Lemon Pickle
Photo: Webaware, Public domain
This lemon pickle is a salty, hot, sour condiment for Indian meals, and it keeps without any oil. Salt and sun-assisted fermentation do the preserving instead. Whole lemons are cut up with toasted fenugreek, black mustard and asafoetida, then left on a sunny sill for weeks. The generous sugar is not there to sweeten the jar, since fermentation consumes it over time, leaving a deep, sharp, spiced pickle.
Instructions
Wash the lemons and dry them thoroughly so no water clings to the skins. Trim off the stalks and any blemished bits.
Cut the lemons into pieces about 2 cm (¾ inch) on each side and put them in a bowl.
Dry-roast the fenugreek, black mustard and asafoetida together in a pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Watch them closely, because burnt spices will turn the pickle bitter.
Grind the roasted spices in a grinder or with a mortar and pestle.
Add the ground spices, turmeric, salt, sugar and chile powder to the lemons, along with the lemon juice, and mix until everything is evenly coated.
Pack the mixture into a 2 litre (2 quart) jar, or into a couple of smaller jars. Leave at least 1 cm of space below the top.
Set the jar where it will catch the sun. Bring it indoors each evening and put it out again each morning, for at least a month in summer or two months in winter, while the pickle ferments.
Make it personal.
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