This Lemon Pickle recipe was in the Guardian two or three weeks ago, and as we are not short of a lemon or two down here in southern Spain and the recipe sounded good I made some. It is fabulous. The fresh lemon flavour is complemented by the spices, which, with the juice from the lemon develop into a thick delicious sauce. It’s a marinated rather than cooked pickle, so pretty easy to make. The only difficulty is managing to leave it for two weeks before staring to eat it.

I bought some lovely tender flat green beans, and as they were in a pack I had enough for at least three meals. While searching for inspiration in my cook books I came across a recipe for the beans with a spicy lemon dressing, the ingredients for which were very similar to those of the Lemon Chutney. So today I steamed some of the beans, just enough to leave them with some bite, and added a spoonful of the pickle, then left it to marinate for half an hour, it was delicious.

LEMON PICKLE

These amounts make one large jam jar of pickle.

1 large lemon

4 birds eye chillis/ 1 large red chilli

40 ml vegetable oil – olive/ peanut/sunflower

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon nigella seeds

1 teaspoon turmeric

20 grams salt

50 ml white wine/ rice vinegar

1 teaspoon caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon asafoetida

Cut the lemon lengthways into quarters and then thinly slice the quarters across. Put them into a bowl with the whole chillis. If you have a large chilli then cut it into two or three pieces so it will fit in your jar. You can of course add or reduce the amount of chilli according to your taste. I found that one largish chilli was spicy enough without dominating the other flavours in the pickle.

Heat the oil in a small pan, and add the mustard and nigella seeds. When the seeds start to pop add them with the oil to the lemons. Stir them in well.

Add the rest of the ingredients and stir well to mix thoroughly.

Put into a clean jar and leave in a cool, not fridge cool, place for two weeks before using.