Today I wanted to make some preserved lemons. I don’t know how they taste, but I’m curious.
You only need two ingredients to craft this thing:
- Lemons
- Salt
- Black pepper (optional)
- Dry bay leaves (optional)
The quantities are not important, use your common sense my friend.
And here are my precious lemons. At first I wanted to preserve half of the lemons in salt and half in sugar, but I didn’t buy enough 😬
Obviously we have to wash the lemons and then cut off the ends.
There are many ways to do this, but in my case I cut them in slices of about 1 centimeter. I boiled the lemons for 3 minutes to ensure they are very clean. This step is optional btw.
I used a small pot, so I had to do this step in two batches 😅
Once you have your lemon slices, it’s time to pour them into a container. In my case I used a plastic one, but you could use a glass jar.
I used an alternating pattern: first salt, then lemon, then salt again, and I sprinkled some black pepper in between. Don’t worry about it too much, because we’ll mix them up at the end.
Then I added the water where I boiled the lemons to make sure all of it is submerged.
Ideally you should add more fresh lemon juice, but I didn’t have enough lemons.
These lemons should be ready in one or two weeks. From then, put the container in the fridge and they should be good for up to 6 months.
I promise to make a follow-up blog when they are ready.
How to use preserved lemons?
Preserved lemons are an ingredient. I’ve read that preserved lemons are good for brightening the flavor of stews and soups, but I want to use them in pasta and chicken dishes.
~Calaverin ☠️