Meyer Lemon Pickle

Meyer Lemon Pickle with ground Fenugreek and Red chilli powder

Ok. I know. My obsession with Meyer Lemons is serious. What can one do when you only get a few months in a year to enjoy those beauties?

Remember sometime back how crazy I was about Meyer lemons, that I made Raspberry Tukmaria Meyer Lemonade? If any of you made it at home, I hope you preserved those pretty squeezed lemon leftovers. Because, I’m back with something hot and spicy this time.

And guess what? Lemon pickle is just going to get better!

Because lemons are pretty much available all through the year, lemon pickle almost had the status of being a staple at home. At least one giant glass or porcelain jar or “Jaadi” (that’s how it is called) full of it would always adorn the concrete kitchen shelf, no matter which season it was.

With Meyer Lemons, that is not the case. When they are in season, one has got to wear their hoarder hats and preserve as many as possible, as they are in short supply.

I can’t be sure if they are still available in stores. But, I can guarantee that I saw pretty little “Improved Meyer Lemon” trees, all locally grown in Texas, in Whole Foods market just a couple of days back. If you are a Meyer Lemon lover, you still have a good chance to enjoy them next year, if not this.

So, mom makes the best pickles in our family circle. In fact, whenever she visits kith and kin, she loves to bring them a bottle of their favorite pickle as a customary homecoming gift or simply an expression of her love.

Back home, it is believed that when it comes to the art of pickling, “you either get it or you don’t”. Hence, pickling is set on an almost sacred pedestal. Since I like to analyze, I figure, may be it is also in part due to the prerequisites of a high degree of cleanliness and hygiene.

I had always dreamt of growing up to be a great pickler just like my mom is. This year, I have been especially enthusiastic about pickling and preserving. And this pickle happens to be my first ever try at lemon pickle. Mom’s recipe has been scaled down for the two of us and, the results have honestly been very encouraging.

If you’ve never tried your hand at pickling for the fear of ruining it or whatever, just give it a shot. It may seem a little laborious and stringent, but the whole process of pickling in itself is gratifying and calming to say the least, in an almost character building way..

Trust me. Take my word for it.

Once you are done with patiently waiting for it to marinate, when you open the lid and the first spicy aromatic whiff hits your senses, transporting you instantly to cloud nine, that is when you’ll believe it was all worth it.

Down south, pickles are broadly classified either as fenugreek based or mustard based. As per Ayurveda, fenugreek is considered to have cooling properties and mustard, the opposite. Hence, fenugreek based pickles are usually milder than their pungent pickling counterpart and so, easily suit most people’s tastes.

If you already know the taste of Lemon pickle, just imagine how it would be with the magnificent aroma of the Meyer Lemons… I’d say, go on and imagine a bowl of cooling yogurt rice with a side of this lovely pickle.

slurp. drool. drool.

The humble lemon pickle with a Meyer Lemon twist – in one word, irresistible!

What’s your favorite Meyer Lemon recipe?

Meyer Lemon Pickle Recipe

Printable Recipe

Things you’ll need:

8 squeezed meyer lemon leftovers or 8 whole meyer / regular lemons unwaxed or organic
4-5 tbsp sea salt (suit your taste)
juice of 2 lemons (if using squeezed lemons only)
4-5 tbsp red chilli powder (suit your taste)
2 tbsp methi / fenugreek seeds (or 1 scant tsp roasted and ground fenugreek)

for the seasoning

2 tbsp peanut oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
a tad more than 1/8 tsp hing / asafoetida

other:

1 lb or 500 gms capacity wide mouth glass/porcelain jar with a tight fitting lid
parchment paper
Glass / porcelain or stainless steel mixing bowl
long spoon

How it’s done:

Part I – Preserving

Wash the glass or porcelain jar well with hot water and soap and let air dry completely in a sunny spot. Before using, optionally microwave it for 30 secs to ensure dryness.

