An absolute killer chutney for poppadoms. Not for the incautious, I warn you. I originally made this as something of a practical joke, but it turns out to be really quite tasty. And yes, the quantities on the ingredients list below are correct.

Ingredients (Makes a largish jarful)

• 10 large green chillies
• 4 limes
• Plenty of salt
• 6oz sugar
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp asafoetida powder (take care - this stuff smells HORRIBLE uncooked!)
• Juice of 5 lemons

How To Do It

1. The hard bit of making this is to take the bitterness out of the limes. The Indians do this by leaving them on a sunny windowsill for a couple of months, but this can't necessarily be relied on in temperate Europe, so I prefer the following method:
   
   
   • Boil the limes in water for a couple of minutes.
   • Wash and dry them. Cut each lime into quarters, place them in a shallow dish and sprinkle with lots of salt (at least a few ounces). Cover and leave in a cool place for 48 hours.
   • Shake off any excess salt, cut each lime quarter into six strips and return to the dish. Cover with waterand add the sugar to make a sugar syrup.
   • Put the dish into a coolish oven (about 150C) for 20 minutes, until the syrup has thickened and the limes are just starting to turn brown.
2. Remove the heads from the chillies and chop them into slices about 1cm long.
3. Roast the fenugreek, cumin and mustard seeds until the latter starts to pop. Add the other spices and the chillies and continue to fry for a couple of minutes. Allow to cool.
4. Add the chillies with the spices to a clean, dry jar. Add the limes in their syrup and the lemon juice. Check that the liquid covers all the pieces of chilli and/or lime.
5. Seal the jar and leave for at least 2 weeks, preferably on a sunny windowsill. Serve with poppadums or cold meat to brave people.

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