Fried Okra Whole

Son of a Southern Chef

Usually, okra is sliced before it's breaded and fried. When we tried this method of cooking them whole before, we decided that frying it in larger pieces was easier and quicker and it still ended up crispy and delicious, with none of the dreaded okra slime we thought we might get. This recipe is really similar to other ones we've made, but with a little extra seasoning and a twist of self-rising flour added into the cornmeal!

We've made whole fried okra before, here: https://cookwithheather.com/Deep-Run-Roots-Tempura-Fried-Okra-with-Ranch-Ice-Cream/

This method is a lot like the one we made from Poole's, here: https://cookwithheather.com/Poole's-Cornmeal-Fried-Okra-with-Tabasco-Mayo/

He includes this recipe on his website, though it calls for more buttermilk (which I didn't think was necessary) here: https://www.sonofasouthernchef.com/food/fried-okra

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather on this episode we are
[00:08]: going to be making fried okra whole
[00:12]: from lazarus lynch's son of a southern
[00:14]: chef cookbook now he says that um
[00:19]: the everybody flipped out when he
[00:22]: uh put this recipe out uh on the
[00:24]: internet and apparently nobody had been
[00:27]: um frying okra hole or it's just wasn't
[00:30]: a thing that anybody had had been doing
[00:32]: all that much now we've done it before
[00:34]: on our channel because it was in
[00:38]: deep run roots so i'll link that up here
[00:42]: it is
[00:43]: fried okra with ranch ice cream actually
[00:47]: it's interesting and i think it's
[00:48]: something that she makes
[00:50]: at her uh at her restaurant uh chef in
[00:52]: the farmer in kingston north carolina
[00:55]: and um so we've made that before but
[00:57]: we're going to be making his version now
[00:60]: um
[01:02]: i've got my
[01:04]: oil heating on
[01:06]: he says medium heat i've got mine sort
[01:08]: of medium high right now it was not
[01:10]: anywhere near the 360 degrees that he
[01:13]: says
[01:14]: so um
[01:16]: yeah i'm just letting that come up to
[01:18]: temperature and as usual i'll be using
[01:20]: my
[01:20]: infrared thermometer to kind of keep
[01:22]: track of that it's only like 160 right
[01:24]: now some of it came from the
[01:25]: refrigerator um
[01:27]: this oil is supposed to be
[01:28]: [Music]
[01:30]: it just says canola oil i've got
[01:32]: grapeseed oil as usual it's also
[01:33]: supposed to be three inches deep
[01:36]: uh i've got
[01:37]: maybe
[01:38]: an inch inch and a half in here
[01:41]: that's the
[01:43]: that's how much oil i have in the house
[01:45]: so should be enough to um submerge
[01:49]: the okra which should be fine for this
[01:52]: i'm gonna i've got my um oven on warm
[01:55]: and hold because i'm going to stick it
[01:56]: in there when it's all done if
[01:58]: everything else isn't done
[02:00]: uh and i have a baking sheet
[02:03]: lined with paper towels to put it on
[02:06]: when it is done frying and now we're
[02:08]: going to make
[02:09]: the the dredge that we're going to put
[02:12]: on
[02:12]: on our okra before we fry it
[02:15]: and to start with
[02:17]: we have just plain buttermilk
[02:19]: measured that out into this shallow dish
[02:23]: like he says and then in a larger bowl i
[02:26]: have already measured out
[02:29]: self-rising flour so he calls for
[02:31]: self-rising flour it may
[02:33]: make the um
[02:35]: make the crisp the
[02:37]: coating more crispy more more like a
[02:39]: tempura give it a little more air
[02:42]: and some cornmeal
[02:44]: so those are already in there and then
[02:46]: we need to flavor them
[02:48]: so
[02:49]: let's see
[02:51]: i need to put
[02:52]: some
[02:54]: sweet paprika just not smoked paprika
[02:56]: just for the plate not smoked not spicy
[02:59]: actually first i'm going to put in the
[03:01]: garlic powder so i don't get oh my
[03:04]: garlic powder's not even open i have to
[03:06]: open that
[03:07]: good enough
[03:09]: um
[03:11]: six seconds so i've got my
[03:14]: garlic
[03:15]: powder that i'm gonna add there
[03:18]: and then i've got some
[03:20]: just plain
[03:30]: paprika um
[03:34]: now i'm supposed i'm gonna put salt and
[03:36]: pepper in it first so let's do that
[03:40]: so i can use the same
[03:43]: measuring spoon and not get
[03:46]: my salts extra spicy
[03:49]: so i'm gonna put some kosher salt in
[03:51]: here
[03:55]: and then quite a bit of black pepper
