It's time for an okra showdown.

Today I'm going to show you two ways to cook okra.

One traditional fried up in a skillet and the other roasted in the oven with an unexpected flavor you may not have had before.

I'm Trace Barnett, and welcome to Garden Party.

Today's all about okra.

I always get a lot of questions about this okra recipe.

And that's roasted okra.

It's a little bit lighter than fried okra, but still has all of that flavor.

So I've already washed my okra here.

Remove the ends of your okra and then slice them down the middle lengthwise.

Of course, you can cut those into rings which are traditional when frying them up, but I really love the texture.

And just the visual appeal of the okra in really pretty halved pods.

Now that we've got our okra all sliced up, let's throw it and our skillet I've heated the oven to 425 degrees.

Just a good roasting temperature.

And you don't want to throw your okra into an oven that's still preheating because we want to really take advantage of that hot, hot oven.

If you throw your okra in, just in the skillet in the oil while the oven is heating up, they're going to absorb too much of that oil, and then they're just going to be soggy.

And ain't nobody gonna eat a soggy okra, I can tell you that.

I'm going to take a couple tablespoons of olive oil.

And that's going to vary depending on the amount of okra that you're cooking.

And I'm going to give that a good toss I do this directly in the pan just simply because I'm too lazy to wash another dish.

So I've got a little bit of a flavor bomb here for us.

And I have a little bit of Creole seasoning, smoked paprika.

And my favorite flavor with okra is curry powder.

I just love that bit of brightness and unexpected flavor that it really brings to the okra.

And I'm just going to sprinkle that on top.

And you can vary this on your taste preferences and also what you're making for that meal.

I'm also going to go ahead and salt our okra really well.

And I'm also going to pepper it.

Now one thing you have to have on roasted okra is a lot of pepper.

It's really pretty and I just am a pepper person.

Give that a good toss.

And I can already see that I want a little bit more seasonings on there.

Just really flavor it up good.

Last but not least I'm going to squeeze the juice of one lime directly on our okra there and give it one final stir.

The citrus just really adds that little acidic bite to that okra.

And it really comes through well.

in the finished dish.

Let's pop this into our waitin' oven So while our other okra is roasting in the oven, I'm going to show you the traditional MawMaw method on how to fry okra.

And here in Alabama you can't really have, you know, a church potluck, a meat and three or any kind of southern meal without fried okra.

And it's super, super easy to make.

So I want to cut my okra into half inch rounds.

You don't want to cut your okra too small because it will turn brown and burn in the skillet.

And not to say that I don't love those brown burnt bits, because I love some crunch.

So cut your okra down the whole pod And I love these little ends too.

They are like a little surprise.

in your fried okra, like those little crunchy bits.

And throw your okra in a bowl.

Now if you have a garden and you grow your own okra and you put your okra in the freezer, this is a great opportunity to utilize that okra.

The reason being is because I do not do any kind of buttermilk dredging with mine, any kind of wet batter.

When I throw my dry ingredients in here and toss it, that little bit of residual moisture that's on the outside of the okra is just going to lock in all of those dry ingredients.

I'm going to go ahead and just salt our okra first.

And you got to salt it really well.

And again okra always has to have lots of pepper even if you're frying And I'm going to give that a toss with my hands I don't know why, but okra is one of those things that I like to toss with my hands, just to make sure everything gets evenly coated.

So now is our dry ingredients.

And I usually do a cup ratio.

So a cup of cornmeal and a cup of flour.

I like to just sprinkle mine on directly on to the okra rather than mixing it in a bowl just because I don't want my okra to be a little too stodgy.

I just don't want a ton of batter.

And the cornmeal here is really key.

Looks pretty good.

Give that a toss.

And you can see here that I need just a little bit more cornmeal and flour into this.

You really want every bit of your okra to be coated.

If you have a brown paper sack on hand, this is also a great opportunity to throw it all in there and just shake it together.

Or a large ziploc bag.

That's what we're wanting.

That okra is getting real covered.

And just a little bit more cornmeal in there.

You can never really have too much cornmeal on the outside of your okra, but flour, you can.

And boom, we're ready to throw this in some grease.

I like to use a combination of Crisco, bacon grease, or lard.

