Home Made pickles - Lemon

I wanted to upload the picture of a batch of lemon pickle I made some time back. I started making pickles on my own while in Cyprus. Lemon was an obvious choice in the haven for citrus fruits. Kypro! It all happened because Srinath's friend lived in a private villa and the landlord had an abundant harvest of lemons that season. She came up and asked me to prepare her a jaadi of lemon pickles. I began, and ended up making seven large batches for other friends. They loved it. Here is the picture of one of the many jars of pickles I made in these six years.

 

The recipe is pretty basic and conventional.

• We start with washing and drying lemons for slicing them into eight or 4 equal pieces (based on the size of the lemon)
• keep aside two lemons for the juice for the lime pieces to soak
• Sliced pieces are marinated with salt and turmeric and left to soak in juice (of two lemons) in an air tight container. 
• After five to six days we spread this mixture onto a tray or a plate to sun dry. 
• Once the water is almost dried out and lemons are decently soaked, (takes three days generally) 
• Temper the mixture using an oil of your choice (sunflower / olive /  til). 

Lemon pickle doesn't go well with garlic. It is better to temper them without garlic. This is when you add  required amount chilli powder. Tempering would require mustard seeds, methi seeds and asafoetida. (just eye ball the quantity depending on the quantity of lemon used). For example, if you have two cups of lemon mix, 1 tsp each of mustard and methi seeds and 1 pinch of asafeotida would be good.

Lemon pickles are easy to make and just need a little bit of elbow grease. They taste wonderful with kanji-vallam or a simple thayir sadam. Stuffed parata and kulcha taste great with lemon pickle. A small bite of lemon pickle with "vepamboo " (neem flower- dried) rasam and sadam. tastes great. Weird! believe me, the combo tastes yummy. Lemon actually sets off "vepamboo".'s subtle bitter flavor. This is particularly when I am recouping from fever or cold. Just try it. It tastes yummy!

Vegetarian /Vegan Biscotti for srinath's bday

Having missed baking a cake on Srinath's bday, I baked a batch of double chocolate, raisins and almond biscotti for him. Couldn't click pictures of the entire batch and clicked only these crumbs. No complaints, it is a huge compliment for the Chef/cook that the dish was appreciated. Right!

My baking inspirations come from two women: Giada and Paula Deen (courtesy: Food Network). I substitute a lot of things to turn my home productions into true vegetarian delight. That means minus the egg or egg substitutes. I am ok with the texture and feel of my baked goodies and never used eggs in my recipes.

Coming to the Biscotti made at home:

This is a double chocolate raisins and almond biscotti (means twice baked in italain). I first baked a square cookie using my standard eggless recipe. The dough needs to be stiff enough to be shaped as a square or a long bread. Feel free to use your hands. After a first round baking at 375F until done, let it cool for half an hour. Then, cut slices of the "cake" and lay it out on a baking sheet and bake it at 350F for another 8 minutes. Perfecto!

Srinath's bday - Updates from my kitchen

I wish I was stronger and healthier. I am loosing my patience and am not quite happy about it. the worst part, I am loosing interest to even enter my kitchen. Not a good sign, for I believed that I was born to experiment with food. I hope that it is just a phase and wont last long.

It was srinath's bday yesterday (he shares it with my amma :-) ). I am a stay-at-home -wife (cant think of any other euphemisms as of now! ). I make it a point to provide srinath with three hot meals and tea with snacks (with my state, it is an effort. But that's the least i do :( . I generally bake a cake or at least make some dessert but missed it yesterday. I am disappointed. But will make it up with a cake baking session over the weekend. Haven't thought about the type of cake yet but I am planning to make it more elaborate this time. I read about Ginger snap cookies on AT - Kitchen and am going to try it (mine will be egg less).

Yesterday's menu included : Jeera Mutter Rice, (chow chow, beans, yellow and red capsicum) mixed veg koorma, Jeera Aaloo (with onions) and cucumber raitha and of course appalam. Pooja brought in some really yummy kheer the previous evening so I skipped making payasam (guilty!).

Srinath had some idli and coconut chutney (both from the fridge) for dinner while I was too sick to get up. I don't like it when special days turn out too drab. It may be my depression talking, but that's all for now before I make this post too boring and cynical. cya!