25 Mar 2011

Easy chilli and ginger pickle



This is a very simple pickle recipe that my mum's family tend to always have in the fridge ready to eat.  

Unlike my lemon pickle recipe this is pickling in its most basic form - i.e. preserving food in a mild acid; in this case lemon juice.  I have never seen these pickles served in a restaurant but I think they are a great example of Indian home cooking. 

NB  You can use mild or hot chillies depending on your heat tolerance.



Ingredients
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 2 lemons - juiced
  •  8 green chillies - washed
  • 10 grams root ginger - peeled and finely sliced

Method
  1. The first step is to sterilize the jar.  Set your oven to 140 degrees centigrade.  Now wash your jar in soapy water and rinse in clean warm water.  Leave it to drip-dry, upside down, on a rack in the oven for at least half an hour. 
  2. Place the salt, turmeric and lemon juice in the sterilized jar.  Stir well.
  3. Now add the chillies and ginger and stir again.
  4. Place in the fridge and leave to pickle until the chillies have faded in colour. This will take in the region of two weeks.  The longer that you leave them to pickle, the milder (and less crunchy) the chillies and ginger will become.  Personally, I like to leave them for at least a month.  Shake the jar every day or so.
  5. Serve with any Indian vegetarian dishes.

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