Make sure that all the working surfaces and utensils are completely dry and clean. It is also recommended to use a fresh kitchen towel.

Wash the lemons and pat them dry with a clean kitchen towel. Quarter the lemons. Same if you are using squeezed meyer lemon leftovers as well, like I did.

It is very important that there is NO MOISTURE in the jar or the lemons.

To start with, add 1/2 tsp of salt to the bottom of the glass / porcelain jar. Now go on adding lemon pieces and salt in alternating layers until all the pieces are well covered in salt including the topmost layer. Squeeze in the juice of 2 lemons, if you’re using squeezed lemons.

Cut out parchment paper slightly bigger than the lid, line it onto the lid and secure tightly. Let it sit for a week to ten days in a cool dry spot.

Shake the jar well or stir the preserved lemons with a long dry spoon once daily to let the salt dissolve.

After a week to ten days, these salted lemon pieces will leave juices, slowly sink to the bottom and will reduce in volume too.

Part II – Adding the spices

In a small pan, dry roast the fenugreek seeds on low heat until golden brown and fragrant. Let cool, before grinding in a small spice grinder to a fine powder.

In a small, clean, dry bowl, thoroughly mix red chilli powder and 1 tsp roasted and ground fenugreek. Be careful to not overly roast them or they turn bitter.

Empty the jar of preserved lemons into a clean, completely dry, non-reacting mixing bowl. Stir in the chilli-methi powder and mix well using a dry spoon.

Heat oil in a small pan or kadai for the seasoning. When the oil is hot or shimmering, add mustard seeds and let splutter. When the spluttering almost comes to a stop, take off stove and add hing. Once cooled completely, add it to the  mixing bowl and give a good stir. DO NOT add the seasoning when hot or the pickle will develop an odd smell.

With the spoon, scrape clean and transfer the mixed pickle contents back to the jar without wasting a tiny bit. Secure the parchment paper lined lid tightly. Let the pickle soak all the spices for at least a couple of days before using.

Do not handle or mix with your hand at any given point, unless you want a spoiled pickle.

Notes:

Use organic or unwaxed lemons as whole lemons go into the recipe.

No need to refrigerate. When stored well, this pickle keeps for a long time.

Always use a large enough jar with a wide mouth for pickling, so that there is some room for stirring.

I have used squeezed meyer lemon leftovers for pickling. You can start afresh with whole meyer lemons with their juices intact. Omit the juice of 2 lemons in that case.

Don’t add more salt to begin with, as it can always be adjusted later. Salty cannot be fixed though.

All of the fenugreek seeds mentioned, are not needed for the recipe. However, any less would be difficult to grind well in a spice grinder.

Do not discard the leftover ground fenugreek. Store in a small airtight container in the refrigerator for later use. A generous pinch added to the seasoning in your everyday curries gives them a flavor boost.

Preferably, use red chilli powder from byadagi variety chilli or any red chilli that is high on color and medium on heat.

Parchment paper acts as an additional barrier between the corrosive salt and the metal lid, thus ensuring food safety. If not, a piece of clean cotton or muslin cloth can be used in its place.

I find that sea salt is not as salty as regular salt. Please reduce quantity if using table salt.

Rock salt is the salt of choice for pickling at home. Adjust quantity is using.

Treat yourself to more :

 

Sour Plum Pickle

Sauteed Sour Plum Pickle

Have you ever tried this? Eat an Indian gooseberry and drink water immediately thereafter? If your answer is an all-knowing yes, I guess there must also be a tiny acknowledging smile on your face as sweet as that water would taste! Sigh! the simple joys of childhood…

A nostalgic memory recall as this is all it takes to summon a craving.

Well, if you haven’t, you must have done at least this for sure – chew gum and drink water thereafter? Not the best analogy I can think of, but recognize how cool the mouth feel is? I meant to correlate that fun part. Otherwise, it is a mellow-green translucent, gently striped sour-bitter fibrous fruit with a sweet after taste, its size ranging from a marble to a walnut. There is another smaller floral shaped tart gooseberry minus the stripes too, but for now I’ll stick to the bigger one. By size, that’s how we distinguished them anyways..

