Today, I would like to share my mother’s recipe for the delicious lime pickles that she sometimes makes.

Lime pickle

Time taken: around 15 days

Makes a jar

Ingredients:

• Limes – 16
• Powdered salt
• Turmeric powder – 2 tsp
• Crushed chillies – 2 tsp (optional)
• Fenugreek – 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Clean and quarter 5 or 6 limes or the number that can fill the pickle jar you are using.
2. Fill or cover them with as much salt as you can and then put them in a clean jar or jam bottle. Cover the bottle and set aside for a day.
3. Uncover the bottle the next morning and place under the sunlight during the day-time. Cover the bottle in the night. Repeat this process for around 7 to 10 days.
4. After 7 or 10 days, squeeze the juice of about 10 limes. Add the turmeric powder, crushed fenugreek seeds and optional crushed chillies to the juice.
5. Pour the juice mixed with the spices into the jar of sun-dried limes. The juice needs to cover the limes in the bottle so if you need to, squeeze some more lime juice into the bottle.
6. Repeat the covering and uncovering process under sunlight for another 5 days.
7. At the end of around 15 days, the lime pickle is ready to be eaten.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.