Nimmakaya pachadi (lemon pickle)

About this pickle

Nimmakaya pachadi is the pickle for curd rice. Lemon pieces are cured with salt, green chilli and ginger until the peel softens and the juices turn into a thick, tangy brine. The taste is sour and salty before it's hot. Green chilli and ginger give a lively, green kind of heat rather than the deep red heat of our mango pickles, and it sits at 2 of 3 on our chilli scale. Because the peel stays in, every piece has a light bitter edge, which many people like. On our Hyderabad meal menu, curd rice comes round on Monday and Thursday lunches, and this is the jar we'd reach for alongside it. Lemon pickle is made all over India; ours leans on green chilli and ginger to keep it bright. A small piece goes a long way, so a 250 g jar lasts longer than you'd expect.

How to enjoy

• With curd rice: one piece of lemon and a little of the brine, mixed in a mouthful at a time.
• Beside a plain khichdi or dal rice when the meal needs something sour.
• Chop a piece finely and stir it into poha or upma just before serving.
• With lemon rice or pulihora, for people who like their sour doubled.