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Post by snickeringbear on Jan 10, 2015 19:13:33 GMT -6
Luckyduck, I'll get you a pickled okra recipe tomorrow when I have lunch with my MIL. She has the best one that I've seen so far. Note that most okra varieties don't make good pickled okra. She uses Granny Franklin which is an heirloom passed down in her family.
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Post by macmex on Jan 10, 2015 20:05:10 GMT -6
I don't know where I got this recipe. Nor have I tried it. But it looks promising.
PICKLED OKRA
5 pounds okra 8 cups vinegar 1 cup water 1/2 cup kosher salt 8 cloves garlic 8 or more dried or fresh chiles
Wash okra, leaving top cam and removing excess stem. Combine vinegar, water and kosher salt. Bring to a boil. Drop okra into boiling mixture (and chiles if you're using fresh chiles) and bring to a rolling boil. Place in hot, pint-sized sterilized jars. Add one clove of garlic and, if you're using dried instead of fresh chiles, one or more dried hot chiles (depending on how hot you want them) to each jar. Seal while hot. Let stand 8 - 10 weeks before serving.
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Post by Mom's Pickled Okra on Jan 10, 2015 22:35:53 GMT -6
Mom's Pickled okra: 1/2 tsp dill seed 1 hot, skinny, red pepper 2 cloves garlic About 12 to 14 okra pods per pint jar.
BRINE: 1 quart white vinegar 1 cup water 1 tablespoon less than 1/2 cup kosher salt
boil water, vinegar, and salt, until salt dissolves. (This will be the brine).
Add garlic cloves to the boiling brine after salt has dissolved, to sterilize garlic from its previous contact with garden soil.
Sterilize wide mouth pint jars in casserole dish in 250 degree oven for 10 minutes, set aside, let cool until safe to handle, but still very hot.
Place jar rings, and flats in pan of boiling water for 5 minutes, until sterilized.
Place 3" inch okra pods in each wide mouth pint jar, stem side up, until loosely packed. Place hot pepper in jar, stem side up. fish out two sterilized garlic cloves per each pint jar, place on top of okra. spoon dill seeds over okra.
Ladle boiling brine over okra placed in jars, while still in casserole dish (in case of jar breakage) leaving 1/2" inch head space.
Wipe mouth of each jar clean of any spillage, place sterilized flat on each jar. Screw each ring on tightly. Let jars sit quietly, with no breeze, until the flats "SNAP" a seal.
When cooled to room temperature, place in refrigerator, and keep refrigerated so okra will retain crispness. Refrigerated jars will keep for one year. let okra pickle for six weeks. Serve cold.
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Post by snickeringbear on Jan 11, 2015 16:52:04 GMT -6
Ok, here is the recipe. This recipe is to produce pickled okra that will be fried to serve. If you are doing pickled okra for a salad, use the recipes above.
Chop up a dishpan of okra. This will be 2 to 3 gallons total. Don't cut too small, 1/2 inch slices are just about right.
Put 8 to 10 clean quart jars in a large pan with enough hot water to cover them and bring the water to a boil. This will sterilize the jars. You want to take them straight out of the boiling water and fill them with okra. When ready to fill the jars, drop the canning flats into the water to soften the seal
Put a pan on the stove with a gallon of water and when it boils, add 9 tablespoons of white vinegar and 3 tablespoons of canning salt. Put the okra into the pan of water and get it hot enough to thoroughly blanch the okra until it turns pale green. It must be at or near boiling for this to work. Pull a jar out of the boiling water and fill it with the okra and pack full. Put on a lid and seal the jar. Place on a counter where it can cool.
When you want some fried okra in the middle of the winter, pull out a jar and wash it thoroughly and fry with corn meal.
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Post by fourteenmilecreek on Jan 12, 2015 14:09:09 GMT -6
It never ceases to amaze me, the vast storehouse of ideas that are out there in other people's heads. This is Great! Thanks for a thing I would never have thought to try.
Which reminds me... We use vinegar to rinse our granite dish pans after slicing okra into them. The vinegar cuts the slime off the surface of the pans, the okra knives, and our hands, so washing is much easier.
We also salt, and pepper, 1/2" inch sliced okra, while still in the dish pan, stir it up good, then divide it into amounts large enough for a good mess of fried okra, and place that in individual plastic Ziplock bags. Mash them flat for better storage, and stack them in the deep freeze. (Just fried up a mess of it yesterday). The Wife also made a great gumbo last night. (Now, if we could only figure a way to have fresh ripe tomatoes from last July).