Whatever you have on hand.

I really like that little bit of pork flavor, just really tastes traditional.

And plus, that's what my grandmothers always did.

See ya at the stove.

All right, we have made it to the stove and we are about to put our okra and the heating shortening here.

And the key to getting your okra perfect is you don't want to put it into too cold of oil.

You don't want to throw your okra in there, and then it's just sliding around, floating in grease and soaking it up.

And the best way to do that is I just pick one of these small ends of okra there, and I just throw it into my skillet, and you can see there that it's just starting to bubble around right on the edge there.

That's not hot enough.

You want it to start to sizzle and bubble on the entirety of the okra when you throw it in You also don't want your grease to be so hot when you throw your okra in it just burns it immediately.

There's kind of that fine line.

I always heat my grease over a medium high heat and then reduce the heat from there.

Once it starts cooking.

And I can see now that our grease is ready to go.

So I'm just going to start throwing the okra in there.

Now, the key to evenly frying okra.

And I would suggest that you do this in a couple batches.

You don't want to have anything that's frying in a frying pan where it's all just kind of layered on top.

So I'm just going to fill in any gaps there that I may see, and I'm going to wait.

As hard as it is to do before I stir it.

All right.

Let's stir it.

So as the okra is just starting to brown slightly on the underside, and as that batter is just starting to adhere to the okra rounds, that's the time to start turning it.

We just want to toss it just enough to where all of that batter kind of gets coated in the oil.

So while we're waiting on our okra to sufficiently brown up here in our skillet, I'm going to pull our roasted okra out and give it a stir.

So pull your okra out and you're going to want to do this over the course of cooking your okra.

It's going to cook probably 20 to 25 minutes just depending on the variety that you have.

But you want to give it a good toss just so it all evenly cooks together.

This is the time to say to that, Try to keep the okra that you're roasting in a single layer, rather than them being stacked on top.

It's just going to be better cooking.

And we really get that crunchy crust that we want.

We're getting there, y'all.

You can't rush good okra.

Sit there and take your time.

When it's time for your okra to come out of the frying pan, line a platter with a paper towels, whatever you have to soak up grease and be sure and use a slotted spoon to remove your okra from the pan, simply because you don't want to just be spooning okra grease right over your crisp okra and making it soggy.

I'm also going to pull our roasted okra out of the oven and transfer it to a platter.

Now's the moment of reckoning.

Let's taste our two okra recipes and see which one really stands out.

I'm gonna go first with the fried okra traditional.

Mmm It's everything you want in a fried okra.

It's got a perfect crunchy exterior while the inside is nice and soft.

And it's got just the perfect amount of seasonings where that okra flavor still comes through.

I just need to taste it one more time.

So good.

I would pair this okra with anything southern that you're making.

For instance, you can't have peas and creamed corn if you don't have fried okra.

Now let's try the roasted okra.

I always like to go for these that have like that little bit of burn on them.

Really crunchy.

And that okra is completely different.

So the texture is just a tiny bit crunchy.

But you still have all the softness that you want in okra The flavor comes through.

But then you have all that flavor bomb of the curry, the Creole seasoning.

It marries together perfectly.

This is something that I would do with a more elevated dish.

You can use this as a side dish when you would use okra with anything, but I would love that with a filet, a good cut of chicken, a pork chop.

You can also add that to salads as well, or top a tomato salad with it.

So whether you're going with the traditional fried okra or roasted okra, I think both of these dishes will be a winner in your kitchen.

I know they are here and probably time to cut because all the crew's eyeing me here wanting some of this okra.

They're coming out of every where!

Happy okr-y!

Should I use my WWE voice like OKRA SHOWDOWN When I say those things I don't look like I'm staged at all.

Okay, it's just going to turn very fibrous in your mouth and you're going to look like a horse.

One great way to know what okra is hard Dirty another dish.

I'm wanting to give them some business.

I'm wanting to get a check.

The best tech- There's a fuzz on that.

I got it Somebody would see that and chew us out I made that awkward, didn't I?

Or is it fine I'm gonna have to do that again Yeah, I love that.

Perfect.

I think both of these okra dishers, dishers and that's that.

We just wait