The first time I did this recipe I made it in the 1 pound quantity. This time I did 5 lbs at once and simply multiplied the recipe.
Preserved Lemons, Maghreb-style
Ingredients
1 pound lemons **Tigress recommends Meyer lemons but I rarely see them. Regular lemons worked fine for me**
pinch
saffron
1
teaspoon Aleppo pepper (or Turkish, or cayenne powder, or paprika) **I used paprika**
2 small
bay leaves, or one large
3/4
tablespoon sugar
4 1/2
tablespoons sea salt
1 very
clean & very dry 3/4 or 1 quart glass jar
Directions
Since the lemons I used weren't organic I gave them a good scrubbing with soap, water, and a soft brush, then rinsed and dried them. Don't forget to go pull all those annoying little stickers off!
Cut
lemons in quarters longways and remove the pips. I cut over a glass pie plate to catch the juice. I also remove the center membrane of each quarter which gives me better access to the pips.
When all the lemons have been cut and seeded, gather up the trimmings and squeeze to remove any juice then discard.
In a really large bowl or tub, toss the
lemons with the spice mixture and make sure they are well coated.
Next, start packing the lemons into the jar, strongly pressing down on them as you go to release the juice. When the jar is about half full drop in a handful of the salt/spice mixture from the bottom of the coated lemons bowl and add the bay leaves.
Continue packing and pressing the lemons into the jar until it's full. Pour in any juice collected from cutting the lemons. If you have any salt/spice mixture in the bottom of the bowl, throw another handful on top. The juice should come at least 3/4 of the way up the lemons. If you don't have enough top it up with a little more freshly squeezed or bottled lemon juice.
Set the jar in the sun for a week to ten days, shaking it daily. If the jar doesn't leak alternate days standing it upside down with upright.
One Week Later...
The salt has pulled the lemon juice out of the quarters and the lemon juice has dissolved all the salt it can hold.
Close up you can see what's left of the undissolved salt and the grains of the paprika.
The lemon flesh is not the object of this exercise, it's the rind we're after. To use, pull the rind away from the flesh and rinse it free from salt. Mince the rind and add it to curries, sauces, as an ingredient in marinades and vinaigrettes, add it to salads both green and fruit, sprinkle over chicken and fish, serve it diced on the side as a condiment. Or if you love citrus like I do, nibble it like a pickle!
No comments:
Post a Comment