Sweet Lime pickle

Sweet Lime Pickle in Marathi

Ingredients
12 juicy lemons (Tip 1)
1 kg Sugar (approx 4 to 4.5 cups)
3/4 cup salt
3/4 cup red chili powder
2 tsp cumin powder

Method:
1) Wash lemons thoroughly. Pat dry with a kitchen towel. There should not be any trace of water. Then cut each lemon and remove seeds. Make around 8 to 10 pieces of each lemon.
2) Put lemon pieces into a clean bowl. Add salt, red chili powder and cumin powder. Mix well. Then transfer the mixture to a clean and dry glass jar. Close with an airtight lid for 8 days.
Method 1
After 8 days, prepare a one string consistency sugar syrup (1 kg sugar + 1 cup water). Let the sugar syrup cool down. add pickled lemon pieces to the syrup. Mix well and again transfer this mixture to glass jar. Spread half a cup sugar at the top and close the jar with lid. It will take around 4 to 5 months to marinate. During this period lemon pieces will get soaked nicely in sugar syrup and salt. Also, the bitter taste of lemon skin will go away.
Method 2
If you are not comfortable with making sugar syrup, you can use sugar directly.
After 8 days, mix sugar and the pickle into a separate bowl. Then transfer it to the glass jar and close with a tight lid. Everyday, open jar and stir the pickle from the bottom. Use clean and dry spoon. Do it till sugar dissolves completely. Let the pickle mature for 4 to 5 months.

Tips:
1) Use lemons with thin skin. In India, it is very easy to find juicy lemons.
If you are in US, use limes (green color), as lemons (yellow one) have thick skin. Limes have thin yet hard skin. Therefore Boil around 2-3 liter water and turn off the heat. Put the whole limes in boiled water and cover. After an hour or so, remove limes from water. Pat dry thoroughly, so that there wont be any water. Then make pickle as per the above method.