A Good Evening and Preserved Lemons

Yesterday was a pretty fabulous day!

First, I have to share the exciting news. Well, two pieces. We got our travel documents for the honeymoon in the fiance’s email – its really coming! and then I got a tweet on my author twitter from my publisher – my book is officially up for preorder! This is very exciting! (If you’re interested, you can check out all the info at my author page – http://vanessabarger.com)

To celebrate, I made some preserved lemons yesterday. Or made the attempt. We’ll see how they turn out. I bought some eons ago to make a chicken dish in my tagine, but the ones from the store smelled like pine cleaner to me, and I wasn’t impressed enough to spend another 6 bucks on another jar of lemons. When I read online from several sources about how easy they were to preserve, I decided to give that a try and see. The chicken dish was delicious, and I’d like to try it again, without the pine taste.

So I sort of read through several recipes and then winged it.

I had the fiance buy me some Meyer lemons when he was out and about earlier in the week, and he got me four. I have the giant jar of pickling salt, so I pulled out that, and figured that one jar would be all I could get out of this.

I also remembered to put my camera next to me and take pictures! I’m very impressed I managed to do that. 😉

They were actually really juicy lemons. I topped and tailed them, after giving them a good scrub in the sink. Since I’m probably going to eat the peel, I wanted to make sure it was washed. From there, its pretty straightforward. I chose to slice these, rather than the usual process I’ve seen where you cut into quarters or cut almost all the way through in quarters and then stuff the cuts with salt. I saw one somewhere where they’d sliced theirs, and I thought that looked like a better idea for me. So I sliced these, until I got to a small enough piece that I was likely going to cut me rather than the lemon. Those bits I squeezed the juice out of and into the jar. It was probably a 1/2″ section of each of those lemons.

I layered the lemon slices with salt in the jar, and this is what is looks like. Pretty, right? And really juicy.

Couldn’t resist a second picture. I don’t even like lemons all that much and I thought it looked good.

Now its in the jar (with the new screw on caps made for mason jars that walmart now sells – fabulous) sitting on the counter for a couple days before I find it a home in the fridge for a week before we try that chicken dish again.I’m posting this as a recipe, but some things really depend on the lemons. I’ll definitely let you know how it turns out!

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Preserved Lemons

(Makes an under filled 1 pint jar)

Ingredients

• 4 Lemons
• 1/4 c salt (kosher, pickling, sea salt)
• extra lemon juice, if needed

Directions

1. Wash lemons thoroughly, then slice off top and bottom.
2. Slice lemons into thin wheels. How thin is up to you. Thinner they are, the less time they’ll take to be ready.
3. Pack the lemons into the jar, alternating with salt. As you layer, press down to release the juices.
4. Juice should come about 3/4 of the way up. If needed, add extra lemon juice.
5. Let sit for a few days on the counter, then transfer to the fridge.

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Let me know if you have any experience with making preserved lemons or if you have a great recipe to use them in!