Preserving Fresh Garden Okra Food

PRESERVING FRESH GARDEN OKRA

Steps:

• 1. The best way to preserve your okra is to blanching them and then freezing. You can go back later and bread them with corn meal, bread crumbs, or any of your choices of breading; when you get ready to cook. It stays more fresh this way. This way you can either have okra for soups, frying, casseroles, and ect.
• 2. Place your okra in a strainer and rinse with cold water thoroughly.
• 3. Cut the stems off at the very end of the pods. Be careful not to cut into the seed cell.
• 4. Fill a pot 2/3 full of water and bring it to a boil. Get a large bowl of ice water ready as the water is boiling.
• 5. Place your okra into the pot and cover boiling for exactly four minutes. This procedure is called blanching.
• 6. Remove your okra with a slotted spoon and place the okra directly into the ice water after removing them from the boiling water and let cool for five minutes. Add more ice if you need to in order to keep the water cold.
• 7. Place the okra from the ice water into a strainer and drain for two to three minutes. Place the okra in zippered freezer bags, get as much air out of the bag as possible, and put them into the freezer.
• 8. Take the okra out of the freezer anytime and fry it up. Just toss the frozen okra with some flour, salt, and pepper; fry it in hot oil. Okra will fry up fine right from the freezer and won't be soggy.