Mike Couick
I get excited when it gets to be June. The days are longer. The trees and grass are green. And things start coming in from the garden.
Fresh vegetables like okra, corn and tomatoes are my favorites because they remind me of how I ate growing up, especially when the calendar turned to June. All of a sudden, we were no longer thawing out last year’s produce from the freezer or opening canned goods from the pantry. On my plate, instead, were vegetables just harvested from out the back door. It wasn’t fancy, but it all tasted like summer and was reliably delicious.
Don’t let my going on and on about fresh vegetables lead you to believe my diet then, or now, was entirely health conscious. I plead guilty to liking fried food, particularly fried okra. But for fried okra to be at its best, it has to be made with fresh okra.
Okra is a popular vegetable across the globe, but here in the U.S., it doesn’t make it on many plates outside the Southeast, where it’s a staple in the gumbo recipes of the Gulf and Carolina coasts. I certainly won’t claim that the fried form exists only in South Carolina, but you might have a hard time finding it far beyond our borders. And to be honest, most people don’t do a good job cooking okra. These frying failures tend to occur when there is too much to the recipe. Too many ingredients. Too many steps.
I like fried okra when it is made straightforward and simple, like my Aunt Jean’s. Aunt Jean lives in the Unity community of Lancaster County. She learned to cook from my grandmother, and one of the secrets she learned was that buttermilk makes everything better.
I recently asked my Aunt Jean to share her recipe and tips for making delicious fried okra. Her secret? She soaks the okra in buttermilk before breading it. Her grease is always hot and popping, and the breading is straight to the point. Nothing fancy.
This recipe, which is also great for green tomatoes, zucchini and squash, is as dependable as the cook who is sharing it with us. My Aunt Jean is called Jean Jean in Unity, where she’s been keeping the nursery during the worship service at Unity ARP Church for 60 years. She recently turned 90, and people who are the grandchildren of the first babies she kept six decades ago were among those who came out to honor her.
Her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids are still eating her cooking for Sunday lunch almost every week. And invariably, during the summertime, there’s going to be fried okra.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do.
---
Aunt Jean’s Dependable Fried Okra
SERVES 4–6
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 quart fresh okra
Salt
Pepper
Buttermilk
Canola oil
Put cornmeal and flour in a 1-gallon freezer bag, mix well and set aside. Wash okra and remove the stem end of the pod. Cut pods to about a half-inch thick to make circles, then add salt and pepper. Coat the okra circle with buttermilk before putting them in the bag with cornmeal and flour. Shake the bag, coating the okra so that each piece is separate. Using a deep fryer, heat canola oil to 350 degrees. Oil should be enough to cover the okra. Drop in okra pieces and cook until light brown. Remove okra from oil and put on paper towel to drain.