4Nbahu's Lemon and Ginger Slightly Sweet and Sour Pickle (Recipe) (UPDATE March, 2022)

Lemon & Salt June 2020



When I first moved to India I had a lot of time on my hands. There was also a lot of distrust of processed foods, pickles and juices to be precise. While opinions have changed I still find that homemade pickles tend to taste better. One of my favorite pickles is lemon pickle, we eat it with poora, a savory crepe made from chickpea flour, as well as other dishes. A friend of mine’s family made most of their own pickles and she gave me the proportions needed to make a lemon pickle. Hers also had red chilli, but I didn’t want chili in mine as I planned to give it to my children. I did however, love pickled ginger which is made from ginger, salt, green chilli and lemon. So I decided to be a bit adventurous and create my own pickle. If I remember correctly I used about 5kgs of lemons and some amount of ginger. I followed my friends instructions to the letter and after a month I got a good pickle that my family continued to eat for a decade.

The bonus of a homemade pickle is that it has a liquid component that over time dries up and crystallizes. The lemons go from bright yellow to brown to black. I was wary of eating the pickle when it turned black, but my father-in-law swore that it tasted fantastic, (and it did). But also it was believed that the black pickle had medicinal properties. This was reiterated when my daughter-in-law became pregnant and her grandmother sent lemon pickle that was 25 years old for her to eat during her pregnancy.

About 10 years later I tried to make the pickle again, but I had lost the recipe and I didn’t follow the book one as rigidly as I had the first one. I ended up with a lot of moldy lemons. I had to throw my pickle jars. It was not pretty.

With COVID 19 came a lot of free time. So I returned to my pickle book and read up online for other recipes. My experience with processed pickles came in handy.

My goals for this pickle were the following:

  1. Slightly sweet, but not sugary candy sweet.
  2. No Chillis. I can use a chilli pickle if I want a bit of fire, but you can add if you like.
  3. A balance between sweet, sour, and salty.
  4. Ginger lots and lots of ginger, which adds a bit of peppery bite to the pickle and adds flavor and texture.

Most of the recipes I saw used very large amounts of salt to lemon ratio. My proportion is smaller than many recipes online, but I haven’t had any fungal growth. As I learned from my 2nd try there has to be several days of salt only with the lemon before anything else is added to the mix.

I first put my latest batch up in June. For the next month I turned the pickle everyday and most days for the next few weeks. I put it in front of a window that received sun for most of the day. It is now December and we have just started eating the pickle. While it could have been eaten earlier, I think the extra time mellowed the saltiness and also softened the pickle rind so that now it is al dente not chewy. It is also kind of like eating a sweet tart, lip smacking tart.


4Nbahu's Lemon and Ginger Pickle (same jars as previous photo) December 2020

4Nbahu’s Lemon & Ginger Pickle

(Nimboo Achaar)


INGREDIENTS


Lemons - 5 kg (For Indian lemons I found 1 kg=~ 25 lemons (about the size of limes)
Salt -  1 kg
Ginger - 1 kg
Sugar - 1.5 kg (online it said 2.5 cups = 500 gms or 1 cup = 200 gm)
Salt - 4 Tbs (for Ginger)


(Green Chili or Red Chili Powder if you like your achaar spicy can be added at the same time as the Ginger)



Ratios -  1 : 1: 1.5: 5   1 Salt: 1 Ginger: 1.5 Sugar: 5 Lemon


METHOD


  • Wash lemons and put aside to dry overnight.  Make sure there is no liquid on the lemons.

  • Put a small amount of the salt into the bottom of a large bowl.

  • Cut lemons into 8 pieces.  (I like my achaar in small pieces, other recipes say cut into fewer pieces, but I find that smaller pieces reduces wastage.

  • Toss the lemons in the salt as you add the lemons covering all sides of each piece.  Add more salt as needed.  (Juice will start to leak from the lemons.)

  • Once all of the lemons are cut add in the rest of the salt, stir thoroughly.

  • Place lemon mixture in glass jars, fill to ⅔ full.  

  • There will be a salty juice in the bowl, add that to the various jars.

  • Shake all the jars. Turning it upside down and all around.

  • Store the jars in front of a window that gets a lot of sunlight.

  • Shake jars daily for 10 days.

10 Days Later


  • Cut Ginger into slivers (like large matchsticks)

  • Toss the Ginger with 4 Tbs of Salt, covering each sliver.

  • Divide Ginger evenly for the number of jars of lemon.

  • Divide Sugar evenly for the number of jars of lemon.

  • Place Ginger and Sugar in each jar.

  • Shake Jars and mix thoroughly.

  • Place Jars back in sunny window.

  • Shake Jars daily for 20 days

  • Lemons should become a paler yellow on the way to becoming brown.

  • FYI - the liquid in the pickle/achaar is caused by the salt releasing the lemon juice and the lemon juice melting the sugar. No oil, water, or other fluids were added to the mix.


March, 2022

  • The Lemon Achaar from 2020 was wonderful. Just the perfect balance. I have kept one jar that is not allowed to be eaten for 10 years.

  • However, the 2021 batch was not quite as nice. I had used less Sugar and while it wasn't bad, the balance wasn't there. Salt was more prominent. The texture was also off, it didn't have the liquid that tastes so nice with Besan ka Chilla. So recently I added more sugar, about 1 cup for a 3 liter jar. Within an hour the sugar had melted and the achaar became more liquidy. The next day I tasted it and the flavor was as good as the 2020 batch. (I have changed the recipe to reflect this, but you can add more sugar to suit your taste)

  • So my take on this was trying to cut down on the sugar was good, but I took it too far.

  • So this summer when I do Lemon achaar 2022 I won't be as stingy with the sugar as I was last year.


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