Dang, that’s what I forgot to plant this year! Okra! My wife knows how to clean and fry them properly. Me, I have a real hard time controlling myself with fried yellow squash. Sliced paper thin, dredged through an egg wash and then through flour seasoned with salt and pepper, then deep fried in a skillet until they’re as crisp as potato chips. Mmmmmm. Now I’m making myself hungry again. LOL
I like fried green tomatoes and squash but we didn’t plant squash this year. When I cook okra I wash it and thin slice it. I wash it again to make it good and slimy and drain. I mix flour and corn meal together and coat the okra pretty heavily. Drop it in a hot skillet, salt and pepper it, and fry until almost burned, but not burned. That way you cook away all of the slime and it’s crispy. I do use a good healthy oil to fry it in but any oil is loaded with calories. If I fry squash I do it the same way you do.
Lived on Long Island for forty years, and had a vegetable garden. My son recently recounted having someone at the house from the South - and her reaction to learning that we had fried okra!But it’s a marginal crop to grow that far north, I grew some near Washington DC one summer and was amazed at the productivity of it. Well - I’m told it’s a relative of cotton . . .
Don’t garden anymore, but here in central PA we have Amish farmer’s markets that sell fresh okra in season.