Bring a medium sized pot of salted water to a boil and place the pods in the water to blanch. Let them sit at a rolling boil for at least 8 minutes. The pods may bubble and hiss as air escapes their spongy texture.

After 8 minutes, remove the pods from the boiling water and place them in fairly cold water to stop the cooking process. You just blanched the pods.

Remove the pods from the cold water and gently dry them off with a paper towel or clean cloth.

You can now mix together the flour, paprika, salt, pepper and garlic powder into one shallow dish, and whisk the egg in another.

Roll each milkweed pod first into the scrambled raw egg, and then in the powder mixture.

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a pan over medium heat.

Gently place each battered pod into the pan, leaving space between each so they do not touch one another.

The battered pods will cook quick enough, so watch them closely. You can flip them to cook on each side evenly until the entire pod is a light, crisp brown.

Remove your cooked pods from the pan and allow them to rest on a paper towel. The spongy texture tends to hold the heat, so if they aren’t cut open they do stay fairly warm.