Lady Bird Johnson Pickled Okra (and Pickles)

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Everyone knows I love politics, but few know that Lyndon Baines Johnson was my favorite president. I admire his deal-making skills, and his ability to subordinate his own personal agenda for the big picture or the greater good.

Though he was a total redneck, he ended up contributing greatly to the development of better rights for less privileged members of our society. He also had a wild and crazy wife named Lady Bird.

Homegirl was a great cook, and I’m stealing her recipe for Pickled Okra for my website.

The okra at Larry’s Produce has been off the chain lately, so I have been making as many okra dishes as possible. Figured pickled would make sense, so we could enjoy them later in the year.

I’m an OK pickler. Not a great pickler, but an OK pickler. Lady Bird Johnson must have been a great pickler, since her husband was President of the United States. Anyway, I pretty much followed the first lady’s recipe to a “T”.

More pictures shortly.

Kid Goat Chops

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Simple and easy kid goat chops. Like lamb chops, there is not a ton of meat on a kid goat chop. Figure four to five chops per person for a main course. Goat is a lot leaner than lamb, so don’t feel badly about eating five chops ! I whipped up a yogurt marinade using Karoun yogurt and a mix of ground cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, ground coriander, paprika, black pepper, and sea salt. Little lemon juice helps to make it more liquidy. Mix it up, coat the chops, and let it sit overnight.

I cook my chops on a Le Creuset cast iron grill on the stove top. In my opinion, this keeps them more moist than a gas or charcoal grill. That bad boy heats up, and it takes no more than seven or eight minutes on the first side, then five on the other to cook the chops through. Of course I got my goat from Nature’s Bounty Halal Meats, and of course I took the extra chops back up to Ahmad and Laurie. Just so they could test them after the fast 🙂

 

 

Diamond !

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Found some pictures of Diamond from the website for the organization which rescued her:

This is Diamond now:

Sausagefest. Of the Halal Variety.

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My friend Ahmad from Nature’s Bounty Halal Meats hooked me up with some special experimental sausages this weekend. Lamb casing, lean lamb and beef, and spices that he remembered from growing up in Lebanon. Almost no fat – did you know that common sausage is 40% to 50% fat ? Anyway, Ahmad made these up at his place in Vacaville. I rubbed some extra virgin olive oil on them before putting them on the 550 degree grill.

Accompanying the sausages were thickly sliced sweet red onions, which I soaked in a 50/50 mixture of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I also made a little batch of okra for grilling, the recipe is found elsewhere in my blog.

This stuff sat on the hot grill for no more than 10 minutes, about 5 per side. Served it up on toasted naan from Deep.

This was awesomeness !