pickle, tamilnadu

Lemon Pickle the rustic way.

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Lemon pickle village style | Homemade lemon pickle

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Nadan style lemon pickle | Village style lemon pickle | Homemade village pickle. Slit the lemons, induce the spices and soak them in oil Wait for a week. Thats it. 

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When my tree gives me lemons, I pickle it and relish it with every moral of curd rice. I learned the lemon pickle the rustic way during my travels. The humblest of foods from the best cook I ever met – An old granny selling curd rice with the pickle on the side.

May be not an instant pickle, but the it is ready in a week.

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Ingredients

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Lemon

Get the ripe, firm and fresh lemons from the market. Green ones will be bitter.

Chilly powder 

Make a mix of a very spicy chilly powder and a Kashmiri chilly powder to give it a bright colour. We have best of both for colour and texture. For this recipe I used 1:1 ration of both chilly powders.

Mustard and fenugreek powder

Mustard and fenugreek powder is a common spicy mix for many instant pickles in South India. I keep a small bottle of this handy at all times. Take equal portions of mustard and fenugreek , dry roast them separately and powder to smooth powder together.

Sesame /Gingely oil

The heart of the pickle is the oil. South India prides its sesame oil and is a part of many cuisines in South India.

Pickling salt

All salts are just sodium chloride, but why a special salt for pickling you ask? Here is the answer.

Salt which does not have any additives like iodine or anti caking agents is the best salt to use for pickling or canning.

Based on this criteria, the free flowing salts are all ruled out because it has the anti-caking agents which makes them free flowing and avoid from lumping. Do not use low sodium salts as a substitute. Sodium is one of the key elements of pickling.

There are salts sold as pickling salts or canning salts which are designed for this purpose. Incase you don’t find them in the shops near you, you need to look for rock salt without iodine which is exactly the same purpose.

Any table salt can be used to pickle, but the iodine in it turns the pickle darker and the brine cloudy and unappetising due to the other additives like anti-caking agents added to it.

How to store a pickling salt ?

Unlike free flowing salt and iodised rock salts these salts used for pickling are prone to lumping due to moisture in the air. So they need to be kept in airtight containers.

If the salt has hardened , spread the salt on a parchment paper and bake it in the oven to remove excess moisture for 10 minutes.

How to store a pickling salt ?

Unlike free flowing salt and iodised rock salts these salts used for pickling are prone to lumping due to moisture in the air. So they need to be kept in airtight containers.

If the salt has hardened , spread the salt on a parchment paper and bake it in the oven to remove excess moisture for 10 minutes.

The sea salt I used.

Thanjai Natural’s Indian Non Iodised Sea Salt 1000grams Traditionally Made 100% Natural.

 

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Variations to the lemon pickle

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The brand of chilly powder I used

 [/cz_title][cz_title id=”cz_103508″]You can buy the “Three Mango Chilli powder “

Tthree mango chilly powder
Tthree mango chilly powder

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Similar recipes

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Tips to make a perfect lemon pickle

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  1. Make sure the lemons are dry before we start to pickle.
  2. Do not over roast the fenugreek seeds as they alter the flavour.
  3. I prefer the “Three Mango ” brand of the chilly powder from Andhra for all my pickles. They give a deeper colour and flavour.
  4. Add the oil while it is slightly warm, which would slightly cook the outer peel of the lemons making it tender.
  5. Stuffing as many lemons as possible into the bottle helps in two ways. It reduces the oil used as there are lesser gaps to fill. The lemons do become tender and softer over a week and will not be so stuffed by then.
  6. Wipe the lid off the container well before closing the bottle.

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Step by step video

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Recipe

Lemon Pickle

  • 9 Lemons (7 to pickle and two for the juice.)
  • 1/8 cup Fenugreek seeds
  • 1/8 cup Chilli powder
  • 1/8 cup Salt
  • 1/4 cup Sesame oil

  1. Wash and dry the lemons well.

  2. Extract lemon juice from two lemons and set aside.

  3. Slit the rest of the leomns into wedges keeping the end intact.

  4. In a clean pan, dry roast the fenugreek till they tuen golden brwon. About 2 minutes.

  5. Powder the fenugreek to fine powder.

  6. Mix together salt, fenugreek powder and chilli powder. Set aside.

  7. Stuff each of the lemons with the spices mixture we have prepared.

  8. Transfer the stuffed lemons into a clean bottle.

  9. Push as many lemons as possible in to the bottle.

  10. Add the left over spices powder in to the bottle in small quantities.

  11. Add the lemon juice to the bottle with lemons. Set aside.

  12. Heat the oil slightly and add it to the bottle slowly.

  13. The oil will fill the empty space in the bottle.

  14. Top it up with oil till all the lemons are soaked in it.

  15. Set aside for a week. Tangy spicy pickle is ready.

Side Dish
Indian
Pickle

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