A new series

Unlike my other food series, this one is not going to delve deep into the health properties and details of how to make a recipe, or list all the nutrients. In other words, it's not going to be OCD! It's more or less going to be a "what new did I cook this week?" and "did I like it?"

It's going to include both good and bad dishes, my thoughts and notes on them, maybe a few improvements or changes I made, and a final verdict.

And, in keeping with the title, all the recipes are going to be from cookbooks. These can be bought, or pirated. (As usual, I can only recommend one of these two options, and am merely including the other for completeness.)

Let's inaugurate with something vinegary.

Surprisingly Good Pickled Okra!

I didn't have high hopes for this. But it's often better to have low expectations and then be pleasantly surprised, than to buy the hype and then be disappointed. (This has been proven to me time and again in relation to movies, so I'm safely generalizing it to food, given their similarities. You didn't know there were similarities? Well why do you think people eat while they watch TV?)

Don't get me wrong: I like okra. Correction: I LOVE okra. And by that I mean our traditional Cypriot dish that's made with okra and chicken.

But, although I've tried various pickled and fermented vegetables (and I'm half Russian, and Russians pickle everything, including watermelon rinds), I'd never tried pickled okra before. Might be common in the US or something, but not here.

The result? Very professional-tasting! Reminiscent of jarred pickled stuff you buy at supermarkets. (And I know "supermarket" usually is code for "bad", but in this case it isn't!) It was very pleasingly crunchy and spicy. Everyone who tried it liked it, except one person who liked it the first time but didn't much care for it on later tastings. I guess some people can't overcome the gooeyness that inevitably comes with okra. If that's you, stay away!

My one con is that I can't seem to think of anything to have it with! It doesn't seem to pair well with anything. And I tried it with soups, I tried it with steaks and chips, tried it with sandwiches (this gave the best result). I even tried it fried (more on this below). But it never quite attained the heights of more traditional pickled vegetables like cucumber or celery or carrot or cauliflower.

Variation

The floured and fried version I tried is an official variation in the book. What did it taste like? It tasted good! It reminded me of some long strips of fried celery that I once tried at a restaurant in Ayia Napa and couldn't place. We were eating fish so I thought it was fish. I finally decided it was floured fried seaweed. Let me note the strips were housed in a large beautiful seashell. I finally asked the waiter what it was. It was floured fried celery. Well at least I got the color right.

Changes

I run out of rice vinegar so I used some apple cider. I can only guess the original recipe would taste even better, unless I made some serendipitous culinary discovery.

Final Verdict

Good. A fine way to surprise guests and have them talking! Otherwise stick to more traditional pickled vegetables like cucumber, carrot, celery, and chili peppers.

The cookbook

Cajun Pickled Okra in Foolproof Preserving: A Guide to Small Batch Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Condiments & More, by America's Test Kitchen.

All pictures by yours truly.

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