Lemon and Dates pickle

Ingredients:

Lemon : 15 medium size (around 1200gms)

Dates : 300 gm (pitted dates- chopped)

Oil : 2-3 tbsp (ideally sesame oil, but I used Rice bran oil)

Mustard seeds -1 tbsp

Ginger - 1 big piece (chopped)

Garlic - 2 bulb (chopped)

Kashmiri chilli powder- 5 tbsp

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

Fenugreek powder- 1 tsp

Asafoetida- 1 tsp

Jaggery powder -2.5 tbsp

Sugar -1 tbsp

White vinegar- 1/4 cup

Hot Water - 1.5 -2  cup (depending on the gravy you like)

Method:

 Squeeze the lemons and keep the juice aside. In this recipe we are using the peels only. Make sure you don’t squeeze the lemons too much, its good to have little bit a juice in that peel, but remove the seeds from the peel. 😊

(You can keep the juice in the fridge or can freeze it in ice cube tray and use it later). 

Cut each half into 4 parts and to this add enough salt and pressure cook it for 1 whistle. Once pressure subsided drain the water completely from the lemon. Once water drained out add 1/4 cup vinegar and 1 tbsp sugar and give it a good mix. Keep this aside overnight.  

In a deep pan, add oil and splutter mustard seeds. Then add chopped ginger and garlic and sauté well. Once it start to change the color reduce the heat and add chilli powder, turmeric powder, asafoetida and fenugreek powder. Mix well and cook till the raw smell goes. Add hot water to this. increase the heat to medium and let the water starts to boil. Now add jaggery powder and dates. Cover it for 2-5 mins until the dates soaked in water. Now add the cooked lemon and stir it so that lemon coated with the gravy very well. Again reduce the heat to low and cover the pot with a lid. Let the pickle simmer for 10 mins or so.