Indian lime pickle
Jul 10
I’m a little late posting this but thought I would.. because, well…. I LOVE Indian pickle. What’s pickle you say? Well Indian pickle isn’t like what you might think. It’s not Kosher dill, sweet or a relish. Indian pickle is made from vegetables and fruits. They are chopped into small pieces and either cooked cooked in edible oils or brined with many different Indian spices and plenty of salt. In this case I used lime. Pickle is this nice, spicy relish-type stuff that’s great on just about anything. My favorite is chunks of bok choy and pickle. I love the spiciness of it and the fruit. It’s like the best of both world. I LOVE lime pickle.
Last weekend Eric and I met up with a colleague of mine and a good friend, Rothrock, to show him around some good Mexican grocery stores in Hillsboro. As the three of us were shopping I notices that limes were dirt cheap and it got me to thinking about making pickle. Last year Rothrock and Julia made it together so I knew Rothrock would be the one to ask how to do it. He referred me to this great website: http://www.indianfoodrocks.com/. The site has some great Indian recipes and was quite the find. I can’t wait until it’s all made and we can use it. YUM!
Ingredients
10 limes, reserve 1 for juice
30 green Thai chillies
3/4 cup julienned ginger
1 tablespoon whole fenugreek seeds, to be added whole
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt
3 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp fenugreek seeds, to toast and grind
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp powdered hing (asafoetida)
Directions
- Quarter 9 limes, reserving 1 for juice later, after slicing off the stalk scars. Pick limes with few blemishes and smooth skins. Wash the limes well, making sure that any outer wax has been washed off. Dry well. There must be no moisture on the limes.
- Wash and dry the green chillis. Use less if you can’t take the heat; more if you want to up the heat! Cut the stem off and cut each green chilli into two.
- Wash and dry a 2 inch piece of ginger. Peel it and julienne into slices that are about an inch long. I used about 3/4 cup of julienned ginger.
- Add 1 tablespoon of whole fenugreek seeds.
- Add the salt, sugar and the turmeric powder.
- Toast 1 tsp fenugreek seeds, the mustard seeds and the powdered hing (asafoetida) for 4-5 minutes until the methi seeds are nicely tanned.
- Cool completely and grind them to a fine powder in your coffee grinder or spice grinder and add it to the jar.
- Squeeze the juice of 1 lime into the jar. Shake the jar well and set it out in the sun to cook.
- Give it a good shake as you bring it in and put it out every day. Open it once every couple of weeks to adjust it for taste as well as to check to see how well it’s cooking.
- When the juices have thickened and the peel soft, it’s ready. Let it rest for 4-5 days in a dark and cool place. Then spoon it – a very dry spoon always – into smaller jars and refrigerate to make it last that much longer.
