Masala Neebu Achar
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| Spicy lemon pickles, North Indian style. |
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Masala Neebu Achar
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| Rating: Easy |
| *Saftey note: You will be working with both black and red peppers. Be careful to gently mix in peppers so as not to cause dust in the air and respitory distress. Also, you will be mixing by hand, so it is imperative that you wear protective gloves. (Trust me, you do not want to discover this the hard way, as you intrepid...but rather clueless author did.) |
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Preparation time: Initial preparation time is about an hour, with just a couple minutes stirring for 10 days to distribute the spices and make sure the lemons are covered by the preservative spices. |
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Ingredients:
4 lbs. lemons (small lemons with smoother skin, rather than deeply dimpled, are best) 1/2 cup cumin seed 3/4 cup whole bara ilichi (black cardamon) 1/4 cup black pepper (or less to taste) 1/4 cup whole cloves 1/8 cup red pepper flakes 1/2 teaspoon or less of asafoetida (heeng) 3/4 cup salt 1 cup sugar 3" to 4" fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced into matchsticks |
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Procedure:
Soak the lemons for one or two days in water. This will soften the skins and make the spices soak into the pickle more efficiently. This step can be eliminated although the pickles will be better if you do this. Drain the lemons and set aside. Grind all the whole dry spices together (cumin, bari ilichi, cloves) coarsely. Throw away as much as you can of the bari ilichi husks. (Believe it or not, this is the hardest, most time consuming step...the rest of the recipe is a snap.) Add the rest of the dry spices to the mix and stir gently until well blended. Add the matchstick size ginger sticks and mix into the spice mix. Cut the lemons into eights and throw into the biggest mixing bowl, pot you have. Dump the spices on top of the lemons and mix gently by hand (with gloves on!) until the lemon peices are coated with the spice mix. If neccessary (see **), transfer to the marinating containers. Large glass or ceramic bowls or mason jars are good choices. Cover the bowls with plastic wrap or cover Mason Jars with new lids. The mix must marinate in the sun (or a sunny window) for about 10 to 14 days. Each day stir the mix throughly. (Mason Jars can just be reversed each day, top down one day, up the next.) This not only distributes the spices evenly for a good flavor, but coats all of the lemon pieces with the preserving salt. This is a fairly safe pickle in that the lemon juice is highly acidic and does not support bacteria well. As with any pickle, make sure all of your equipment is super clean. After the 10 - 14 days (real sunny days..10 is enough, partly cloudy...go for 14), transfer the pickles into mason jars or any glass jars with tight fitting lids. If already in Mason Jars, open the jars, fill the jars to the top with the pickle mix (it will have settled somewhat). The jar that isn't filled can be used first. Wipe the tops clean and tightly close again. Store on a dark pantry shelf. The pickles will be ready to eat in 3 months. They can be kept for years. They will turn darker and darker as they age. Supposedly one can keep them on a shelf even after opening, but I always refrigerate my opened jars. ** If you have mixed the lemons in a metal container, you must transfer the lemons to a glass or ceramic container (or containers) while marinating. The acid from the lemons will interact with the metal and the whole batch will taste horrible if left in metal. I have no clue if it would even be edible after that, let alone what it would do to metal cookware. |
Suggested use: Neebu Achar is used as we would use pickles or olives, sometimes along with a meal
and sometimes as part of a snack assortment. We like to have parathas (bread) fresh off the
griddle with a bit of yogurt and Neebu Achar.
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