Wash and pat dry the lemons using a cotton cloth. This step is very important as even a drop of water can spoil the pickle, ensure lemons are completely dry. Cut each lemon in half and then in to quarter. Discard all the seeds out of lemon. Next in a dry glass jar, add a layer of lemon pieces followed by a layer of crystal salt (2 tsp).

Likewise fill the bottle with all the lemon pieces and salt. Close the lid and let it rest for at least 10-15 days. Shake or mix the contents once a while. After 15 days, the lemon pieces would have shrunk and turned to pale brown. Transfer the pieces into a wide bowl.

On the day of pickling, add 1/4 cup of salt and a cup of water in to a vessel. Let it boil for about 10 minutes in medium flame which would reduce to 3/4 cup after the boiling. Let it cool down completely.

Next proceed to roasting and powdering the spices. In a dry pan add mustard seeds, with constant stirring roast it till it splutters. Followed by mustard seeds, roast fenugreek and cumin seeds also one after the other.

Next in the same pan, add oil and red chillies. Roast them too till they puff up, then switch off flame. Let all these roasted ingredients cool down to room temperature, then powder them together.

Now, include asafoetida and salt water to the mixer and grind to fine puree.

Next, pour this spice puree on to lemon pieces in the bowl. Mix thoroughly and store the pickle in a glass jar.

Let the pickle rest for few days so that lemon absorbs spice flavors. Then spicy lemon pickle is ready to serve with curd rice and paratha.

In all the steps of pickling keep the water away. Use dry glass jar, spoon and vessel. Because moisture spoils the pickle in no time.

The salt water, the roasted spices should be cooled down before proceeding to powder. This is important for long shelf life of pickle.

Roasting of spices should be carried out in medium flame with constant stirring. If the spices burn, the pickle's taste can easily ruin.

With time the lemon's bitterness reduces considerably and it tastes better and better as it gets old. So let the pickle sit for a month at least for wonderful taste.