Lemon Pickle - On The Run

I normally make Lime Pickles but at the moment we have here a glut of Bush Lemons and Habanero chillies, so why go and buy Limes when the condiments are locally available free?

So this blog will track the one month gestation period for making a genuine Indian Pickle.
 The basic ingredients are the chunky Lemon on the left, cut into 32 pieces and the Habanero on the right cut into two.
 The jar is from Woolies at $4 and the ingredients are "layered in" together with Hoyes Pickling Spice, about 5 Lemons and 15 Habaneros.
 A layer of Rock Salt is parked on top and tomorrow morning this will greet the sun.
 5 July
The salt has dissolved and the Lemons have begun to "liquify" with the level of the solids down 2 inches and the liquid level 2/3 up the container.
 6 July
I decided to add some big chunks of garlic, ie at this "sunbaking" stage rather than at the end.
7 July
I then decided to add water to the top of the solids to ensure that all contents are in the salt solution as they bake in the sun.

I was wrong re container as it is the $3 "medium size" one and there is a bigger one for $4.  This one is about same size as the Macona Coffee jar I have used to date, which is shown on right rear.

The recipe simply says "a sealed container" but the contents both ferments and expands [from heat] in the sun so using the Macona jar, if you push the lid fully down the pressure simply puts the lid into orbit, but the total seal is good for inverting the jar each night to give it a good mixing.

On the other hand the Woolies jar has a lousy seal so is fine in the sun but to invert it you need to add an extra seal from another jar as shown above to get a fairly good seal.

So just a matter of experimenting to find the best method.

8 July
I added some more salt [on third day]

22 July
Getting near to end of process now and the appearance is not too different from the start [with limes they go from bright green to grey]

The day has arrived to build the pickles and first task is to chop up some ginger.

Then we have some oil [I use Macadamia], Garam Masala, Cummin Seed and Hot Paprika [sorry, forgot to show the vinegar].  The actual recipe is here Lime Pickles.

Note it says garlic and chilli but I have already added those at pickling stage, so up to you.

On left is the ginger and spices etc fried for a few minutes and on right I have inverted the pickles jar into a strainer.

The contents fit 2 Balti Dishes and I spoon most of the liquid into the dishes [remember it is salty so up to you how much you use].

The Balti Dish is placed on a trivet in a pressure cooker with a little water and steamed for a few minutes [in a few stages].  I do this for 2 reasons, to kill any nasties left over from the month in the sun and to get the contents hot without "mashing" it up by stirring too much.


All of the above goes into a saucepan for a final mix/heat and the result fitted into a medium Woolies jar with the rest half filling an anchovy swing top jar.

It should keep for several months in fridge.

Taste test on a chicken curry says very good - lemon is a lot less "tart" than lime and the chillies sort of "dispersed" without making it too hot, so seems that to make it really hot you add chillies [of your choice] at the end.


Frogs' Legs

As much as I love Frogs' Legs to eat, this is not about humans eating them but a Green Tree Snake eating a Green Frog - all in 2 minutes.