Lime Pickle / Elumichai Oorukaai எலுமிச்சை ஊறுகாய்

Another side dish or accompaniment is lemon or Lime pickle or Elumichai Oorukaai. This like any other preserved items is always kept in most homes and used practically daily. These are very common with vegetarian meals, restaurants and at meals at functions. Normally these are made when lime or lemons are available in plenty and cheap.

Ingredients:

Ripe Lime – 25
Lime for juice -10
Chilli powder – 4 or 5 Tablespoons depending on how hot you want
Turmeric powder – 6 to 8 teaspoons
Fenugreek – 5 to 6 teaspoons
Mustard seeds 2 teaspoons
Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoons
Salt as needed

Method:

Wash the container in which you want to store the pickle and dry it well preferably keep it in the sun to dry well. Wash the chopping board and the knife and dry them as well. The equipment must be clean and dry.

Wash and dry the limes and cut then into four without completely separating the pieces. Fill the split limes with ground salt and arrange them in the container which is a glass vessel or a clay pot with the lid. Leave this aside for about three days. After third day dry the limes in the sun light until they are dry.

When the lime quarters are dry, place them again in the vessel. Now squeeze the remaining ten limes into a dish and pour it into the vessel. The lime juice should cover the cut limes fully, if not squeeze some more and pour into the vessel so that the lime quarters are fully covered.

Dry roast the fenugreek, cumin, and mustard seeds and grind them into a powder. Put this powder and chillie powder and salt into the vessel and mix well so that all the spices and lime juice and the lime quarters are all mixed well. Close the vessel with its lid and leave it aside to marinade and mature for a while before use. Always use a dry spoon.

In some homes they use gingelly oil to fry some mustard seeds until they split and add a teaspoon of asafoetida powder and add this to the lime pickle already just made and mix again.