Preserved Lemons

By Hklbrries

"Note: Rinse lemons before using, and be careful not to use your fingers to pull them out, as you will introduce bacteria into the jar.

Preserved lemons are like slices of the sun. Cured with salt, this condiment has many uses.

All hail the power of salt. Combine it with water and sugar, and it convinces a lean cut of pork to retain it's moisture as if it were marbled with fat. Add it to dill and peppercorns, and it transforms raw salmon into ethereal gravalax.

Pack it with lemons and juice in a jar, give it time, and it turns down the bitter volume on a pucker-inducing fruit and creates a near-jellied condiment that tastes like a salt-cured slice of the sun.

Forget lemonade. If like gives you lemons, by all means preserve them.

You don't have to find an expensive import gourmet shop to enjoy preserved lemons. Though they require a bit more planning, they're every bit as easy to prepare at home as lemonade, they last indefinitely (or at least for months), and they have many more uses, all year round.

Recipes vary; after all, salt-curing is an ancient technique. Most recipes, though, call for the lemons to be cut into wedges (sometimes left intact on one end), stuffed, rubbed, or otherwise layered with salt, then packed tight as can be, submerged in juice, in an airtight Mason jar. The jar is left in a warm, sunny spot and gently shaken once a day or so, while the rind softens and the salt draws the bitterness ouf of the fruit.

Start them tonight. Because it'll be two weeks before you can use them.

What to do then? Well, preserved lemons are a Moroccan staple, and therefore a must in the traditional stew called tagine, but they also can brighten beans, enliven grains, spark up a salad - and they're great on grilled meat or fish.

If you're ambitious, try the tagine: a meat or vegetable stew baked in a distinctive shallow dish and punctuated with preserved lemons and olives. (Suggested reading: Paula Wolfert's "Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco").

Take the Indian route, adding cardamom, cayenne pepper and sugar to the preserving jar and then using them to break up curry-flavored beans. (Suggested reading: Madhur Jaffrey's "World Vegetarian").

For something less traditional, take a cue from closer to home where Wellesley fusion-master Ming Tsai pairs preserved lemons with ginger and uses them to punch up polenta. (Suggested reading: "Blue Ginger: East Meets West, Cooking with Ming Tsai", by Tsai and Arthur Boehm).

Or, keep things simple and use the lemons to take easy-to-prepare food in a new direction and give the impression that it wasn't so easy, after all...

...Combine them in a food processor with olives, and you have a Moroccan-inspired tapenade, good for spreading and dipping into. Strips of the preserved peel pair perfectly with whole olives on a pickle tray.

What about now? Well, you can't rush the lemons, but for the patience-challenged, console yourself while you wait for a taste by appreciating the other, more visual benefit of preserving lemons. Like colorful bottles of vinegar, these jars serve as gorgeous window decoration while the lemons steep in their milky-yellow liquid, backlit by the sun, and the salt works its magic."

Joe Yonan

Ingredients

• 10 lemons, washed, dried and quartered
• Up to 2 cups additional freshly-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup salt

Details

Servings 1

Preparation

Step 1

In a sterile quart Mason jar, make a 1/4-inch layer of salt. Cover with a layer of lemon quarters, repeat with layers of salt, and continue, pressing down on lemons with a ladle to make sure they are snug. Continue until jar is packed almost full, pressing so lemons release juice. Add the extra lemon juice to cover if need be; the lemons should be submerged.

Seal airtight jar, and let stand in a sunny, warm spot indoors for two weeks. Refrigerate after opening. They will last several months in the refrigerator.