Lemon Pickle

Lemon Pickle

Pickling is an age old process. The intent was to preserve fruits or vegetables for seasons in which they were not available. My favourite pickle is mango (avakai) and lemon pickle is my husband's favorite. I took this recipe from my grandmom and am glad I will be preserving and passing this on. Whenever you make pickles, please remember it needs an extra dash of salt at the time of preparation for couple of reasons. One is that salt is a preservative and pickling itself is nothing but preserving. The other reason is that when kept for some days, the saltiness comes down, so it needs that initial boost at the start. If you are concerned about people with high blood pressure eating these salty pickles, my suggestion would be to make small batches of the pickle, add less salt. This will be great with parathas and rotis too. I prefer to use unwaxed lemons for pickling and specifically buy them for this.

4 unwaxed lemon, cut into chunks

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds

A small piece of solid asafoetida (use powder if solid not available)

Turmeric powder

1-2 teaspoon chilly powder

Salt

Cooking oil preferably gingelly oil

Cut the lemons into chunks and sprinkle some salt. Cover tightly and keep aside for 1 or two days. This will tenderise the skin

Heat a kadai and roast the fenugreek seeds until its colour starts to darken. Heat little oil and also fry asafoetida until all its sides puff up and start darkening. Cool and grind to powder

Pour more oil in the kadai and add mustard seeds. Once it crackles, add turmeric powder and the salted lemon with any liquid it may have, mix

Cook this for couple of minutes and add the ground powder, required salt. Remember pickles need to be salted a wee bit more as the saltiness reduces over time. Having said that, if lemon pickle will be consumed very quickly in your house, you can reduce amount of sugar as you do not worry about how long it will keep.  Add chilly powder, more oil and stir. 

Cook this for atleast 10 minutes. You will notice the skin is now much softer and more liquid has come out. However, do not cook too long and allow all the moisture evaporate as it will make the pickle dry

Store in an air tight container, preferably in the refrigerator