Feb 16, 2008

Green Chilli and Lemon Pickle/Marchanu Athanu..


Its time for RCI-Gujarat hosted by Mythili and Green chilli and lemon pickle is my contribution to it. Again its Madhur Jaffrey’s ‘Flavors of India’ that I referred. Have twisted the original recipe to suit our taste, but nonetheless followed her procedure. In Gujarat, pickles are eaten with snacks and all meals. The chillies that you get in Gujarat are pale green in color and milder in heat. But I used the long green hot chillies that we get in the Indian stores.

Ingredients

Salt – 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Ground Cumin – ½ tsp
Fresh hot green chillies, wiped clean with a damp cloth and dried off – 10. (The original recipe says 16-24)
Limes – 2, each lime to be cut into 12 pieces
Mustard oil preferably – 2 tbsp
Hulled, Split mustard seeds – 3 tbsp
White vinegar – 1 tsp (I did not use it).

Method

- Mix the salt, haldi and cumin.
- Make a shallow slit along the length of each chilli. Fill each chilli with the salt, haldi and cumin mixture.
- Put these chilies into an air-tight container or jar. Add the cut limes and shake and mix well. Now, seal this container and leave un-refrigerated for 2 days.
- After 2 days, heat oil in a small pan. Cool this oil and add the mustard seeds and mix well. Add the vinegar also and beat well.
- If there is any water or liquid in the jar of chilies, discard it. Then, empty the drained chillies and limes into the pan of oil, vinegar and mustard seeds. Mix well and put the mixture back into the jar. At this point, the mixture looked like the picture below.

- Leave this for at least a week, shaking the jar now and then.
- This pickle will keep un-refrigerated for long for many months and the taste improves more with maturing. After a week of maturing, the pickle looks like this. I think it needs to mature a little longer before we can eat it.

P.S: I have tasted pickles with mustard oil and they truly taste different and nice. But I didn’t have mustard oil at home, and didn’t want to buy a bottle just for this and then not to do anything else with it. So I just used the normal cooking oil.
The original recipe calls for lime but I used lemons.

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11 Comments:

FH said...

Looks so delicious, great entry Maya!:)

Sagari said...

love your pickle soo soo much maya

Meera said...

Athana looks gorgeous. wonderful entry.:-)

Uma said...

the lemon pickle looks so yummy, maya. I can smell the aroma. Nice entry.

sra said...

Maya, the pickle looks truly mustardy! First time at your site. I like the banner - I know the starfruit and jackfruit, what are the other two pix. And the corridor on the left - which place is that - it looks familiar.

Shilpa said...

Hey I too made lemon pickle 15days ago. Still in my drafts. Mine was a different recipe though. I love your pics. They look great. Looks like the pickle has a thick layer of mustard, looks yumm...

KonkaniBlogger said...

Asha, Sagari, Meera, thanx to you all..

Uma, thanx, U're right abt the fragrance, the moment I opened the jar, the lemon-mustard fragrance was just too good..Waiting still to bite into it :)..

Sra, Thanx and Welcome to my blog. The other 2 pics are of Ammla(gooseberries) and a Crab. And the corridor is the Damodar temple and to the rite is the Kamakshi temple, both in Goa :)..

Thanx Shilpa :). Ya, when I looked up there were so many different variations just to a lemon pickle. I just made this one. Yes, lots of mustard in it. Waiting to see your recipe of the pickle. Hope you write about it soon..

Red Chillies said...

Maya the pickle looks delicious. My husband loves the combination of lemon and green chillies and I am sure he will be very happy with this!

Deeba PAB said...

Maya...I love this pickle!Have just read the recipe & am on my way out to pick up fresh green chillies & lime. Sanjeev kapoor does a bottled version that looks like this...I HAVE TO MAKE IT & SOON!! I just pickled some amlas & limes last week. Agree totally about mustard oil. I am so excited!!! Thanks for posting this!!! LOL

Pav said...

Good going, Maya. Great entry!!
Thanks for participating.

Deeba PAB said...

Am back again to check the recipe out. My precious jar is fast disappearing so i went & bought more chillies & lemons! This is truly the best pickle I have ever eaten...& I think of you everyday as I see the jar sitting on my windowsill in the kitchen! Thanks for the great recipe Maya! BTW, how are you? ake care & love Deeba