Talking Food with Cory Bahr: Okra

Hey y'all. I'm Chef Corey Bahr. And today we're talking okra.

Okra is one of those things that everybody knows in Louisiana, whether they love it or hate. It has a lot to do with how it's prepared. One of my favorite things to do with okra is to fry it. I'm sure everybody loves it that way, no matter where you eat it, fried okra is one of those things we love as Louisianians, but it's not always the healthiest and most nutritious way to treat okra. But today we are going to fry okra in a way that's gluten-free. And also low carb.

The way we do this is by dry frying it. We cut the okra in half like this, right down the center, and then we fry it in grapeseed oil at 375 degrees. No coating, no breading, no nothing, just the okra and the hot oil. Alright, so there's a few things you got to do when you're frying. You got to set yourself up for success. Always like to have a drain pan lined with a paper towel. Something to remove whatever I'm frying with. I love these things and get them at Tuesday Morning. Some salt and pepper and a thermometer to make sure you're at the right temperature. Have one at all times. But to go in here, make sure we're at 350, 360 degrees you really got to be there in order to fry properly so you don't get oily greasy food.

We're there. It's time to put our okra in. We're going to do this in batches very carefully. That's the sound you want when you've got your temperature right, you know you're frying well. Going to add the rest of our okra. So now that we've added our okra, it's going to fry for about two and a half to three minutes. A quick little tidbit: frying this okra properly will make sure that it's not slimy and nobody likes slimy okra. So now that you're seeing that smoke go away, or that steam go away, we know that we're getting really, really close. Alright, so our okra, nice and brown, fully cooked. Tap that off. Careful while you're doing this, don't burn yourself.

We're going to put that right on to our paper towel lined tray. Soon as things come out of the fryer we'd like to add a little salt and pepper because you've got a little bit of moisture on the outside that really attaches it to whatever you're frying. So here it is. We're going to make our sauce for our dry-fried okra. All this is available at your local butchers or Walmart. You can get it it's easy. Duke's Mayonnaise, toasted sesame oil, Sriracha, everybody loves Sriracha, it's like America's new ketchup, sambal, which is a chili garlic sauce available in the same place you get Sriracha. We're gonna put some lime juice into that. Roll it around, make sure we activate all that juice. Give it a good squeeze.

Gonna stir this together until it's well combined. Give it a taste. Spot on a little bit of heat, nice nuttiness from the toasted sesame. So into our serving bowl, we're just going to spread a generous amount in there really want to get it up the sides too. Now we're going to put our okra in, pile it up nice in there. This is a great party dish. You know if you're having a fish fry or whatever, this is a great way to do something nice for the vegetarian in your life.

Then to really add the extra step, a favorite kitchen tool, remember y'all, a microplane (grater), we're going to zest some lime zest over it. Don't want to go too far just into the where it turns white. Cut that in half, a little bit more fresh lime juice. And there you have it. Dry fried okra with spicy aioli and lime. Hey, if you want to cook this recipe for yourself, go to KNOE.com and click on Talking Food.

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