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| Fermented Lemon Pickle, South Indian Style |
Continuing on with the fermentation series here, lemons from the garden have been undergoing the lacto-fermentation process on my kitchen counter for the last ten days. Today evening, I couldn’t wait any longer and asked amma to make the pickle for which they were being prepped!
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| Lemons fermenting on the counter – Day 10 |
Fermenting vegetables (and sometimes fruits) is a part of every culture as way to preserve seasonal vegetables, increase their nutritional potency and add a ton of flavor to food. Even geographies with warm climes year-round like India did a lot of preserving.
Sauerkraut, Kimchi, Moroccan preserved lemons, Chinese pickles, Indian pickles, Japanese umeboshi are all examples of fermented vegetables and fruits, but there is a catch. In his book, The Art of Fermentation, Sandor Ellix Katz warns us that while it would not be inaccurate to refer to fermented vegetables as pickled, all pickles are not fermented.
For eg. “Dill pickles” that are commonly found on the store shelves in the US are just vegetables preserved in vinegar as are the Indian pickles found in the ethnic Indian grocery stores. Even some of the home-made Indian pickles are not fermented at all, just cooked in oil and spices. It is important to know this difference as there are a lot of health benefits of fermentation. Katz coined a new word “Kraut-chi” for fermented vegetables for a lack of a proper word in the English language.
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| Fermented Lemon Pickle, South Indian Style |
In its simplest form, fermenting vegetables just involves submerging vegetables in salty liquid and leaving it alone to let the wild bacteria do its work. Katz, again in his excellent book The Art of Fermentation, which I regard as the bible of fermented foods, lists the following steps:
- Chop or grate vegetables
- Salt the vegetables (and squeeze with clean hands for some vegetables to release liquid)
- Pack the vegetables in a jar tightly
- Wait
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| Fermented Lemon Pickle, South Indian Style |
- 2-3 medium-sized lemons
- 3 tsp of salt
- 4 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 4 tsp red chili powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- A pinch asafoetida (optional)
- A pinch roasted powdered fenugreek seeds (optional)
- Have a clean dry glass or ceramic jar ready (avoid metal or plastic). Also, have a dry plate and knife ready
- Wash the lemons and dry thoroughly
- Chop in to 1/2″ pieces on a plate so that you do not lose any of the juice and start filling the jar as you chop
- Sprinkle a bit of salt each time you fill the jar
- When the jar is full, close the lid and give it a shake
- Leave it on the kitchen counter to ferment for a week or more (longer the better). Every now and then pick up the bottle and give it a good shake. By the end of a week most of the lemon will be submerged in liquid
- Heat the sesame oil in a pan until almost smoking
- Add the mustard seeds and when they start popping switch off the heat
- Add the turmeric and red chili powder (and asafoetida and fenugreek seed powder if using)
- Allow the foaming to subside and give it a stir
- Add the fermented lemons and mix well
- Scoop it up in to a clean dry glass jar.
If you avoid getting moisture on it by using a clean dry spoon every time, the pickle can be stored outside even for up to a year. Alternately store it in the refrigerator. The pickle will only taste better as it ages.
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| Fermented Lemon Pickle, South Indian Style |
March 26, 2017 at 2:07 am
How do you use pickled lemon?
May 9, 2017 at 5:12 am
Typically it is used as a relish on the side with any South Indian meal, especially with rice and yogurt.