As kids, we loved eating gooseberries raw, simply sprinkled with some salt and ground black pepper or red chilli powder (akin to ground cayenne pepper). As my taste buds expanded their horizon, I figured they taste even better pickled, in preserves and relishes – sweet and savory quasi-similar to other acidic fruit. I have not been quite lucky yet to find fresh Indian Gooseberries where I live in the US. The closest that money can buy are frozen, but are not best suited for pickling.

{Sour Plums on a tiny skillet}

It was the first time ever that I saw sour plums and it was at a persian/mediterranean food market. But they looked so eerily similar to Amla (Nellikai) aka Indian gooseberry, that I felt a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach, must be the flashback of childhood memories and the promising possibility to re-create the food experience I so enjoyed during my school years. I won’t hesitate to say I wasted no time in buying them.

I knew little to nothing about them except for their uncanny resemblance to something familiar to me from childhood. Apparently, sour plums are nothing fancy but unripe plums with a palate cleansing sourness , sized tad bigger than bing cherries. To my surprise, they weren’t as sour as their look-alike, as I imagined. I did not taste before buying, I never really do.

This was my first attempt at pickling, to be very honest and I promptly borrowed my mom’s instant gooseberry pickle recipe where they are sautéed whole with the stone intact. Because this recipe is as simple as ABC, there’s not much to mess around. Only condition requires you to use dry-everything from jars to ladles to pans and spoons for the fear of spoilage otherwise. Moisture is also the number one friend of molds, you see.

Substitutes are just that substitutes, they never quite match the original. But then, cravings are stubborn things, they just don’t die without fighting hard, you know. Some cravings are easy to satisfy, as simple as go to the nearest market, get the stuff, cook, eat and be happy. But then there are others, for which even the most up-class markets can’t come to the rescue, for that matter. Not because one can’t afford to buy, but simply because one may be so far away from their homeland and foods so local, it may just be impossible to find them. Drooling for foods from childhood and waiting for the next fortunate time to satiate those tingling taste buds is all one can do.  And for those times, substitutes are the king, like Sour plums fill in for gooseberries here for an instant gratification.  In that attempt, I got to discover a new ingredient in old light, a win-win for me!

I know when I can buy a bag full of fresh and shiny gooseberries when I am in Bangalore. Till then,

Do you know of any place in the US where you have had luck with finding fresh Indian gooseberries?

Sautéed Sour Plum Pickle Recipe

Adapted from a recipe ideal for Indian Gooseberries (Amla / Nellikai).

Printable Recipe

Things you’ll need:

• 25 Sour plums / Indian gooseberries
• 2 tbsp red chilli powder
• salt

For the seasoning:

• 3-4 tbsp peanut oil
• 1 tsp mustard
• 1/8 tsp asafoetida / hing
• 2-3 whole red chillies, seeded and broken into 1″ pieces
• 3 pinches crushed fenugreek seeds / methi seeds
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• pinch of ground mustard ~ optional

How it’s done:

Wash sour plums and pat completely dry on a towel. Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan or an Indian wok over high heat. When the oil is hot enough or shimmering, add mustard. When mustard begins to splutter, reduce heat to medium and add broken red chillies followed by crushed fenugreek seeds and give it a stir.

When red chillies turn dark brown (make sure the fenugreek seeds are not burnt or they’ll be very bitter), add asafoetida and turmeric and ground mustard quickly followed by the whole sour plums. Sauté on medium high heat until they become soft. Do not cover to avoid moisture from being trapped.

When the plums are soft (check with a fork or spoon), add salt and red chilli powder, give it a good stir and take it off heat. Let cool completely before transferring to a clean and dry jar. Store covered airtight in the refrigerator.

