Lemon & Chilli Pickle

A great way to use up chillies and lemons! This pickle is lovely on bread or crackers, mixed into quark or ricotta, added to stews, pastas, etc. An incredibly versatile paste, indeed!
12 lemons (chopped finely)*
20 chillies (deseeded)

Roast the following spices individually:
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp black mustard seeds
10 cardamom pods
1 tsp fenugreek seeds

Chop 10 cloves of garlic. Then grate 2 tbsp ginger.

Heat 5 tbsp oil and cook garlic, ginger and leaves of 3 sprigs of curry leaves for a few minutes.

Add all ingredients plus 1 cup of white wine vinegar to pan.
Simmer until everything is cooked and it turns into a thick paste.
*I didn't chop the lemons finely, but into biggish chunks according to recipe. I had to scoop the lemons out to blend to a paste. The second batch I made, I had finely chopped lemons and they cooked beautifully. But the paste was chunkier.

Fill into sterilised jars. Enjoy!

Preserving beetroot?

I have just pulled all our root vegetables and now I have to do something delicious with them.

I'd love to preserve the beetroot, but cannot find any good recipes. I don't want to make a relish or pickle, just preserve them.

How would you do that? Cook, peel, then slice them, then put in jars with favourite preserving liquid? Or uncooked, then topped with liquid and put in preserver? What liquid do YOU use?

Uhm..not sure I should mention that - but the end product should taste as close as possible to the tinned product. Arrgghhh... I said it. A slight vinegary taste. Not too much. My excuse is that the other gnome prefers it that way. Sad, I know. ;)