Lemon_Pickle - Vadu_maanga_style

 Lemon Pickle - Vadu maanga style [ Lemon in Brine ] :

I didn't know this method of preserving lemon until I made it myself just like the way vadu maanga [ baby mango in brine ] has been done.

We are having three lemon trees in my garden. They are giving a steady supply of lemons throughout the year. We used to get plenty of lemons during the peak season from June to August.

I have preserved lemons in different ways. I have made spicy mouth watering Lemon pickle, squeezed juice from these fruits and stored in the refrigerator, after squeezing out juice, discarded the white inner skins & dried those yellow skins [ rinds ], dried lemon slices in the Sun for tea.

I got the idea of making this pickle when a local person from Chittranjan,West Bengal told me that they would pickle the whole lemon after rubbing the lemon on a rough surface to remove the outer yellow/green skin.  

I washed the lemons in water and then pat dried with a clean kitchen towel. I pricked the skin with a sharp toothpick here and there. Then I arranged salt and lemon in alternate layers inside a clean and dry glass bottle.  I kept the bottle on the dining table after closing it tightly with its lid. The juice oozed out from the fruits and dissolved the salt present around them. Day by day the amount of salt water [ brine ] increased. Daily the bottle was gently rotated to wet all the lemons with brine.

Ingredients :
10 - 15	Lemon
3/4 Cup	Sea Salt [ kal uppu/crstal salt ]
1 or 2	Glass bottle or Porcelain jar

Wash the lemons in running water. 

Pat dry with a clean & dry cotton cloth/kitchen towel.

Prick holes here and there over the skin using a sharp tool or toothpick.

Spread a tablespoon full of sea salt as a first layer in the bottle.

Now arrange 4 - 5 lemons over the salt layer.

Again add a tablespoon full of salt.

Then arrange the next layer of lemons.

Follow the procedure till all the lemons are being arranged.

Put salt finally as the top layer.

Close the glass bottle/porcelain jar with a tight lid.

Save the bottle/jar in a place without disturbance.

Slowly the salt melts in the water that oozes out from lemon and thus the brine level steadily goes up as the days pass.

Daily rotate the bottle gently so that the lemons which are present above the level of brine become wet.

In the figure below, the bottle on the left is freshly arranged lemons and salt & the other one is one week old pickled lemon. It takes around 20 days to a month to completely dissolve the salt and get pickled lemon.

We have to wait nearly 20 days to one month to taste soft pickled Lemon.

A very good accompaniment for Kanji.

Spicy Lemon pickle can be prepared from Lemon-in-brine. But we don't have to add salt at all as it is already salted and also we don't have to steam cook lemons.

Finely chopped pieces of these soft lemons can be added in salads.

Here I have presented a crunchy Mixed vegetable pickle using these soft salty lemons.

A few days back I shared a mixed vegetable pickle where fresh lemons were used. The pickle has to be allowed to stand for 3 - 4 days as lemon rinds take some days to get cured.

But here pickled lemon has been used and the crunchy mixed vegetable pickle can be relished as soon as it is made.

Mixed Vegetable Lemon Pickle :

Ingredients :
2	Pickled Lemon
1/4 Cup	Carrot finely chopped
1/4 Cup	Radish finely chopped
1 Tsp	Ginger finely chopped
1 Tsp	Turmeric tuber finely chopped
4 - 5	Green chilly finely chopped
1 Tsp	Mustard seeds
1/4 Tsp	Asafoetida powder
1 Tsp	Mustard powder
1/4 Tsp	Fenugreek powder
4 - 5 Tsp	Gingelly oil [ sesame/til oil ]

Method :

Chop carrot, radish, ginger, turmeric tuber and green chilly.

Transfer all the chopped items into a porcelain or glass bowl.

Take two pickled lemons from the bottle and chop nicely.

Transfer finely chopped pieces of pickled lemon into the bowl containing other ingredients.

Add mustard powder and fenugreek powder.

Now heat a kadai with oil on a stove over medium heat.

Crackle mustard seeds once oil starts fuming and then add asafoetida powder.

Turn off the stove immediately.

Cool down to room temperature.

Then pour the tempered mustard seeds with oil over the chopped ingredients in the bowl.

Combine well using clean and dry spoon.

Mm... Ah! crunchy mixed vegetable lemon pickle is ready to relish.

Store in a clean and dry glass bottle. It will be good for three to four days at room temperature.

If the mixed vegetable pickle is saved in a fridge, it will be good for a week to 10 days.

The pickle loses its crunchiness as the day passes.

It is advisable to consume the pickle within a week.