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Post by glen on Jan 12, 2015 15:33:24 GMT -6
If you are ever in a survival type situation, okra can be eaten in stews or soups. Along with your sweet potato's. These crops grow when other crops fail. Very important to have some of both in the hot summer garden. Also, I read somewhere that okra can be dried. Can someone please offer up some easy ways to dry okra and suggest ways it can be used? How long would dried okra store for example? Can dried okra be used in soups and stews and how does it compare to the taste of fresh?
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Post by fourteenmilecreek on Jan 12, 2015 17:38:14 GMT -6
Glen,
For dehydrated okra:
We cut okra in 3/4" inch slices, then salt and pepper to taste. After that, we dehydrate it until it's crispy like potato chips. You can then seal it in Ziplock bags, or put it in glass jars with a tight fitting lid. If you can vacuum seal the jars--- even better! Vacuum sealing prevents moths or other insects that may lay eggs along the lid threads from gaining access to your okra inside.
If stored away from light; okra will last one year in a glass jar with a very fresh taste, after a year, it's still edible, but has less quality. Okra stored in plastic ziplock bags will start to take on a plastic taste after 6 months or so.
We dehydrate the following crops for use in cooking each year: OKRA TOMATOES SWEET POTATOES IRISH POTATOES MINT ROSEMARY BASIL ONIONS BEE BALM SASSAFRAS ROOT APPLES APRICOTS watermelon slices & CORN
We season the okra if we are going to eat it plain like popcorn; it tastes just like fried okra. If we are dehydrating it to cook with, we leave it unseasoned. The same as with tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and sweet corn.
All dried vegetables can be re-hydrated for use in soups or stews. I crumble my dried tomatoes over my feta goat cheese and olive oil, with artichoke hearts, rosemary, and a little basil.
We eat dehydrated, seasoned, sweet potato chips raw. They can be crispy/chewy or if cut thin enough, lightly crispy like potato chips.
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Post by glen on Jan 12, 2015 19:23:45 GMT -6
Thanx Ron. What about folks that don't have dehydrators and do not even have Access to a place to buy one? Can it be sliced and dried on a tray like you could do with chiles? Or, tied on thread and hung up to dry? What if I took whole okras and tied them to thread and dried them? I need a third world method of drying okra. I got chile's drying now on plates in the kitchen and was just wondering if I could do the same thing with the okra.
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Post by fourteenmilecreek on Jan 12, 2015 22:31:08 GMT -6
Glen,
If you dried okra whole, it would be hard to eat without re-hydrating, but it would be okay if you were just planning to cook with it. Sometimes, I slice 2" inch okra pods lengthwise and season them for drying and eating as a snack.
Do you have any clean hardware cloth, or unused chicken wire?
If so, you can stretch clean chicken wire over a 2x4 wood frame to create a drying rack.
Then place a clean cloth over this to lay your mint leaves, or basil leaves on. you'll want to cover the drying mint or basil with a second clean cloth to keep birds from pooping on your food, because it will be outside all day. If drying vegetables, you can lay them directly on the wire.
I dry my mint on a homemade wire rack, that is 12' feet long, by 3' feet wide, made of 2 x 4 lumber (picture an army cot). I have 1/4" inch hardware cloth stretched tightly over the rectangle wood frame to make the drying surface.
I set my drying rack on two homemade saw horses, then I cover it with clean cloth. I pick about enough mint to fill a 55 gallon barrel, and spread it evenly over the sheets, about 4" inches deep. I drape a second clean cloth over the top of the drying mint leaves to keep birds away. I uncover this occasionally, to reach in with my hands and turn the mint to expose any wet spots to the dry air, this allows moisture to evaporate more quickly.
The important thing is to keep good air flow underneath, so the bottom side can dry as fast as the top side. The clean cloth below the mint is used for gathering the dried mint leaves into bunches to be stripped of stems, before putting away in glass jars for Winter. It takes about 6 gallons of dried mint to last us one year.
You can also use cheese cloth to lay on wire cookie racks, or wire oven racks, for smaller quantities. (Don't let cloth touch wet veggies like sliced tomato, or watermelon slices). They can be placed directly on cookie racks or oven racks, but need to be cased in cloth to keep out the flies, etc.
When I was a kid we dried things on top of Grandma's tin roof to keep chickens from flying up on the racks. You can also place things directly below the tin roof where it is hot.