[03:57]: i'm just gonna
[03:59]: i'm not going to measure it i just don't
[04:02]: okay that'll have to do i'm starting to
[04:04]: get tired
[04:06]: um and now
[04:08]: this is starting to feel warm so i'm
[04:10]: going to check it
[04:12]: still in the 200s for good so i'm gonna
[04:15]: add some cayenne pepper now he
[04:18]: asks for quite a bit of cayenne pepper
[04:21]: and i talk about this all the time but
[04:23]: my kids don't like spicy food my husband
[04:26]: does
[04:29]: my kids won't eat it if it's too spicy
[04:31]: so
[04:32]: i am having the cayenne in this recipe
[04:36]: um he does say to serve this with lemon
[04:39]: wedges for serving optional
[04:41]: and
[04:43]: um your favorite hot sauce
[04:45]: i probably won't be serving it with
[04:46]: either of those i have lemon wedges but
[04:48]: we probably wouldn't use them
[04:50]: and
[04:52]: we just don't usually do hot sauce we
[04:53]: might do a
[04:56]: spicy mayo we liked that from the
[04:59]: pools diner
[05:01]: version
[05:02]: that we've also made which is not quite
[05:06]: whole i think she just has it lengthwise
[05:09]: um but it's similar
[05:13]: so i am
[05:15]: mixing all of my
[05:18]: dry ingredients here i like to mix it
[05:20]: with a whisk i think it gets it
[05:23]: mix better
[05:26]: and i'm going to be trying to keep my
[05:27]: oil at 360 degrees
[05:31]: and we're not there yet so we're good
[05:34]: i've got sort of a station set up here
[05:36]: you probably won't be able to see it but
[05:37]: i've got my
[05:39]: wet
[05:40]: my dry and then that goes right into the
[05:42]: oil from there
[05:44]: and so
[05:45]: while we're waiting for this to get a
[05:47]: little bit hotter let's talk about our
[05:49]: okra
[05:51]: this is the okra that i'm going to use
[05:53]: today um
[05:55]: and he says he doesn't even tell you to
[05:57]: trim the tops off at all
[05:59]: or the tips anything just hold
[06:02]: so
[06:04]: that's what we're going to do today
[06:07]: so i'm going to put a few of our
[06:09]: okra
[06:11]: in
[06:12]: the
[06:14]: buttermilk and i'm going to
[06:16]: keep this hand as my wet hand and this
[06:18]: hand is my dry hand and i'll probably
[06:20]: have to wash my hands a few times in the
[06:22]: middle
[06:23]: but i'm going to just use my hands for
[06:25]: this because i find that to be
[06:28]: the easiest way
[06:31]: to do this
[06:33]: um
[06:34]: except for the whole washing your hands
[06:36]: multiple times business
[06:38]: uh let me
[06:42]: about 300 so yeah
[06:44]: okay
[06:45]: so then you want to get them completely
[06:47]: coated in the buttermilk
[06:50]: and let the excess drip off and then put
[06:52]: them in
[06:53]: try not to make a huge mess like i did
[06:56]: put them in your
[06:59]: flour mixture
[06:60]: [Music]
[07:02]: just to coat those with that
[07:04]: and ready for as soon as my oil is up to
[07:07]: temperature
[07:08]: about 3 30 so we're getting there we're
[07:10]: getting there i'm going to go ahead and
[07:12]: put a few more in
[07:15]: my
[07:17]: buttermilk just to get that started
[07:21]: so i can get this going
[07:23]: and and keep make get them all done
[07:25]: relatively quickly he says that they
[07:27]: should only take
[07:28]: about two to three
[07:30]: minutes
[07:32]: total
[07:32]: [Music]
[07:35]: to fry although you should
[07:37]: turn them occasionally to make sure they
[07:39]: cook evenly on all sides
[07:45]: all right
[07:50]: i don't know if we're going to get up
[07:51]: there
[07:52]: turn it up just a little bit okay we're
[07:55]: we're getting there
[07:58]: we're at about
[07:59]: 350
[08:01]: i think
[08:03]: almost
[08:04]: so
[08:06]: i'm gonna go ahead
[08:08]: and start frying because that will come
[08:10]: up
[08:12]: pretty well
[08:13]: and just drop those in there and i'm
[08:15]: going to try to get as much extra off as
[08:18]: i can
[08:24]: and there is enough
[08:26]: oil for these to sort of
[08:28]: float which is you know a different sort
[08:31]: of method than
[08:32]: um just pan-frying when they can't flow
[08:36]: so
[08:37]: um
[08:38]: they're turning over themselves pretty
[08:40]: pretty well but i will
[08:43]: make sure that they all
[08:45]: do that
[08:47]: and that the entire
[08:51]: okra gets fried
[08:53]: yeah it seems like once they sort of
[08:55]: stop they'll
[08:57]: stop turning over they um
[08:59]: they have a place that they like to rest
[09:02]: so
