Pickled Okra Bloody Mary Food

BLOODY MARY WITH PICKLED OKRA

Steps:

• Stir ingredients well to combine. Pour into glasses half-full of ice. If you're spiking them, add 1 ounce of vodka per glass. Garnish and serve immediately.

DILL PICKLE BLOODY MARY

Steps:

• Pour dill pickle juice into a shallow plate. Combine sriracha salt, celery seed, and black pepper on another shallow plate.
• One-by-one, dip the rims of 4 glasses first into the dill pickle juice and then into the salt mixture to coat the rims. Place glasses into the refrigerator or freezer. Pour remaining dill pickle juice and salt mixture into a large pitcher. Add vegetable juice, vodka, lime juice, horseradish powder, and hot sauce. Mix well. Allow Bloody Mary mixture to rest for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.
• Slide 1 pickled egg, 1 pickled okra spear, and 1 dill pickle onto each bamboo skewer.
• Before serving, add 2 two ice cubes, 1 loaded bamboo skewer, and 1 celery stalk to each rimmed glass. Give the Bloody Mary pitcher a stir and pour evenly into the 4 prepared glasses. Serve immediately.

BLOODY MARY

Steps:

• Place ice cubes in an Old Fashioned glass until it's 2/3 full. Add the vodka, horseradish, Worcestershire, hot sauce, and vegetable juice. Cover the glass with a shaker, shake well, then let rest in the shaker. Wet the rim of the glass and coat the entire rim with Creole seasoning. Pour the drink back into the glass and garnish with the pepper and the okra.
• Although at Commander's we use sugarcane for our skewers, out-side of our region you may not be able to buy it very readily, so skewer with toothpicks instead.
• Rinse the peppers with cold water and dry them with a paper towel. Remove the stems and chop them coarsely. Place the chopped peppers in a stainless bowl, sprinkle the salt on top, stir, cover with plastic wrap, and place in a cool, dry area for 2 days, stirring every 12 hours. All that salt is there mostly to promote ripening of the peppers.
• Add the vinegar, and puree with a hand blender or in a food processor. Place in a sterilized glass jar with a fresh, sterilized lid, and refrigerate.
• As time goes by, whenever you have an excess of ripe peppers, remove stems, chop and add to the jar. (The salting step isn't necessary for these additions.) When the jar is filled, remove the sauce, puree if you wish, place it in a clean jar, and age it until it reaches the desired flavor -- at least 2 months, or longer.
• Use as the hot sauce in many recipes.

PICKLED OKRA

Steps:

• Wash the okra and trim the stem to 1/2-inch. Place 1 chile, 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, 3 sprigs of dill, 1 clove of garlic and 1/4 teaspoon peppercorns in the bottom of each of 4 sterilized pint canning jars. Divide the okra evenly among the 4 jars, standing them up vertically, alternating stems up and down.
• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the salt, vinegar and water to a boil. Once boiling, pour this mixture over the okra in the jars, leaving space between the top of the liquid and the lid. Seal the lids. Set in a cool dry place for 2 weeks.
• *Tips on Sterilizing Jars
• Properly-handled sterilized equipment will keep canned foods in good condition for years. Sterilizing jars is the first step of preserving foods.
• Sterilizing Tips:
• Jars should be made from glass and free of any chips or cracks. Preserving or canning jars are topped with a glass, plastic, or metal lid, which has a rubber seal. Two piece lids are best for canning, as they vacuum seal when processed.
• To sterilize jars, before filling with jams, pickles, or preserves, wash jars and lids with hot, soapy water. Rinse well and arrange jars and lids open sides up, without touching, on a tray. Boil the jars and lids in a large saucepan, covered with water, for 15 minutes.
• Use tongs when handling the hot sterilized jars, to move them from boiling water. Be sure the tongs are sterilized too, by dipping the ends in boiling water for a few minutes.
• As a rule, hot preserves go into hot jars and cold preserves go into cold jars. All items used in the process of making jams, jellies, and preserves must be clean. This includes any towels used, and especially your hands.
• After the jars are sterilized, you can preserve the food. It is important to follow any canning and processing instructions included in the recipe and refer to USDA guidelines about the sterilization of canned products.

BLOODY MARY

Steps:

• Add the tomato juice, vodka, Worcestershire, hot sauce, horseradish, celery seed and salt to a pitcher and mix well; add ice. Top with club soda before serving, then divide between 2 ice-filled large glasses.
• For the garnish, push some goat cheese into each cherry pepper. Place 1 on each skewer with a pickle and add to the drinks. Add other garnishes such as salami cubes, pepperoncini and celery stalks and enjoy!

BLUE SMOKE BLOODY MARY RECIPE

Steps:

• Whisk tomato juice, lemon juice, okra brine, olive brine, horseradish, soy sauce, celery seeds, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco Chipotle sauce, pepper, and crab boil in a large bowl or pitcher. Chill at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
• Add vodka to tomato juice mixture; stir well. Serve cocktail in glasses over ice and garnish with green beans, okra, and celery.

CAJUN BLOODY MARY WITH PICKLED VEGETABLES

Steps:

• Working in batches, puree the canned tomatoes and their thick puree in a food processor until smooth. You should have a rich liquid with no lumps.
• Combine the puree with the tomato juice in a large bowl, blending well.
• Add the celery salt, sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, cayenne, Tabasco, and vodka. Season with salt; you may need more than you expect to bring up the flavor of the mix (canned tomatoes have less salt than tomato juice). Keep the mixture cold.
• For each serving, fill an 8-ounce tumbler with ice cubes. Pour about 4 ounces of the Bloody Mary mixture over the ice, which should almost fill the glass. Garnish with pickled vegetables, at least three pieces per drink.
• Vegetable Garnishes
• Here are a few specific ideas:
• Pickled Okra. This, of course, is the perfect garnish for a Cajun Bloody Mary. Strive to find it! Luckily, a company called Talk 0' Texas makes pickled okra in two varieties (I prefer the "hot"), and distributes the product to supermarkets across the country.
• Pickled String Beans. This is another pickled vegetable you often see in Louisiana Bloodies. A Washington State company called Hogue Farms makes a pickled string bean that is widely distributed.
• Pickled Asparagus Spears. Hogue Farms makes this as well.
• Pepperoncini. Also called "Tuscan peppers," and available in most supermarkets across the U.S.
• Pickled Cocktail Onions. Available everywhere. I like to thread three of them on a fancy toothpick, then assemble dozens of these picks on a plate.
• Pimiento-Stuffed Olives. Choose smaller olives, and arrange on toothpicks like the cocktail onions.