When Life Hands You Lemons – preserve them!

On one my family trips, I lucked out into snagging a bag full of Meyer lemons. In fact, I had more than I could use (that also applies to cookbooks).

I thumbed through Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and came across Preserved Lemons. I also had a cut-out from Food & Wine for Lemon Confit so rather than following one recipe to the letter like a sensible cook would do, I combined the two.

The F&W version is kosher salt (wow, 5 cups), sugar and lemons; the Bittman version sounded a bit more intriguing with his addition of spices, besides I didn’t have 5 cups of salt to spare.

About 3 pounds of lemons, preferably organic and unwaxed quartered lengthwise

• About 3/4 c. kosher salt
• Half 3-inch cinnamon stick
• 2 or 3 cloves
• 1 star anise (I omitted)
• 2 or 3 black peppercorns
• 2 cardamom pods (I used green pods from the Boise Coop’s bulk bin)
• 1 bay leaf

Sterilize the canning jar and lid. Sprinkle a 1/4 inch layer of salt across the bottom of the jar. Layer quartered lemons in the bottom, sprinkle with salt and spices and continue to layer – like the world’s most sour lemon parfait. When the jar is about 3/4 full squeeze the remaining lemons onto the lemons in the jar, seeds and all.

Set on the counter and vigorously shake once a day for 7-10 days (this was a blast for my daughter). It will start to bubble and the dried spices will swell.

Put the jar back in the fridge and cure for another week before using.

I rinsed and patted them dry before using.

 

Ah, notice the sippy cup and aerolatte frother in the background? A mother’s life – fueled by frothy coffee.

Juice forming.

 

Okay, but now what to do with them?

• Combined zaatar and chopped lemons and roasted broccoli – a shocking hit with the 5-years and under crowd.
• Used them in a salad dressing with shallot, Dijon mustard and a mix of olive and flax oil.
• Chopped them and mixed with olive oil and parsley to use in salads and as a topping for lamb stew.

And just when I was about to post this – The Kitchn swooped in and stole my scoop yesterday! Too bad I love The Kitchn so much, otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend their How to Preserve Meyer Lemons article. Kidding. I couldn’t live without them.

Also see Three Clever Sisters’ attempt at preserving lemons.