Southern Okra & Corn Fritters, aka Summer Latkes

Now, here is another tasty way to use summer’s fresh vegetable harvest. Let’s make “Southern Okra & Corn Fritters.” You can’t get more southern than this dish. Although you can substitute in frozen vegetables, things are much better when they are ripe and freshly picked. So I stopped at our local fresh produce market on my way home from a shopping trip and purchased fresh okra and corn on the cob. Our local paper recently published a recipe for “Summer Vegetable Scallion Pancakes.” It look promising and I used the recipe as my starting point. In my recipe, I mixed chopped okra with corn cut off the cob and green onions. I made a fritter batter with corn meal flour, all-purpose flour, egg, milk, salt and Tabasco Hot Sauce. Surprisingly, the chopped okra wasn’t gooy or sticky. That’s great — as I’m not a fan of slimy okra. I fried scoops of batter like pancakes. The resulting “fritters” are delicious. My husband loved them and announced that they reminded him of latkes. I simply substituted okra for potatoes which are usually found in the potato pancakes. Hence, the name — “Summer Latkes.” These latkes will go great with Fried Chicken or Shrimp and Remoulade Sauce or just as a side dish. Of course, I’m drinking ice tea.

Tip for Picking Fresh Okra

Okra is one vegetable which grows well in hot Louisiana summers. Plus, it is easy to grow. I’ve had some wonderful garden crops of okra, but no garden this year. Fortunately, okra is plentiful at farmer’s markets. Pick out your own okra. And, here’s a tip for selecting the best okra. Okra becomes tough and stringy when it ripens and becomes large. It is like eating straw. The only okra which I believe are worth selecting are those which are tender and small. So, pick around and get the baby okra.

Ingredients

Here are ingredients for my recipe. In addition to okra, I added fresh corn which I boiled and cut off the cob. Flavor also comes from fine corn meal, green onions, salt and several dashes of Tabasco Hot Sauce. The hot sauce gives these fritters a little “zing.” Different hot profile from black pepper — it is worth including several drops of Tabasco. The batter includes both all-purpose flour and fine corn meal – or corn flour. I found some finely ground corn flour at this same farmer’s market — and just love it. It gives lots of flavor, and is not grainy. Don’t skip the corn flour. For milk, buttermilk is preferred. However, regular milk can be used, too.

After I got started, I realized that my recipe was quite large and that I needed to double the batter quantities. My final recipe uses two eggs.

Making the Recipe

Get the main ingredients ready first — okra, corn on cob and green onions.

First, cut the stems and tips off the okra. I started out with about 4 cups of okra, as purchased. This was reduced to 3 cups after the stems and tips were cut off.

Then, I chopped the okra into fine pieces. I ended up with about 2 generous cups of chopped okra pieces.

Husk the corn and boil it. Then, after it cools, cut off the cob. My 2 ears of corn yielded 1 cup corn kernals.

Mix the chopped okra, corn kernels and sliced green onions in a large bowl along with the salt. Let this sit on the counter for 5 or more minutes.

Mix together the all-purpose flour and fine corn meal (or corn flour). Mix the dry ingredients into the vegetables.

In another bowl, mix together the buttermilk (or milk), eggs and Tabasco Hot Sauce. Just a few drops of hot sauce is plenty. The Tabasco brand of sauce is potent. Don’t blotch the dish by adding too much hot sauce. Blend the liquid ingredients in with the vegetable mixture.

The final step is to fry the fritters.

Rather than deep frying these fritters, I fried them similar to pancakes. I’m pretty that sure these “fritters” would not hold together if I tried to place them in a deep fat fryer. So, I heated a heavy skillet and added a small amount of oil until shimmering. I added scoops of batter and pressed the pancakes down to smooth them out. These were fried, turning once until golden brown.

Drain the fritters on paper towels.

That’s it. We have “Okra and Corn Fritters.” If needed, keep warm in a low temperature oven until ready to serve.

However, we were hungry. We went ahead and ate the fritters first before the rest of the supper meal was ready. The fritters benefit from being served with a sauce. Tartar sauce is my first choice. Sour cream or mayonnaise could be substituted. Also, a remoulade sauce — as with “Fried Green Tomatoes” — would be great.

I have to admit that the combination of okra and corn mixed together to make fritters was new to me. My first glimse of this idea was when the recipe appeared in our local newspaper, the Advocate. Oops, then I misplaced the recipe. But, Google search to the rescue. I found the exact recipe and also discovered that the recipe and accompanying text had made the round of many newspapers across the country. A well syndicated recipe! The original recipe was published in the book, “Deep Run Roots,” by Vivian Howard.

This recipe fits my defination of a contemporary “Southern” dish. Okra is definately a summer vegetable here in Louisiana in August. When cooked properly, okra is tasty and the slimy material disappears. Plus, cornmeal and hot sauce fit into southern cuisine, too.

And, both my husband and I love potato latkes. This takes the latke recipe in a new direction. Still delicious!

If you are in the mood for a Southern flair, then try this recipe — a taste of Louisiana in the summertime!