The Asian grocery down the street can have some amazing deals. This past week it was daikon (aka white radish) for nine whole cents a pound, and lemons, nine for $1. Now, I picked up some daikon because, well, why not?, but I also bought as many bags of lemons as I could carry. I love lemons, their color and acid taste, the way their juice brightens almost any dish, and the fact that they don’t even need to be fresh to be good. In fact, sometimes they are better when they’ve been preserved. On the off-chance that you too have been blessed with citrusy goodness, I include my recipe.
MOROCCAN PRESERVED LEMONS
One of the best chicken dishes I’ve ever tasted involved these savory morsels of salty sour goodness. The Restaurant Marrakech in Fez serves poulet citrone with chicken stewed to the tenderest perfection in a bright yellow potion of salty preserved lemons and olives and onions. I haven’t reconstructed the recipe but I’m working on it.
2 lemons
½ cup fresh lemon juice
⅓ cup coarse salt
1. Wash the lemons well. Cut them into 8 sections each and place them in a glass jar. Add the remaining ingredients, cover tightly and shake to combine ingredients.
2. Leave the lemons at room temperature, shaking the jar every day, for 2 weeks. Rinse lemons before using.
Note: From The Dean & DeLuca Cookbook. Recipe scales well, and once ready, lemons will keep in the refrigerator for ~6 months.
Doubled recipe in a 750ml jar. Trust me, you want to pack these in something water-tight.
/zomg delicious!
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