DURING MY EARLY CANNING DAYS, I SPENT A WEEK in Austin, Texas. It was there that I had the chance to try the most delectable fried okra I’d ever encountered. It transformed my opinion of this sometimes texturally challenging vegetable and sent me running to the kitchen to try it as a pickle. It was transcendently good. Pickling manages to eradicate the interior slime and just leaves you with a crunchy, brine-filled pickle. It’s a dream eaten alongside a plate of spicy food.
3 cups/720 ml apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons pickling salt
4 lemon slices
4 tablespoons Mixed Pickling Spice (page 118), divided
2 pounds/910 g okra, washed and trimmed
4 garlic cloves, peeled
Prepare a boiling water bath and 4 regular-mouth 1-pint/500 ml jars according to the process on page 10. Place the lids in a small saucepan, cover them with water, and simmer over very low heat.
Combine the vinegar, 3 cups/720 ml water, and pickling salt in a pot and bring the brine to a boil.
Meanwhile, put a lemon slice and 1 tablespoon pickling spice in the bottom of each sterilized jar. Then pack the okra in, first laying them in so that the points are up. Then insert another layer with the points down, so that they interlock. Nestle 1 garlic clove among the okra in each jar.
Slowly pour the hot brine over the okra in each jar, leaving ½ inch/12 mm headspace. Gently tap the jars on a towel-lined countertop to help loosen any bubbles before using a wooden chopstick to dislodge any remaining bubbles. Check the headspace again and add more brine if necessary.
Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes (see page 11).
Let these pickles cure for at least 1 week before eating.
Note: You’ll find that this recipe calls for you to make more brine than many of the other similarly scaled recipes. Because okra pods are hollow, they will absorb a great deal of the brine. When you’ve finished filling and bubbling all the jars, they will invariably require topping off. What’s more, the brine level will drop radically after you remove the jars from the canner: Do not be alarmed. The brine has simply migrated inside the okra pods. There is no need to remove the lids to top off the liquid; as long as the seal is good, they are safe to store and eat.
