Ok. Wife said you should grow okra this year. Now what are some good uses for it? She made dill flavored okra, spicy okra and rolled in egg and flour fried okra. We can not keep up , grows like weeds. What are some other ways to cook it? If anyone says gumbo please also post a gumbo recipe. I am a little far north to have ever been around something like that. Thanks !! G.

My grandmother used to slice it up, flour it and put it in with some fried potatoes. Or, she would just slice it up, flour and season it, then fry it up by itself that way. I also remember her cutting it up and putting it in different soups. Either way, I always thought it was good.

Fried

Plain cornmeal, salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.

Slice okra, bread in cornmeal mix.

Heat oil in a skillet, large enough to hold okra in a single layer.

Fry on one side until it starts to crisp up, flip until crisp.

Fried okra doesn't need heavy breading or coating and should be crisp as that eliminates all sliminess and sweetens it.

For a good twist add green tomato diced same size as okra.

Boiled

To a pot of field peas or butterbeans add a handful of whole okra pods. Cook until soft and just starting to break down. As dad would say, they help the peas slide down easier.

Pickled

Pack jars with small pods of okra, one pod cowhorn pepper, one large clove garlic, one grape leaf. Pour over a hot vinegar brine and water bath.

Gumbo is a pretty tall order as it can have or not have okra. Matter of fact the use of okra can get heated in some circles.

Generally, okra is added near the end to take advantage of it's thickening power. Some who don't care for the slime thickening will saute it to get past that point before adding it to the pot but you lose the thickening.

Gumbos vary but the basics are a roux of equal parts flour and fat. Pick your fat based on your final goal. Generally, butter is not used as often in cajun as it may be in creole. Generally a gumbo roux is going to be a DARK roux, dark as in dark chocolate but its your gumbo. When it reaches your desired shade you add the trinity, onion/celery/bell pepper to saute. You'll have an almost mud like consistency. Add the pope, garlic, and other aromatics like thyme/bay then stir in a hot stock, chicken/seafood/shrimp/what have you made up from what you got, add your heat, tabasco/tony's/etc, let cook. Depending on your choice of proteins you can add it now like pre browned sausage/andouille, or ham hocks/tasso, or at the last like shrimp/oysters to avoid over cooking. Okra would go in somewhere in between. BTW tomato never ever goes in a gumbo, ever. But if a dollop of paste accidently falls in the pot about the time trinity does then I have no idea how that happened.

Serve with rice and have file available. File does not go in on the stove but at the table.

Mama would put up what she called okra gumbo, not a true gumbo, of crushed tomatoes and sliced okra. Canned as you would tomatoes. Was really good over mashed potatoes or with cube steak. I suspect that she put a bit of sugar in it.

Slice and freeze for gumbo. I also bread in flour and cornmeal then flash freeze

My favorite way is on the blackstone griddle. When u pick, leave a 1/2 stem for a handle. Middle finger long okra or shorter. Put in bowl and spray with olive oil. Shake bowl around until covered with oil. Cavenders or Tony’s for seasoning. Spray griddle with olive oil. Throw okra on griddle. Turn occasionally until soft. Hold by stem and bite down and pull holding stem. . Second favorite way is like griddled but on the grill

We make lots of veggie soup with ground venison. Vegetable soup needs okra.

I enjoy okra any way it is prepared.

Yes it does. Mama would put up a vegetable soup base that had tomatoes, corn, okra, butterbeans. She could come in from work pop the lid on a quart jar or two, brown some beef, and have supper ready.

Mama was all about putting up enough to feed the boys and daddy.

It might be fit for zoo animals ......maybe

I think I am too faah North ....nevah had it...am I missing out ??

You're not missing out.

I grew it ONCE, that was enough.

Fried crispy is by far my favorite way to eat it but grilling it is not bad either. One more thing that a lot of you more northern folk miss out on.

I grew it here one summer, it grew well and was productive, but we ain't a Okra eating culture up here, lol
I think Miss Daisy fried it up a few times, never had it before or again...and that's ok!.

Wife's aunt pickles and cans it with garlic cloves and a single Tabasco pepper. When they come down they give us a jar or two, we crap out seeds for weeks after that a few okra with every dinner.

Ghost, grow you some purple hulled peas to go with that fried okra next year.

Feed it to the pigs.

The only way I can enjoy this otherwise slimy vile weed is pickled. I never would have believed that I would like it that way until I tried it.
Okra makes for a better pickle than a cucumber does. Pickled okra is crisper and the juice doesn't run down your neck.
My son's Filipino mother-in-law showed me how to make it. She uses crushed pepper grass in place of dill.
I pretend that I can't remember how to make it each year so that she'll make some for me.
She told me to save the brine and just add more okra pods to it.

Grew a bunch of it in the past. Sold most. Only ways we really liked it was breaded and fried crisp, or dill pickled. Best of luck with your crop.

Probably put a little sugar in your cornbread too when you weren't watching.