Goes very well with curd/yogurt rice. I would eat them as is any day though!

Note

This pickle belongs to the instant pickle category and tastes best when used within the first few days.

You might also like:

  

Gajar ka Achar | Instant Carrot Pickle

[gaa jur ka uh char] (hindi)

{Farmer’s market Rainbow Carrots}

The last time I paused, it felt like April and it is time to bid goodbye to spring already, summer is almost here.

I didn’t mean to leave you without a post for these many days. It is just to do with more daylight. There’s more room in a day to be outside, at the nature center, on a day trip to another town or country side or even to watch the Longhorns walk into their stockyard!

How can I forget to mention the main thing? – luxury of the farmer’s market where shopping for fresh veggies is not just an act of picking and dropping into one’s cart, it is an experience for the senses.

How many times do you get to see carrots like these in the regular supermarket? That’s what I am talking about.

Normally I think of a recipe and then buy the ingredients. This time it was the opposite. These carrots as the name goes, were so colorful, I bought them first with the thought of making something later.

Because I wanted to retain the vibrant colors, I had to make something with them sans the cooking. Salad was quite the obvious choice and this one came with a twist.

While I was contemplating what to make of these, I had been to a Gujarati restaurant the other day. Feasting on the buffet, a pickle caught my attention like no other. While relishing its crunch, I had the perfect food for thought, and from there comes this dish. So, with my mom-in-law’s help, I’ve reverse engineered the recipe based on its taste.

During the growing up years, pickle would make the difference between a well finished plate of food or not. My mom is quite the expert when it comes to pickles, it comes almost naturally to her. She would make all kinds of pickles and does even now – green mango, lemon, citron, gooseberries, whole baby mangoes, bitter melon, you name it.

We ate all kinds of them as yogurt (curd) rice would seldom go down the throat without some help from a spoonful of pickle. It was as if pickle and yogurt were made for each other.

So, even though the rough definition of pickle to me largely revolves around those tastes I’ve associated growing up, with a greater exposure to different cuisines now, there is a growing awareness in me, of so many other great pickle recipes.

One such category is that of vegetable pickles. Every regional cuisine, I am sure has some version or the other of its own. If you haven’t or don’t prepare them yourself, you must have at least noticed or tasted them in Indian restaurants. They are usually seated in the accompaniments section along with salads, relishes, dips and the like.

Nope? Never mind. It is so easy to make, it is a DIY dream-come-true recipe!

South Indian pickles are either mustard or fenugreek based as the spices of choice are either ground mustard or ground fenugreek apart from red chilli powder or ground cayenne pepper and are named accordingly. I might even be posting one such recipe shortly. So watch this space shortly.

This carrot pickle recipe is from North India where white mustard is commonly used unlike black mustard in the South. Owing to its texture, carrot is a perfect fit for this kind of instant pickle. Quick to make, spicy and crunchy, it is a great accompaniment for rotis or rice.

I love the crunch. Seriously, I don’t think a pickle can get any easier than this.

It is as simple as chop, toss and bite!

What is your favorite kind of pickle and your memories of it?

Gajar ka Achar | Instant Carrot Pickle Recipe

Printable Recipe

Things you’ll need:

• 7-8 small slender Carrots (I used farmer’s market rainbow carrots)
• 2 long green chillies, slit lengthwise, seeded optionally
• 1 tsp yellow mustard, freshly crushed
  
• 1 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• pinch of turmeric
• sea salt
  

How it’s done:

Wash carrots, pat dry, peel, trim the ends and julienne to 1/4″ thick and 2-3″ long pieces.

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and toss well to coat uniformly.

Adjust seasoning for taste and serve immediately with either roti or rice.

Note Stores well in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days, in an air tight container

Linking Gajar ka Achar to Hearth and Soul Hop #49 hosted by Kankana (Hearth and Soul Hop Team) of Sunshine & Smile

You might also like: