Lemon Pickle / Naranga Achar- A tangy delight...

After a short trip to Kerala, I am back with a spicy, tangy recipe which is my favorite one. This is the first time I tried making pickle on my own. Pickles are an inevitable part of our meal. I used to think that I could never make a pickle as they will get damaged soon, till I tried this.

My friend gave me lemon and I was in a dilemma on what to do with these many lemon and then I thought of pickling them.

I took the courage and with the help of my mom and a bit of googling I made this yummy pickle, which I am sure will be loved by all. This is actually a combination of Andhra and Kerala style recipes. 

Salted Lemon

This can be stored for months in air tight jars without any damage. It is best served with rice and curd. My Husband likes to have this pickle along with biryani.... :)

Now I am confident about preparing pickles and I will try to come up with more such recipes. But I can never beat the famous fish pickle made by Mom and the prawns pickle made by my M-I-L, with all their love and effort.

Ingredients:

1. Lemon- 12nos
2. Salt- 2tbsp
3. Garlic- 10- 15 cloves
4. Ginger (chopped)- 2tbsp
5. Curry Leaves- a handful
6. Dried red chillies- 4-5 nos
7. Red chiili powder- 3tbsp (big)
8. Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
9. Gingelly oil- 3-4 tbsp
10. Asafoetida Powder- ½ tsp
11. Fenugreek- ½ tsp
12. Mustard seeds- 1tsp

To Roast:

1. Mustard seeds- 2tsp
2. Fenugreek seeds- 1tsp

Method:

1. Wash, wipe and cut each lemon into 4 pieces. Put these lemon pieces in a clean jar and add salt. Mix well, close the jar tightly and keep it for 10- 15 days. In the meanwhile shake the bottle containing lemon pieces once daily, so that everything gets mixed well.
2. Roast and grind the fenugreek and mustard seeds and keep it aside.
3. On the day of making the pickle, heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds.
4. In this add garlic, ginger, slitted green chillies, dried red chillies and curry leaves, saute for a couple of minutes.
5. Take it off the stove and add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, roasted powders and asafoetida powder. Mix well.
6. Add the lemon pieces and add salt if needed. Put this on low flame and mix for about 2-3 minutes. Keep it aside to cool.
7. Transfer that to a clean air tight jar and can be used as needed.

Note:

• Before making the pickle, we can drain the water that comes out of the salted lemon, it helps to reduce the sourness.
• At last we can also add vinegar.