This super duper lime pickle is sour, salty, savory, with s little bit of spicy and bitter, and compliments many dishes and snacks very well.
🌶️ Lime Pickle Ingredients 🍋
Part 1 - Sunning
- limes | 18-20x medium-sized
- rock salt | ¾ cup
- turmeric | ¼ teaspoon
Part 2 - Seasoning
- sesame oil | ¼ cup
- vegetable oil | ½ cup
- mustard seeds | 3x tsp
- paprika | ¼ tsp
- chili powder | ¼ tsp
- fenugreek seeds | 1x heaping tablespoon
👨🍳 Preparation 🔪
STEP 1
Wash the limes and dry, then cut each lime into 8 wedges, deseed, and set aside. If you have any small cuts on your hands that you were unaware of, now is the time you will be aware of their presence.
STEP 2
With limes cut, it's time to fend off cheeky daughters and combine the rock salt, limes, and turmeric powder in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. I recommend glass because the high acidity of the limes can interact with certain plastics and stainless steel. My glass jar was a wee bit small, so I started with plastic for day 1 and was able to squeeze everything into a glass jar on the second day.
STEP 3
Sun your limes as much as possible for the next 3 to 7 days. Settling will occur, the salt will dissolve, and you can and also invert the jar several times a day to help dissolve the salt. Warm weather and a bright sun can take only 3 days, but if you're in a cool climate, it may take as much as 7 days, trying to keep your limes in a ray of sun near a window.
When the limes nearly fill the jar with juice and the rinds have lost their bright green color, it's time to get ready for the seasoning process.
STEP 4
If you don't already have roasted fenugreek powder on hand, just make your own as I do because you'll need it for the seasoning process. Just heat a wok or pan on the tiniest flame humanly possible, and roast these little beauties while stirring until the brown becomes brown-ier and/or the smell of your kitchen changes, turn off the heat, remove the seeds to cool. Grind the roasted seeds to a coarse powder and set aside.
STEP 5
Add the vegetable oil and sesame oil to a work or pan and turn on the heat to a very low flame. Let the oil come to heat slowly because you don't want to smoke the sesame oil. Test the heat with a few mustard seeds, and if they pop quickly the oil is hot enough to add the rest of the mustard seeds. Stir and fry the seeds for a few seconds.
STEP 6
Add the limes to the wok with great care, being careful not to splash the oil. Increase the heat a bit and saute the limes while occasionally turning them. After a few minutes the mixture should thicken a bit, and then you're ready for the next step.
STEP 7
Now add the chili powder and saute/stir a few more minutes. You could use as much as 3 tablespoons, and as little as a 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder, it really depends on the heat of what you have. My store-bought Indian chili powder is fire, so I use it in small amounts, but with paprika you could probably use a few tablespoons with similar results.
STEP 8
Turn off the stove and add the roasted fenugreek powder. Stir to combine and allow the pickle to return to room temperature. Transfer the pickle to a glass jar with a tight fitting lid.
You can continue to sun the pickle a few hours a day for the next week to help the limes soften and flavors combine. It is ready to eat immediately but tastes best after about a week. I keep my jar on the table and use it with everything from instant noodles to Indian meals.
🙌 Now You're Pickled 🤸
Congratulations, you've passed the picklin' process, Eat it right away if you must, but if you can be patient and wait another week, you'll be pleased with the results even more. The bitterness of the lime rinds and fenugreek subsides over time, and the limes also get more tender, but I still like to have a bit to check the spice and salt levels.
One of my favorite ways to enjoy this pickle is with a roasted poppadum and a hot cup of coffee, a lite breakfast of sorts. There are no rules however, thankfully, and I've even found success with putting this pickle in sandwiches too.
After a few days of the completed product sunning in a jar, I decided to take one last pic to share with you all. This is roughly day 9 since I first cut the limes, and it's still building character like a fine wine. Until next time my precious pickled partners........
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