Indian food is inextricably linked to pickles. They may add various flavours to recipes and are the ideal side dish for every dinner, whether they are tangy, sweet or spicy. Even though pickles are readily accessible on the market, homemade pickles are superior.
Indian-American author Padma Lakshmi posted a recipe of her grandmother’s ‘puckering, hot’ lemon pickle on Instagram. ‘This is super easy to make, but it does require some planning ahead since the lemons take six months to pickle’, she wrote.
She continued by saying that practically anything, including meats, sandwiches, and sautéed veggies, go great with this tasty pickle. ‘My favourite way to enjoy it is with a big bowl of thayir sadam (yoghurt rice)’, she added.
Click here to view the Instagram post
Here’s the recipe
Ingredients: 6 lemons, 6 tbsp coarse sea salt, 2-3 tbsp neutral oil, 5 big black cardamom pods, half tsp black peppercorns, half tsp fennel or anise seeds, half tsp cumin seeds, 3 heaping tsp cayenne, 1 tsp turmeric, half tsp asafetida.
Method: The lemons should be cut into bits and put in a large, airtight glass jar with sea salt on top. For six months, keep the jar in a dark pantry cupboard. (Optional: after 4 months, add chopped ginger and green chilli.)
Roast the entire spices in a small, dry skillet over medium heat until they are aromatic. When the spices are cool enough to handle, combine them with the powdered spices in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. Make a coarse powder out of everything.
Place the oil in the same pan that you used to roast the spices and increase the heat to medium. Add the spices and swirl them in the heated oil for 10 to 12 minutes. Turn off the heat when the colour becomes a deeper brown.
Be sure to thoroughly combine the spices with the lemon-salt combination. This pickle can keep for up to a year if you store it in an airtight glass jar.
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