My friend K. is lucky enough to have access to fresh lemons, directly from the tree, and recently contacted me to ask if I had a good recipe for her to use up her surplus. And yes, yes I do. And thanks to her, as illustrated above, I also now know that I am due to make a new batch!
When we lived in Santa Barbara, L. and I walked by a lemon grove every day on the way home from school and would pick some to take home with us since it was fairly obvious that no one else was taking advantage of this citrus largesse. Once we explored every possibility that we could lemonade-wise (lavender lemonade and rosemary lemonade being top favorites, with lemonade colored with beet juice coming in a solid third), I moved on to lemon desserts and to all kinds of recipes with sugared lemon rind.
I finally got around to preserved lemons, which I had made unsatisfactorily in the past, and eventually came up with a recipe that tasted good to me and got rid of a lot of the faffing around like stuffing the lemons with salt and checking them daily for gas from fermentation, that I found off-putting in authentic recipes. I also added a few more spices to amp up flavor and now have to make this recipe about every six months or so because I use preserved lemons A LOT.
I use them, more traditionally, in tagine and other Moroccan dishes. I chop up the peel and use it on grilled chicken. fish or shrimp. I sometimes stuff some preserved lemon quarters in a chicken's cavity before roasting the whole bird in the oven, finishing the dish with a spritzing of fresh lemon juice. I add some to homemade tartar sauce with dill and serve this with poached salmon. A little chopped into couscous along with mint, flat leaf parsley and coriander tastes really nice. If you have unexpected guests, some added to sour cream along with hot sauce or Sriracha syrup, cumin and coriander makes a quick dip to be served with chips - preferably pita ones. Add some to cucumber tea sandwiches or sprinkle some over a grilled goat's cheese toastie. Jazz up plain tuna fish salad. A splash of the pickling juice in Salty Dogs, Bloody Marys or Margaritas is truly yummy. You can also add preserved lemon to salad dressings or marinades. It tastes great with steamed broccoli. It is one of those ingredients that one thinks that there is no point in buying or making because it will only be used for one particular recipe, only to find that it becomes a kitchen workhorse.
The nice thing about this recipe is that you can use the - admittedly murky looking - pickling juice again and again, once you have used up your original batch of lemons. Just heat it up to a rolling boil, pour it over well-washed organic lemon quarters and wait 4-6 weeks.
This is enough to make 5 preserved lemons but the recipe can be adapted to any amount of lemons you have on hand with no problem.
10 organic lemons, washed really well
5 Tbps kosher salt or rough sea salt NOT table salt
1/2 tsp saffron threads
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp ground coriander
3 star anise pods broken into pieces
2 tsps pink peppercorns, lightly crushed
2 bay leaves
You need a container that is just large enough to just hold your lemons, tightly packed. It must also have a really tightly fitting lid so that you can place the container upside down and not make a huge mess in your fridge. Organic lemons are imperative here because you will be eating the peel.
Quarter 5 of the lemons and pack them into the container. Juice the other 5 lemons and place the juice in a pan over low heat. If the lemons are not particularly juicy ones, juice a couple more - you want at least 3/4's of a cup of lemon juice, preferably more. You can also (though the result is not aesthetically pleasing), just juice all 10 lemons and then cut the peel and whatever else remains behind into pieces and preserve that instead of the lemon quarters.
Add the salt and all of the spices to the lemon juice and heat just until the salt is melted. Pour the liquid over the lemons and top with enough water to ensure that they are completely covered with liquid. Failure to do so will result in a moldy mess.
Put the lemons in the fridge and let marinate, tightly covered for 4-6 weeks. For the first week, turn the container over every day or so so that the spices have the chance to reach all of the lemon pieces rather than just settling on the bottom.
Once the lemons have "matured", use as directed above or send me your new uses for this surprisingly versatile ingredient.