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| Spicy Lime Pickle |
Of all the pickles that abound the planet earth LIME PICKLE is my favourite.
Both Mom and Mom- in –law made lovely pickle. My mouth waters at the thought, all my efforts to make pickle like them ended with the lime giving up, frustrated with me.
So life continued with store brought pickles.
They were nice but not like what I remembered.
I had the recipe to make the pickle but not on the job experience. This is where my neighbour a sweet old lady came into picture. She told me the trick is to stir the pickle with a dry spoon everyday. I quote her ," Chamcha firaw, khalce war and war the khalei kar" ! Which litrelly tanslates as stir it thoroughly.
Here are the ingredients:
25 lime, washed dried and quartered
¾ cup salt
I teaspoon heaped haldi/turmeric
10 grms hing/asafoetida
1 cup sugar (about 200 grams)
1 cup chilli powder( I use a mixture of ½ Kashmiri chilli powder and Badgi Cchilli powder)
You will also need a dry jar sterilised.
Method:
1. Mix the cut pieces of lime with salt.
2. Put in the dry bottle and close the lid tight.
3. Stir the mixture with a dry spoon everyday for 8 days. Inhale the beautiful fragrance everyday when you open the bottle. If it smells good you are on the right track.
4. On the 8th day mix, in a big kadhi mix the sugar with a tblspn of water and heat to soft ball stage.
5. Remove from heat. Add the hing/asafoetida powder, haldi/turmeric and chilli powder. Mix a little and add the lime pieces from the bottle.
6. Mix well till all the chilli powder is evenly spread in the entire mixture.
7. Return to the bottle.
8. Stir again and serve after 8 days.
P.S. If you lime yours sweet and spicy increase the sugar by ½ cup and reduce chilli powder by ¼ cup
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