On 4/26/2010 8:26 PM, gloria.p wrote:
>
> After a trip to Morocco earlier this year I have begun to cook a variety
> of Moroccan and middle eastern dishes.
>
> One of the ingredients called for occasionally is preserved/pickled
> lemon. Over the weekend, I started a batch.
>
> The recipes call for cutting the washed lemons into quarters to within
> 1/2 inch of the stem end so they don't come apart. You then pour about a
> tbsp of sea or kosher salt into the cut and stuff the lemons into a
> sterilized jar, pressing them in as far as they will go. The full jar is
> then partially filled with the fresh squeezed juice of a couple of
> lemons. As the lemons "cure" they give off a lot of juice and taker up
> less space.
>
> I started with a quart and pint jar, transferring from the small jar
> into the large one as they settled. After a month they will be ready to
> use and should be refrigerated. Most recipes call for just the rind,
> rinsed of salt and chopped or cut into shreds. They will supposedly
> keep for a very long time.
>
> gloria p

We used to buy lightning closure two liter jars of preserved lemons from
Lebanon in Saudi. One type was the salted ones and the other they were
preserved in honey. Both were tasty in various dishes.

In Sana'a, Yemen we would just put fresh lemons on the kitchen counter
for a day or two and they would dry up quickly. IIRC the humidity there
was about 6 or 7 percent. We lived at 8200 feet in what looked to me
like an extinct volcano or possible a glacier cirque, mountains all
around. Took me a couple of months to get used to walking around there
without huffing and puffing.