Welcome to Laura's Local Kitchen!

A warm welcome to my new blog, Laura’s Local Kitchen! I’ve been doing a lot of cooking and recipe development in the last year. I am happiest when cooking and writing, and I wanted to share some of those discoveries. I plan to focus on cooking with local, seasonal ingredients….but I’ll bet some unusual, not-so-local items will pop up! I hope you will find something that you and your family will enjoy. (By the way, I’ll have a spiffy new logo soon from my talented friend Shauna!)

Several months ago, I noticed a refrigerated van from Greenling (@greenling.com) in our neighborhood. This online grocery delivers to your home (assuming you live in one of their delivery areas). You can order all kinds of things; I placed an order for an every-other-week “local basket,” which contains organic, local, and seasonal produce, a different selection each week. I have had a lot of fun discovering things I’ve never heard of before (mizuna greens??) and finding new uses for familiar ones (see a future post on crispy kale).

My last basket included okra.

No, wait, don’t run away!!! It’s good stuff, really. Give it a try!

Okra’s slime puts off a lot of folks. (See this excellent post on “What makes okra slimy” from Food Republic.) Alton Brown’s Good Eats even aired a whole episode that attempted to rehabilitate okra.

As a fifth-generation Texan, love for okra is in my blood. (Bruce had never eaten it until he met me.) My favorite way to prepare it: fried. (OK, so maybe fried is not as “good for you” as other preparations. But it’s still tasty.)

To ensure success, make the okra slime work to your advantage. This particular recipe (one of my “stand-bys” from Lone Star Legacy II, a 1985 cookbook from the Austin Junior Forum) uses the slime to help the cornmeal batter better adhere to the slices of okra. Another key: making sure your frying oil heats to 360 degrees. Any cooler and the okra will turn out soggy. Any hotter and you risk burning (not to mention setting your kitchen aflame).

If you do it right, you’ll taste none of the slime; just smoky, crunchy okra. We last enjoyed it with a batch of steamed blue crabs.

Fried Okra

1 lb okra, ends trimmed and cut into ¼” rounds

1 C cornmeal

2 T smoked paprika

1 T garlic powder

Salt/pepper to taste

Large pot of salted, boiling water

Vegetable oil (in a deep fryer or cast iron skillet)

1) While the oil is heating, parboil the okra in the boiling water for about five minutes; drain. (Do not let the slime put you off at this point. That’s why you parboil it—to give the cornmeal something to adhere to.) Let cool for a few minutes. (I recommend rinsing the pot and drainer as soon as possible. Slime turns to concrete if you let it dry on your cooking implements.)

2) Place the cornmeal and spices into a ziptop bag; mix thoroughly. Once the okra has cooled, dump it into the plastic bag and mix thoroughly until all pieces are coated. Pour the coated okra out through a wide-mesh strainer. (I like to use my deep fryer basket.) Shake off excess cornmeal. Let the okra sit for at least 20 minutes. (This further helps the cornmeal to adhere.)

3) While your okra sits, heat up your oil slowly to 360 degrees.

4) Fry the okra until just golden brown (only a few minutes). Remove to a fine-mesh cooling rack over a cookie sheet. (Or take the deep fryer basket out of the oil and let drain above the oil. I don’t like using paper towels, as they can make the okra soggy.) Serve immediately. Serves four.