Other pickle recipes you might like to try

Maangai thokku [ Mango pickle ]

Avakkai - mystyle

Kothamalli thokku -Coriander Pickle

Thakkali thokku - Tomato Pickle

Nellikkai urugai - Amla Pickle

Ponderosa Lemon Pickle [ Citron pickle ]

Recipe Index

Lemon-Koozh

#LemonKoozh #ElumichaiKoozh :

When we were school going children, my mother used to prepare a sour & spicy paste/cake for evening snacks to relish with coffee as soon as we came back from school. It is one of the traditional dishes prepared from rice flour or rice batter, tamarind juice, red chilly and other spices. Whenever my mother made it, me and my brothers used to finish it off without any traces. The speciality of this dish is that the taste of it is very good when it is relished hot and even tastier when it is cooled down. The texture of the dish is just like a thick paste and sticky when it is hot. When it cools down, the sticky paste turns into a smooth cake and can be cut into pieces. The dish that I have been describing so far is known as Puli koozh.

Later after marriage I learned from my husband that in the same way another tasty and traditional dish is being prepared from sour buttermilk. The dish made from buttermilk is called more koozh. I also used to prepare more koozh whenever I churned out butter from saved cream at home. The butter is being churned out from collected cream by adding chilled water. The remaining watery milk after taking out the butter is turned into buttermilk by adding a few drops of curd/buttermilk. Thus made buttermilk is being used in the preparation of buttermilk koozh - mor koozh.

Now I have three lemon trees in my garden and they are giving lemons throughout the year. The #Lemon [ Citrus lemon ] is a berry with leathery skin [ peel ] called rind containing volatile oil glands. The interior part of lemon is called endocarp which contains fleshy part of the fruit in separate sections. Each separate section is called carpel and is filled with fluid-filled sacs [ vesicles ] that are specialized hair cells. I squeezed out juice from lemons and filled in bottles then stored in the refrigerator. Then discarded inner skins from the rinds and dried the rinds in the Sun to preserve them for future use.

I always used to make rasam only with lemon juice. Nowadays I have been preparing sambar also adding lemon juice instead of tamarind. In the same way. I tried puli koozh adding lemon juice in place of tamarind juice. The outcome happens to be tastier than the original dish, the puli koozh.

This yummy dish is prepared from rice flour. Or take out half a cup of rice batter while grinding maavu for idli or dosai and use it for the preparation of lemon koozh.

Preparation time             : 5 mins

Cooking Time                 : 10 - 15 mins

Quantity is just enough for three persons.

Ingredients :
1/2 Cup	Rice flour
1	Lemon
1 - 2	Green chilly, chop finely [ adjust ]
1 Tsp	Ginger finely chopped
1/2 Tsp	Turmeric tuber finely chopped*
10 - 15	Curry leaves
1/2 Tsp	Mustard seed
1/2 Tsp	Black gram split
1 Tsp	Gram dal [ chick pea ]
2 Tsp	Ground nut [ pea nut ] slightly pound
Small piece	Asafoetida
4 Tsp	Gingelly oil [ Sesame/Til oil ]**

* If turmeric tuber is not available then take 1/4 Tsp of turmeric powder.

**Take oil according to your taste and availability.

Method :

Combine rice flour and 1 cup of water in a vessel. Mix well and set aside.

Heat an iron kadai on a stove over medium flame with oil.

Crackle mustard seeds once oil starts smoking.

Next add asafoetida and black gram split. Fry for a few seconds.

Then add gram dal and ground nuts. Keep stirring till lentils turn golden color.

Reduce the flame to SIM position.

Now add finely chopped green chilly and teared curry leaves. Stir for half a minute.

Next add finely chopped ginger and turmeric tuber. Keep stirring for a few seconds.

Add rice flour mixture and salt. Keep stirring continuously otherwise it might stick to the bottom and loses its uniformity.

After few minutes the water mixture slowly changes to porridge consistency.

Then it starts thickening and at this point add lemon juice. Mix well and check salt and sourness.

Stir till the mixture in the kadai starts leaving the side and rolls as a single mass.

Transfer on to a clean and dry plate and sprinkle few drops of oil over the surface of the prepared lemon koozh.

Spread it flat and make it smooth with the help of a flat spoon.

 

Spicy n tangy Lemon koozh is ready to relish.

Scoop out a portion and serve hot with coffee or tea.

If Lemon koozh - Elumichai koozh is allowed to cool down to room temperature then it can be cut into pieces just like cake.

Hot or cold Lemon koozh tastes very good!

You might also like to try

Puli koozh [ Spicy Tamarind cake ]	More koozh [ Buttermilk Rice cake ]	Samai Arisi Thaengai Payasam
Browntop millet Bread	Quinoa Conjee	Samai Methy Pancake [ Little millet methy pancake ]

For other Recipes

Recipe Index

Lemon-Pickle

 #LemonPickle #ElumichaiUrugai :

This is the first time I have prepared a mouth watering #lemon #pickle. I am not a great lover of Oorugai [ pickle ]. But I used to make all kinds of #urugai [ #oorugai ] except lemon urugai [ #Elumichai #urugai ]. Previously wherever I lived I had to buy lemon from the market. Moreover the quantity of lemons I used to buy would be just enough for regular cooking. There wouldn't be any surplus lemons to try pickle preparation. 