I've also dried things inside an old abandoned school bus, it gets plenty hot inside there! Old abandoned cars and trucks make good drying kilns too. I used to dry several tons of sawmill oak and cherry wood with slats placed between the boards, inside an old school bus with the seats removed.
You can dry veggies in the attic of your house if you arrange to keep dust at bay with some sort of clean, covering that allows for air to circulate. Don't use things like a plastic covering that will not let moisture escape.
We used to make beef jerky, and deer jerky, with an electric heater placed under a charcoal rack to lay the marinated meat strips on. oil the rack lightly to prevent meat sticking to it. Don't get the meat above 140 or it will cook. Jerky is raw meat dried into strips. If cooked it will not keep. If dried too slowly, it will spoil.
An old screen door will work to make a mint drying rack.
If your veggies will stand up to their own weight (like apple slices) you can string them together using a tightly stretched wire. If it sags, the fruit or vegetable slices will slide together and touch each other. They need to be separated by a quarter inch or so to provide good air circulation. An old clothes line will work for this. So will cotton feed sack strings tied between two fence posts.
How's that for 3rd World drying racks?
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Post by macmex on Jan 12, 2015 23:12:54 GMT -6
"(Now, if we could only figure a way to have fresh ripe tomatoes from last July"
Ron, I still have a plate of "fresh" tomatoes on my kitchen counter. They are Polish Pastel. I believe I've had similar results with Sunray, which, in my opinion, is a much tastier tomato. But Polish Pastel certainly does the job, sliced into omelets! "
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Post by glen on Jan 13, 2015 11:26:00 GMT -6
Ron, thanx for the great idea's which I promise I will put to use. I intend to use shaded drying techniques using your idea's for the racks, outside under the roof in my work área outside which is covered by a roof. I definitely wish to try drying okra and also bittermelon leaves and chile's, basel, etc. Bittermelon can also be sliced thin long ways and dried but I have never done that either. I have to use methods that are primitive but effective. Your ideas are truly third world but no less brilliant.
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Post by fourteenmilecreek on Jan 14, 2015 12:41:32 GMT -6
Glen,
I just got back from the garden. It has been freezing here so long that when it finally hit 40 degrees, it seemed like Spring again! What a muddy mess! An inch of gooey mud on top of a foot of frozen mud. Real good place to get a busted rear end!
I pulled up about 20 tomato cages, tore out the old dead vines, pulled up the re-bar stakes, and stacked the cages away from where I'll have to be tilling later. Only 280 more cages to go and I'll be ready to start burning the vines, and tearing up last year's Plasticulture!
When I got to the end of the row, I saw the Heavy Hitter okra plant that I got your seeds from, and stopped to give it a yank! IT'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE!!!
It still has green wood inside the dead stalk and branches!
It usually takes until February for the stalks to dry back, then until March, for the roots to rot out enough to pull them, but I thought I'd give it a try anyhow.
Looks like it will take the old chain and 4x4 on a fulcrum trick for that one!
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Post by glen on Jan 14, 2015 18:45:35 GMT -6
Well, since the parent of my sedes is a big ugly narly monster I expect that my plants will be just as ugly and knarly and hard to pull up at the end of the season also. Thats good news.
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Post by Schader Farms on Jan 14, 2015 21:04:37 GMT -6
I've grown okra in upstate New York, in what is called the tug hill area east of lake Ontario, also know as the snow belt. We have been growing okra here for about 30 years. I would love to try some of this heavy hitter, I will be contacting fourteen mile creek soon, hope you will be as excited as I will to try the results this far north.
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Post by fourteenmilecreek on Jan 14, 2015 23:04:18 GMT -6
Schader Farms,
If you need Heavy Hitter seeds, just email me at: fourteenmilecreek@yahoo.com
I used to work construction in Upper State Now York. I wired the maximum security holding cells, the kitchen equipment, and the fire alarms at Bare Hill State Pen. in 1988. I lived North of the Adirondacks - in Malone, New York until that job was done, then went on to wire baggage claims, fire alarms, and approach lights, at Newark International Airport, before going to work in Reading, Pennsylvania on a chemical plant.
Upper State New York was one cold son of a gun! We had 3' feet of snow on the ground, and temperatures nearing 30 below zero by the 1st day of Winter!
I would be amazed if Heavy Hitter did any good up there though, it didn't even like our cool wet Summer down here last year; but you're welcome to give it a try! (It is pretty exciting to see it go so many places!) I mailed some to New City, New York last week!
Good luck, keep in touch - we love pictures!
Ron
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