preserved lemons and puny carrots

And the lemon obsession continues...

Most Moroccan dishes call for preserved lemons, so I decided to have a go at making some myself. I love lemons and Moroccan flavors so this sounds like my kinda food. Armed with half of the bag of lemons from the farmer's market yesterday, this was the result:


Preserved Lemons

The basic process is:

1. Quarter the lemons and coat with salt.

2. Put a layer of salt in the bottom of a sterilised jar, layer up the lemons with a layer of salt in between each layer, and finish with a layer of salt on top. You've gotta use a lot of salt.

3. Squish down to push out the juices, and add extra lemon juice to cover everything.

4. Leave at room temp for 3 weeks, shaking once a day. I've heard that they keep in the fridge for up to a year. We like that!

Recipe originally from Hungry Tiger.

To use, you only use the rind, which will be soft and tasty. Give them a rinse if adding to a salty dish. Slice it up and add to a tagine (a Moroccan casserole). I'm going to try this recipe for Tagine of Chicken with Lemon and Olives by Julie Le Clerc. You can also use preserved lemons with a variety of styles of food. I found this list of uses from Hungry Tiger. Now I just have to wait 3 weeks until I can try them out.

By the way, we pulled up our first 2 carrots today. Although the second one's hardly much of a carrot - it's barely a mouthful! We're not quite self-sufficient yet...