Lime pickle
There’s always a split second in winter when limes are everywhere and affordable. And when that window opens, I make lime pickle. Move over preserved lemons, this is the new flavour bomb of choice (or it’s mine, at least). It adds a bucketload of zing and zest to soups and curries. You could even pile it on a bowl of plain rice, add a dollop of yoghurt, a fried egg and maybe a handful of steamed beans and you have an excellent meal right there.
Yes, there is a lot of salt and spice in this recipe, but you use it as a type of salt seasoning and you really don’t need much at a time.
Ingrediënten
- 12 limes
- ¾ cup 240 g rock salt
- ¼ cup 30 g fennel seeds
- ¼ cup 40 g mustard seeds
- 2 Tbsp chilli flakes
- 1 Tbsp ground turmeric
- 2 cups 500 ml mustard oil (see Note)
Instructies
- Cut the limes into quarters and place in a large bowl.
- Add the salt and mix well, using your hands to squish and squeeze the salt into each lime quarter.
- Divide the lime among 3–4 sterilised jars, really packing everything down well.
- Seal the jars and leave in a cool dark place for a minimum of 2 days and up to 2 weeks.
- Toast the fennel seeds and half of the mustard seeds in a dry frying pan over medium–high heat.
- Bash the seeds with a mortar and pestle or blitz in a food processor until they are roughly broken up.
- Place the mixture in a small bowl and stir in the chilli flakes and turmeric.
- Divide the seed mixture among the jars of salted lime quarters and mix well (I use a chopstick to do this).
- Heat the mustard oil in a small saucepan over medium–high heat, add the remaining mustard seeds and cook until the oil is just at smoking point.
- Remove from the heat and pour the oil into the jars with the lime quarters, being careful to prevent the mixture from spitting up at you.
- Mix together with a chopstick or a long spoon, seal and store in a cool dark place.
- You can use or serve your lime pickle in whole quarters, but I prefer to roughly chop mine so it’s a bit easier to spoon over things.
- I simply tip the whole jar into my food processor and blitz for a few seconds until it turns into a very rough paste.
Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:
If mustard oil is tricky to find, you can use vegetable oil.
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