Growing up with roots in the South there are certain foods you just assume folks everywhere eat just like your clan and friends always did.
Take pickled okra for instance.
The Talk O’ Texas Crisp Okra Pickle brand was born in San Angelo, Texas in 1950 and their first major delivery contract was signed shortly thereafter with Neiman Marcus in Dallas (go figure that one). Their okra pickles were in just about every fridge I ever peered into growing up and were invariably close at hand when eating fish, shrimp and gumbo at my grandfather’s beach house near Matagorda.
While Talk O’ Texas is the undisputed king of commercial okra pickles, they can’t hold a candle to okra pickles hand-crafted in your own kitchen with the first tender pods of the season.
Well, low and behold those first tender okra pods have shown up this week at our local independent market and our first batch hit pint jars last week and is already just about gone.
Dammit, they’re that good.
Another double batch is going in tomorrow, and yes, these are the perfect accompaniment to your brunch Bloody Mary. We like these spicy and add both pepper flakes and a dried or fresh chile pepper to most jars, though they have plenty of punch without the additional pepper.
The recipe looks long, but the hands-on time to get these set up to process is easily less than 30 minutes. They’re a piece of cake to do.
2 pounds fresh young okra (2-4 inch pods)
1 and 1/2 cups white vinegar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup water
3 tbsp. kosher or pickling salt
1 tbsp. sugar
4 large cloves garlic, peeled
4 jalapeno or serrano peppers, stemmed (optional)Okra Pickle Spices
2 tbsp. yellow mustard seeds
1 tbsp. brown mustard seeds
1 tbsp. red pepper flakes
2 tsp. black peppercorns
1 tsp. fennel seeds
1 tsp. celery seeds4 pint canning jars, lids and the gear to process in a hot water bath
Prep your jars (sterilize, we still do 10 minutes in boiling water) and lids.
Mix the brine. Combine the vinegars, water, salt and sugar in a medium saucepan, bring to just a boil stirring to dissolve the solids; reduce heat and keep warm.
Mix the pickling spices.
Rinse and trim the okra, trimming the stem end to about 1/4 inch (leave the cap on). Prep the garlic cloves and peppers if using.
Pack a pickle. Pour a generous tablespoon of pickling spices into each jar then drop a garlic clove in each one. Now pack the okra in, alternating stem-up and stem-down; they need to be packed in snugly so the okra won’t float in the brine.
Now pour the heated vinegar brine to within 1/4-inch of the jar tops; run a knife around the inside of the jars to dislodge air and adjust brine levels. (If you run out of brine for some reason, just top off with a bit of either vinegar.)
Process. Wipe the rims, place the lids and bands. Place back into your boiling canner and process per your routine for 10 minutes (some recipes suggest 15 minutes, though we’ve never had a problem keeping ours fresh and tasty – they never sit on the shelf that long around our place anyway.) Remove to a towel on the counter, wait for the pop to show they’ve sealed and cool to room temp.
Best serve chilled or gracing a Bloody Mary.
Enjoy.
