Lemon Pickle

This pickle is made with lemons which have a thin skin and is known as kaagji nimboo (kaagji means paper thin).
This type of lemon is available during the winter months.
It takes 3 weeks for the pickle to be ready and can be stored and used for a year or more like mango pickle.
With time the pickle turns darker.

Ingredients:
Kaagji nimboo or lemon with thin skin-1 kg,
Salt -3/4 cup or 150 gms,
Turmeric pwd- 1 tsp,
Red chilli roasted and grind to coarse pwd -2 tsp,
Yellow mustard seeds ground to coarse pwd- 2 tsp,
Methi seeds or fenugreek seeds roasted and ground to coarse pwd- 1tsp,
Hing or asafoetida-1/4 tsp,
Juice of 10 lemon or 1/2 cup,
Mustard oil-1/2 cup-heated and then cooled,
Fresh ginger thinly sliced- 2 inch or 50 gms.

Note :To make pickle all the utensils,cloth,spoon and jars have to be washed with hot water and wiped clean to avoid the pickle not to be spoilt.
If possible keep them in the sunlight for few hours as you make the preparations.

Method:
Wash and wipe dry all the lemons.

With a clean knife slice or cut the tip in the top center of the lemon.

Cut the lemon into half and then each half into half again and then into quarters.
You can cut into 6 or 8 pieces, depending on the size of  the lemon.
Remove the seeds.
Take a clean bowl and put all the lemon pieces in it.

Add 3/4 cup of salt and 1 tsp of turmeric. 

Mix with a wooden spoon and then transfer the salted lemons to a clean jar.

Cover the jar with a clean cloth and show sunlight for 3 days.

Hold the jar in the hand and give a shake twice or thrice a day to mix and toss the lemons so that all the lemons are coated with salt and do not dry out.

On the fourth day,roast and grind mustard seeds,roasted whole red chillies and fenugreek or methi seeds. Squeeze out the juice of 10 lemons in a bowl.

Take a wide bowl and transfer the salted lemon pieces in it.

Sprinkle mustard pwd, roasted red chilli pwd,methi pwd,1/4 tsp of hing or asafoetida and juice of 10 lemon.

Mix with a wooden spoon and then transfer it to the jar.

Cover the jar'mouth with a cloth and leave it in the sun for a week or 10 days depending on the weather and sunlight.

Stir the lemon pieces  with the wooden spoon twice or thrice each day.
After a week or ten days depending on the sunlight,add 1/2 cup of mustard oil which has been heated and then cooled.

Add two inch thinly sliced ginger to it.

Stir with a wooden spoon and then cover with a cloth.

Keep the jar in the sun for another ten days.
Pickle is ready when the lemon does not taste bitter.

The pickle is ready within 3 weeks to serve.

Keep the pickle jar in room temperature.
With time it tastes better each day and is very good for digestion.
This pickle can be kept for a year until the next winter arrives!
Goes very well with puri,paratha,rice or any vegetarian meal!