Experiments with Okra

Have you ever tried Okra?  I LOVE it, it's one of my favourite vegetables - when served in a restaurant. Not so easy to get up here in Carlisle.  Occasionally you can pick some fresh up in our only Asian food shop, but last time I was in I noticed they had some frozen bags, so I bought a couple.

I cooked some that night - YUK !  It was horrible, slimy and very unappetizing.

I tried again a few days later and - YUK !!

So, for the last few months a bag and a half of Okra has been languishing in my freezer.  Yesterday was a 'freezer clean out' day.  Now I have never been one for throwing things out, especially not food.  the trouble was making this particular food edible.

I Googled "What to do with frozen Okra" and came across this recipe....

Let's try it  :)

First of all it took me about 3 hours to dry the Okra, it just stayed slimy. I tried in a colander  then a baking tray, then a cooling tray. In the end I patted it for ages with a clean tea-towel.

I duly spinkled with salt and left for half an hour, then tossed it in the flour mix & popped into a hot oven.

The problem was I expected the flour to cook or burn off, but it just stayed stuck to the Okra,  like flour.

This is it cooked - all floury.  I ate it for dinner last night with AIioli.

It was slightly better than YUK !  But not a lot.  Luckily the garlic hid the taste, and the slimyness had gone.

Today, at lunch, I opened the fridge to find the left over (baked) Okra.  Still cannot bring myself to throw it away, so I heated up some olive oil in a frying pan and fried it.

I added a blob of peanut butter (no idea what inspired me to do that) the peanuts burnt and the smell coming from the pan smelled like donkey poo. I turned the pan off quickly and piled it onto a plate.

(Donkey poo or not, I was still gonna eat it)

It was crispy, actually being baked then fried probably meant it was burnt to a crisp, but much more edible.

It is safe to say I will never be buying frozen Okra again.  It's gone now, and I will be ordering it in restaurants only from now on  :)

Looking forward to having something different for my next meal  :)