Lemon (or) Lime Pickle

Ingredients

• 10 lemons (thinner the skin the better)
• 1/4 - cup salt
• 1 cups dry red chillies
• 2tbsp cup mustard seeds1 tsp methi seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp asafoetida

Method

1. wash and dry lemons.
2. Squeeze juice from 2 lemons.
3. Cut the remaining 8 lemons. (each lemon into 16 pieces). Place it in a bowl and keep aside.
4. Dry roast all the spices one by one. First dry roast dry red chillies till crisp over a low heat. Then dry roast mustard, methi, turmeric and asafetida together. Do not burn the spices, else the pickle will taste bitter.
5. Allow to cool down to room temperature.
6. Put all the spices in to the blender and grind to a fine powder along with salt.
7. Add the spices to the cut lemon pieces, add lemon juice and mix well.
8. Transfer the pickles into an airtight glass container/porcelain container. Mix once a day with clean spoon for about a month. Cover and keep. Your pickle will be ready in a month.
9. You can refrigerate the pickle after about a month if needed.

Note:

• While making the pickle, make sure all the bowls, jars, blenders, knives, cutting boards and frying pans are dry. Even a single drop of water will ruin the pickle.
• While serving the pickle, make sure to use clean spoons. The spoon should be very dry.
• The best option is to transfer a small quantity of pickle in a separate small jar inorder to avoid accidentally using wet spoon and spoiling the whole preparation. It is easy for serving also.
• The pickle will be salty initially but blends together gradually as time passes.

Instant Mango Pickle

Ingredients

• Raw mango (Big) - 1
• Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp.
• Salt - 1/2 tsp. OR as per taste
• Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp.
• Mustards seeds - 1/2 tsp.
• Oil - 2 tsp.
• Turmeric powder - little

Method

1. Wash the mango and pat it dry. Dice the mangoes carefully into fine cubes (one centimeter size). Do not peel the skin.
2. Transfer it to a mixing bowl.
3. Mix in red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt.
4. Top it with asafoetida powder and keep it aside.
5. For the seasoning, heat oil and add mustard seeds.
6. When it pops, pour the seasoning carefully on the mango.
7. Mix well and the instant mango pickle is ready to go especially wtih curd rice.
8. Wrap it in-between a roti or make a bread sandwich with this pickle.
9. For variation, ground roasted fenugreek seeds can be added to this pickle. 1/4 tsp dry roast and grind fenugreek powder can be added before seasoning, for long life.