[09:03]: let me try to turn this over
[09:07]: there we go
[09:11]: now the hard part seems to be that it
[09:13]: does want to
[09:15]: once they find a spot where they want to
[09:16]: rest they kind of want to stay there
[09:21]: on that side so
[09:33]: there we go
[09:40]: come down a little bit as you would
[09:43]: expect
[09:46]: when you add cold food to the oil that
[09:48]: you know
[09:50]: the oil temperature drops a little bit
[09:55]: so i think my first batch is ready to
[09:57]: come out so i've been having a little
[09:58]: trouble keeping some of them
[10:00]: you know getting them turned over but
[10:02]: i'm taking them out and i'm going to
[10:03]: just put them on this sheet
[10:06]: and when they're all done he says to
[10:09]: season them lightly with salt now
[10:12]: i'm going to keep going with this
[10:15]: this method
[10:17]: um probably
[10:19]: i can probably put another batch in
[10:22]: um while the first one
[10:24]: fries and just sort of get things done a
[10:26]: little bit faster that way
[10:28]: but i'm gonna just keep frying and we
[10:30]: will show you what they look like when
[10:32]: they're all done
[10:41]: on this episode of cooking the books
[10:42]: with heather you watched me make fried
[10:44]: okra whole from lazarus lynch's son of a
[10:47]: southern chef cookbook
[10:50]: um
[10:51]: so we have done
[10:52]: for whole fried ochre before we did that
[10:55]: from deep from roots which i'll include
[10:57]: a link here somewhere
[10:58]: and we have done it
[11:02]: split lengthwise i think from the pool's
[11:06]: diner cookbook so this wasn't
[11:08]: necessarily new to us and honestly um
[11:12]: it was very similar
[11:14]: to
[11:14]: the
[11:15]: pool's diner recipe except it was whole
[11:18]: instead of
[11:20]: sliced
[11:22]: vertically
[11:23]: lengthwise along the okra and it also
[11:26]: had more spices in the seasoning or in
[11:29]: the
[11:31]: more seasonings more spices in the
[11:34]: cornmeal
[11:36]: crust
[11:38]: so
[11:39]: we actually have decided i think that we
[11:41]: prefer a either whole or split
[11:44]: lengthwise um
[11:47]: fried okra because it's a lot easier
[11:50]: to cut it that way and or to do it that
[11:53]: way there's sort of less pieces to fry
[11:55]: it's less
[11:57]: mess i guess
[11:58]: um
[11:60]: so we we've decided we really like that
[12:02]: this recipe was was fine i think i took
[12:05]: down the cayenne pepper a little bit as
[12:07]: i recall just because i was afraid it
[12:10]: would be too spicy for my kids but you
[12:12]: know if you like spicy
[12:14]: do uh do what you like here
[12:16]: um
[12:18]: as far as the amounts and everything it
[12:20]: worked pretty well we didn't have quite
[12:22]: as much
[12:23]: oil
[12:25]: in the pan as he suggested
[12:28]: but it was enough oil to basically
[12:32]: have the okra float which i think is the
[12:34]: important part
[12:36]: so that was good uh so you don't
[12:38]: actually need
[12:39]: what three inches i think of oil yeah
[12:41]: three inches he says i think i had like
[12:43]: an inch and a half which was fine um
[12:46]: because it's an awful lot of oil
[12:48]: three inches of oil in a dutch oven
[12:51]: and i didn't have that much um
[12:54]: so yeah
[12:55]: if you haven't tried this okra or okra
[12:58]: cooked this way fried this way i think
[12:60]: you totally should um we enjoyed it we
[13:03]: thought it was delicious had a little
[13:05]: bit of a different flavor than other
[13:08]: fried okras because it does have more
[13:11]: seasonings in it and um
[13:13]: yeah i would i would do this
[13:16]: i don't think this was our favorite
[13:18]: fried
[13:19]: okra um
[13:21]: some of them can get a little bit woody
[13:23]: and we had that problem with with some
[13:25]: of some of the okra
[13:27]: um
[13:27]: when they get large they get kind of
[13:29]: stringy and woody and so they're hard to
[13:31]: eat um
[13:32]: and it's harder to
[13:35]: know that that's what you're getting
[13:36]: when they're whole
[13:38]: and sort of discard those ones or um
[13:41]: it's sort of less of a problem when
[13:43]: they're smaller pieces
[13:45]: but when they're whole you get that a
[13:47]: lot worse anyway
[13:49]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[13:50]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[13:52]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[13:54]: me make something else next week
[13:56]: [Music]