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Crispy Okra With Spicy Honey Sauce
Published June 11, 2024
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- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Prep Time
- 5 minutes
- Cook Time
- 25 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- ½Scotch bonnet chile
- ½garlic clove
- 1(½-inch) knob of ginger, peeled and chopped
- 1cup honey
- 1(24-ounce) bottle vegetable, canola or peanut oil, for frying
- 2pounds fresh okra, quartered lengthwise
- Coarse kosher salt (such as Morton’s) or flaky sea salt
- Mustard powder (optional)
- 1lemon, halved (optional)
For the Dressing
For the Okra
Preparation
- Step 1
Place the chile, garlic, ginger and honey in a blender, and blend until smooth. (Dressing will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for 1 week.)
- Step 2
In a heavy pot, heat oil to 375 degrees. Place a thick layer of paper towels nearby on a plate or baking sheet. Working in 4 batches to avoid crowding, fry okra until crisp, about 5 to 7 minutes for each batch. Make sure to bring the oil back to temperature between batches. Seeds will swell, and okra will be deeply colored at edges. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.
- Step 3
In a serving bowl, toss okra with 1 tablespoon dressing. Taste and add more salt and dressing as needed. Finish with a dusting of mustard powder and a squeeze of lemon if desired.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Toss okra in olive oil and a bit of salt, then grill it. So good and no frying required. Then add sauce.
I had an okra dish similar to this in Asheville recently. I plan to use my airfryer as soon as we have a crop of okra to harvest! I think it work very well.
This was delicious! I don't cook okra often but next time I'll try to grill it to avoid so much oil. The hot honey sauce was great. I didn't have a blender handy so I chopped the ginger, peppers finely and used a garlic press for that. I also used a jalapeño pepper as I didn't have scotch bonnet and it was just fine. There wasn't a morsel left when I served it as an appetizer with some toothpicks to grab the okra.
So good, I bet even people who don't like okra will love it! My store was out of scotch bonnets, so I had to substitute a concoction of thai chili, cayenne powder, smoked paprika and sour cherry preserves to approximate the flavor, but it was still delicious. I think next time I will only halve the okra instead of quartering it, to see if more of the okra flavor shines through.
This method seemed dangersome. (Someone please tell me you get this reference). I love fried okra and have a few recipes for it. Love Indian kurkuri bhindi (Chai Pani has the best) and the traditional southern version. This was a little scary at first even for a frequent frier like myself. Next time I will let it dry out for a longer period of time. I like that there’s no breading or coating. It seemed lighter even though it was fried. I’ll definitely add this to the rotation of fried okra.
Toss okra with cornmeal, a little olive oil, a little salt. Bake in one layer at 400 degrees until crisp and brown.
I wonder if air frying or simply roasting could work here…
Instead of deep frying, I think I will try this recipe being grilled in my oven under the broiler. I get that deep frying is very enjoyable to the palette, but it’s not friends with my arteries nor my belly hehe. I’m curious if anyone else has or will try this and does it drastically negatively alter the recipe or will it just be a good, but different version?
Toss okra in olive oil and a bit of salt, then grill it. So good and no frying required. Then add sauce.
I had an okra dish similar to this in Asheville recently. I plan to use my airfryer as soon as we have a crop of okra to harvest! I think it work very well.
Yes - at Botiwalla, right? ;-)
Yes, I did as well a few weeks ago when visiting Chai Pani in Asheville - I was obsessed with their Okra!
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