Ingredients:

• 1 – Medium sized tender Cucumber
• 1/2 cup – Salt
• 8-10 – Dry Red Chillies
• 1 tsp – Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp – Mustard Seeds

Method:

1. Clean the cucumber, pat dry and cut into halves.
2. Remove the seeds in the middle.
3. Chop the cleaned cucumber finely.
4. Transfer it to an airtight glass bottles.
5. To that add salt and shake well.
6. Cover the lid of the airtight bottle and let the salt get absorbed well.
7. Then, the next day, drain using a dry filter and let the brined pieces of cucumber dry under the sun.
8. Do not throw away the drained salt water.
9. When it is evening or when the sunlight becomes weak, just take them back and put them back in the same salt water from which you had drained the pieces.
10. Again, the next day, filter them back and transfer those pieces onto a plate and dry under the sun.
11. Again transfer into the same water and continue this process for around 6-7 days.
12. On the last day, almost no water content will be left in the bottle or in the tender cucumber.
13. Now you need to put them back in salt water.
14. For that boil 1/2 cup water and to that add again 2 tsp salt.
15. Then allow it to cool and add this cooled salt water to the sun dried cucumber pieces and let them sit overnight in that salt water.
16. Next filter out the salt water and keep pieces.
17. Using the salt water collected, grind smoothly dry red chillies, turmeric powder and mustard seeds into a fine paste.
18. Transfer this paste into another bowl and add the cucumber pieces you have drained and kept aside.
19. Mix well. Allow them to absorb the flavour for another day or two.
20. Your sun-dried, crunchy, tender cucumber oil-less pickles without preservative is ready.
21. Enjoy them with hot rice and ghee, or with a bowl of curd rice.