Homemade Hot Lime Pickle

Avengers Ingredients – ASSEMBLE!

1 dozen limes

PICKLE SPICES

4 extra limes for juice
2 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp chilli powder (2 regular, 1 regular + 1 extra-hot, 2 extra-hot – your choice)
1 Tbsp turmeric powder
1 Tbsp fenugreek powder
1 tsp asafoetida powder
8-10 cloves garlic, finely chopped (about 125g / ½ cup)*
9 cm / 3 inches ginger, finely chopped (about 125g / ½ cup)*

(* I’m sure you could use minced garlic and ginger from jars, but fresh is better.)

OIL TEMPERING SPICES

125 ml / ½ cup vegetable oil
6 dried chillis, torn or snipped small
1 dozen dried curry leaves, torn or snipped small
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp black onion seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds *

(*You can use fenugreek powder, as I had to do, however see below.)

Sterilised preserving jars

METHOD

Halve each of the dozen limes top to bottom and, again from top to bottom, cut each half into six slices. Remove any seeds. Put the slices and overflow juice into a glass bowl. Juice the extra limes and add their juice to the bowl along with the rest of the pickle spices.

Mix everything well together, cover and put aside for an hour then uncover, mix again and put aside for another hour.

Heat the vegetable oil in a saucepan and if using seeds, add all the tempering spices. Once the seeds begin to pop enthusiastically, take the saucepan off the heat and lid it to prevent spatter.

NOTE 1: If using fenugreek powder, add it when the seeds have stopped popping. This means the oil has cooled enough that the powder won’t burn.

NOTE 2: if the tempering spices DO burn – you’ll know by the acrid charred smell – throw them out and make a fresh temper. Better to waste some oil and spices than spoil the entire batch of pickle for the sake of false economy.

There are two notions about the oil temper; one says pour it on while still hot, as with a tarka dhal, the other says wait until cold. I prefer using it cold; hot oil hitting cold lime-juice can be a bit dramatic, and any flavour enhancement from the tarka process seems to fade away during the time when the pickle is maturing.

However you decide to do it, add the oil and tempering spices to the limes and pickling spices, mix everything thoroughly and either put it aside for another hour then transfer the pickle to the preserving jars and lid them tightly, or just do it once you finish mixing.

Don’t fill the jars right to the top; leave about 2cm / ½ inch space, enough room for things to move when you give them their daily shake.

Put the jars on a sunny (or at least well day-lit) windowsill and leave them alone – except for a shake once a day to keep things mixing – for at least a fortnight. Longer is better, but two weeks seems to be a reliable time for the lime peel to soften and the flavour to develop.

HINT: when the pickle is ready, purée one jarful using a blender or stick-mixer. (That part-filled jar is the candidate this time.) It won’t have the chunkiness of the whole pickle, but becomes a great ingredient either for zesting up some dish or when combined with yogurt as a salad dressing.

Try puréed pickle mixed with sour cream / mayonnaise and fork-shredded or thin-sliced grilled chicken with a sprinkling of snipped green onion, over some lettuce or other greens and a tomato-sliced-thin on fresh crusty bread. Accompany it with a well-chilled glass of rosé. Or perhaps two…

That’s got a slight nod to Coronation Chicken, but with enough chilli this would be more of a Usurpation Chicken, because it’ll definitely be trying to take over something…