on hand
[15:47]: right now i'll have some
[15:49]: so whether i'll make it again this way
[15:51]: or not i'm not sure
[15:52]: i might make it again while i have that
[15:54]: but it's probably not something that i'm
[15:56]: going to keep on hand
[15:58]: and i also don't generally have
[16:03]: club soda the club soda that is sort of
[16:05]: the helps the
[16:07]: tempura batter be lighter i don't
[16:08]: usually have that on hand so
[16:11]: it's probably not going to be my go-to
[16:13]: recipe but it's certainly worth it
[16:15]: and it is it's delicious
[16:19]: it worked out great not that hard and so
[16:22]: if you want to do a little fancy up okra
[16:26]: this is a great way to do it um and
[16:29]: of course my kids like fried okra and
[16:32]: that was not a problem so
[16:33]: ranch ice cream not huge fans but the
[16:36]: okra
[16:38]: was perfectly acceptable so
[16:41]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[16:43]: please give me a thumbs up
[16:45]: and hit the subscribe button and come
[16:46]: back and watch me make something else
[16:52]: you