Last month our we traveled to Kiawah Island in South Carolina. I will share more about our trip soon, but in the meantime, I’m excited to share some of the recipes and food stories inspired by our travels. On our last night there, we had a rather uneven meal with some dishes being great and some being almost embarrassingly disappointing. The thing that stood out the most that night was a very simple appetizer platter we had including some shaved ham, hard boiled, eggs, pimento cheese, and pickled okra. Caroline and I in particular are pickle fiends, and this was right up our alley.
When we departed the next day, we visited the Charleston farmers market before hitting the road for the long drive home. We were browsing through the gorgeous bountiful piles of fresh produce when Caroline pointed and exclaimed, “Look Mom! PICKLES!” It was a huge pile of okra. It made me giggle (and still does whenever I think of it), but it also made me buy a big bunch of okra to bring home and make into pickles for my girl.
Thanks to my voluminous cookbook collection, I found a perfect recipe to use and got to work. As with most pickles, these are incredibly simple. The resulting pickles are crunchy, tangy, barely spicy, and definitely irresistible. Put them out for an appetizer spread with deviled eggs (obviously > hard boiled) and some pimento cheese and it will be a smash hit. I did exactly that this week when hosting some friends to dinner and let’s just say, I need to make some more pickled okra this weekend!