Now I am getting plenty of lemons from my garden. I have two Gondhoraj Lemon trees, a local variety of West Bengal and another lemon tree of regular variety. Daily I am getting 30 - 40 fruits from them at the peak of the season and also they give me one or two throughout the year. The peak seasons for these trees are July - August and January - February. Now they are at the peak of the season and I have been collecting approximately 40 fruits/day for the past one month and I have been distributing them liberally to whoever I know here in #Chittaranjan, West Bengal. I have squeezed juice from nearly 100 lemons and stored the juice in the fridge. The lemon skins after squeezing out juice from the fruit were being dried in the Sun and stored in an airtight container. Now in order to preserve remaining lemons for future use and also to avoid wastage of the produce, I am being compelled to prepare oorugai [ urugai ].

Gondhoraj lemon is oblong [ elliptical ] in shape and not spherical. The skin is also thicker than the regular variety of lemon. 

Lemon juice is a rich source of Vitamin C. It has 64% daily value of Vitamin C in 100 gm of juice.

There are two stages involved in the preparation of Lemon Pickle

1.The lemons are cut into pieces and cooked in steam till the skin becomes soft.

2. Then the steam cooked lemon pieces are mixed with red chilly powder, turmeric powder, fenugreek powder, asafoetida & salt sauteed in plenty of oil to make a tasty pickle.

Preparation Time              : 25 Mins
Cooking Time                   : 20 - 25 mins
Quantity of pickle             : 1 Cup approx.

Ingredients :
1 Cup	Lemon pieces
3 Tsp	Red Chilly powder
1/2 Tsp	Turmeric powder
1/4 Tsp	Fenugreek [ venthayam ]
1 Tsp	Mustard Seeds
Small piece	Asafoetida
1/3 Cup	Gingelly oil [ Sesame / Til oil ]
2 Tsp	Salt

Note : I always use gingelly oil [ Sesame / Til oil ]  to make pickle. It can be replaced with ground nut oil or any other cooking oil.

Method :
Cutting and steam cooking lemon  :

Wash 5 - 6 lemons well in water.
Pat dry with a clean kitchen towel.
Halve it into two.

Cut into small equal sized pieces. { approx. 1 Cup }
Transfer into a vessel.

Heat a pressure cooker with three cups of water on a stove over high flame.

First place the bottom plate inside the pressure cooker.
Now keep the vessel containing lemon pieces over the bottom plate inside the pressure cooker.
Close the pressure cooker with its lid & without weight over the nozzle.

Allow it to steam cook for 12 minutes.

Turn off the stove and take out the vessel.
The rind [ skin ] of lemon pieces would have been cooked softly.
Set aside.

Making Pickle :

Heat an iron kadai on a stove over medium heat.
Add half a teaspoon of oil and wait till it becomes hot.
Put fenugreek [ venthayam ] and stir continuously with a long ladle till golden color.
Transfer into a mortar.
Crush into powder using a pestle and set aside.

Now add 1/3 cup of oil and heat over a medium flame.
Crackle mustard seeds once oil becomes hot.
Then add asafoetida piece and fry well.
Reduce the flame and slowly add steamed lemon pieces.
Stir well adding turmeric powder and then red chilly powder.
Then add salt and mix well.

Allow to simmer on slow flame and keep stirring at regular intervals.
After sometime the oil drops start appearing on the surface of the pickle.
Let it be on slow flame till all the oil we have included comes out, becomes shiny
and subsequently the pickle drowns under the oil.
Finally add fenugreek powder into the simmering pickle and mix well.

Turn off the stove and transfer into a clean and dry porcelain or glass bowl.
Keep the porcelain or glass bowl on a dry wooden board while transferring hot pickle into it.
Allow to cool down completely and then store in a clean dry glass or pet bottle.

Allow the pickle to stand for 4 to 5 days and then start consuming it.
Use a clean and dry spoon to serve the pickle.
It can be stored in the normal room temperature.
Or can be stored in the refrigerator

Spicy lemon pickle goes well with Curd rice and other tiffin items.

Other pickle recipes you might like to try

Maangai thokku [ Mango pickle ]

Avakkai - mystyle

Kothamalli thokku -Coriander Pickle

Thakkali thokku - Tomato Pickle

Nellikkai urugai - Amla Pickle

Ponderosa Lemon Pickle [ Citron pickle ]

Recipe Index