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Preserved Lemons
Sep. 20th, 2015 01:26 pmThere's nothing easier than preserved lemons and I'm ashamed that I ever shelled out $10 a jar for these things. Here's what you need: sterilized jars, lemons, salt + time. You can fancy it up, but that's the most basic version. And? If you find you have a few extra wedges of lemon and you have a jar going, you can shove 'em in there and reuse the brine for about a year. The brief mention they get in Sandor Katz' Art of Fermentation groups them with other brined/lacto-fermented pickles, and the nature of the sourness does change with time. Like sauerkraut the salt pulls the needed liquid out of the lemons and you don't really need to add extra.
The Ball Complete Book of Canning, Preservation Kitchen, and Well Preserved all have recipes. Interestingly, the Ball Book has a spiced version, the others are plain. I also found this one on Epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/
My Beloved presented me with a gallon bag of lemon wedges left over from a catering event and I'm going to brine those suckers with the Epicurious recipe (going light on the cloves) and give them out as gifts.
What can you do with preserved lemons? Other than adding to various North African and Middle Eastern dishes as called for, I've used them in lieu of fresh lemon zest in stews, marinades and dressings where I thought the extra salt wouldn't be a problem. The addition of the spices might narrow the uses a bit, but then again, they'll give an interesting flavor hit to anything you add them to.
The Ball Complete Book of Canning, Preservation Kitchen, and Well Preserved all have recipes. Interestingly, the Ball Book has a spiced version, the others are plain. I also found this one on Epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/
My Beloved presented me with a gallon bag of lemon wedges left over from a catering event and I'm going to brine those suckers with the Epicurious recipe (going light on the cloves) and give them out as gifts.
What can you do with preserved lemons? Other than adding to various North African and Middle Eastern dishes as called for, I've used them in lieu of fresh lemon zest in stews, marinades and dressings where I thought the extra salt wouldn't be a problem. The addition of the spices might narrow the uses a bit, but then again, they'll give an interesting flavor hit to anything you add them to.
