Fried Okra From the Whistle Stop Cafe

 

Ingredients:

  • Okra (I used 1 cup)
  • Cornmeal (about 1/2 cup)
  • Bacon/bacon drippings (12 strips)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
  1. In a frying pan, heat up bacon dripping. If needed, fry bacon for grease. For the quantity in this recipe, 1 pack of 12 should do
  2. Remove stems and cut 1 cup of okra into rounds, about 1/2 inch long
  3. Roll okra in 1/2 cup cornmeal and add to pan
  4. Fry until browned and drain on paper towel
  5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to preference
Yield: A cup of okra

Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Tips:

The orginal recipe was intentionally written in the vague way that someone who knows their way around a kitchen and only needs a few reminders would. For example, it didn't list any quantities for ingredients. I had about a cup's worth of okra, as that's what the jambalaya called for when I forgot to add it.

It says to use bacon drippings but I don't usually have that on hand so I had to fresh fry some bacon. I used a pack and a half since that's what I had on hand but you'd probably be fine with 1 pack of 12.

Description:

One of the books I rescued from my family's home that burned down was Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. It's a pretty solid read if I recall correctly, and at the back it has a list of recipes. They're dishes sold at the namesake of the book, the Whistle Stop Cafe. I mentioned it in the Tips section, but these are written in a way that would benefit a cook that works there. It's a vague style that forgoes details that might be considered common sense. It assumes ingredients you might have, like bacon drippings, which makes sense for the setting. I just found it intriguing to see if the recipes could function.

In this recipe, I included roughly the quantities I used when I experimented. I had okra onhand because I forgot it in the jambalaya recipe. I don't usually have spare bacon fat, so I fried some fresh and it seemed like it required quite a bit.

Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan. If I were to do it again, I might do it schnitzel-style, using flour, then egg before rolling in cornmeal. I'd probably just use a neutral oil for frying, as the bacon felt eggregious. I guess these would be considered battered okra, but that's fine I'm sure.

I'd really like to attempt the official signature dish of fried green tomatoes but my crop is low at the moment and I don't have much hope for a better batch.

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