Preserving Lemons

[LaFlaca]

Bit overwhelmed with lemons here. And I hate seeing them go blue and fluffy so I set to and found a way to preserve them. Anyone else tried Hamad m´rakad? (I think that is right) Salt plus lemons and a few cheapskate Kilner jars from the China bazaar.

All summer, I have been dropping chunks of these into drinks, food etc. Ace. Cannot imagine why this is not more widely practiced.

Recipe: Grab some lemons, a Kilner jar, knife and salt.

Boil jars in pan of water to sterilise them, including lids. 10-15 mins plenty. (glass plus metal works better at this point than anything plastic!!!)

Cut pointy bits off lemons. Cut a cross straight down through lemon from top, leaving 1/8" or so still attached so you can splay the lemon out as 4 quarters. Put a layer of salt in the bottom of jar (sal grueso best). Put salt into the 4 quarters of the lemon, then put it pulp down in jar. Squidge to press juice out.

Add another layer of salt into jar. Slice another lemon. Fill it with salt. Squidge in jar. Repeat until jar is full of quartered, salted lemons. Put on lid.

Leave in darkish place and each day for 1-2 weeks, turn the jars upside down, and then back to distribute salt. Then put in fridge.

After 3 weeks, these are ready but the lemons will be good for at least a year.

To use: wash under tap (or in drinking water), remove and bin the pulp (am working on a mojito recipe for this "waste"!), slice rind and put in cooking, drinks etc. Outstanding flavour. The longer you leave them, the better they get.

[swerve]

Make yourself soom lemoncillio. Plenty of recipes on Google.

[swerve]

Here's a recipe.

How To Make Limoncello

Makes roughly 4 cups
What You Need
Ingredients
10 organic lemons, washed and dried
1 750-ml bottle vodka (100-proof preferred, or 80-proof)
1 to 4 cups sugar, to taste

Equipment
Vegetable peeler (or microplane or zester)
Paring knife
1 quart jar or other similar-sized container with a lid
Strainer
Large coffee filter
4-cup measuring cup
Small funnel
2 clean 16-ounce bottles or several bottles equalling similar volume

Instructions
Peel the lemons: Use a vegetable peeler to remove the peels from all the lemons. Try to remove only the outer yellow skin and as little of the pith as possible. Trim away any large pieces of pith with a paring knife, but don't worry about trimming every last scrap.
Cover the peels with vodka: Transfer the lemon peels to a 1-quart jar and cover with vodka. Screw on the lid.
Infuse the vodka: Let the vodka and lemon peels infuse somewhere out of the way and out of direct sunlight for at least 4 days or as long as a month. The longer you let the vodka infuse, the more lemony your limoncello.
Strain the vodka: Line a strainer with a large coffee filter and set it over a 4-cup measuring cup. Strain the infused vodka through the filter. You may need to stir the vodka in the strainer if the flow stops.
Prepare sugar syrup: Prepare a sugar syrup of at least 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar — bring the water to a simmer and stir in the sugar to dissolve; allow to cool.
→ You can play with the ratios of water to sugar. Start with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar, taste the limoncello, and add additional sugar syrup gradually until you reach a flavor you like — up to 4 cups of water with 4 cups of sugar. More water will dilute the alcohol base, making a less alcoholic, milder, and smoother-sipping liqueur. More sugar will make a sweeter limoncello.
Mix the sugar syrup with the infused vodka: Pour the sugar syrup into the infused vodka. Stir gently to mix. Taste and add additional sugar syrup if desired (see above).
Bottle the limoncello: Insert the funnel in the neck of one of the bottles and fill with limoncello. Repeat with remaining bottles.
Chill and store: Chill the limoncello in the fridge or freezer for at least 4 hours before drinking. Limoncello can be kept in the fridge for up to a month or the freezer for up to a year (and often much longer!).

[luckyjim]

Fantastic in Morroccan cuisine. Used a lot in Eastern food. In Malaga market they have the small pickled lemons.

[El Cid]

I do my own as well, but I wouldn't want to put one in a G&T. Great in tagines but nothing beats a freshly picked lemon in a drink.

Sid

[katy]

Has to be fresh. We had one lemon tree in Spain which provided lemons throughout the year. Not in massive numbers but enough. I miss it.

[Nimrod]

There's always Fortnum and Mason....and Lidl for us peasants.

[El Cid]

Some lemon trees are called "Lunar Lemons" and they produce lemons all year round. They tend to be a bit big with lots of pith. Ours is a conventional tree and has a period where all the old crop (if not picked) fall off, but are replaced by the next crop in about 3 months. During that period you can still pick some green lemons which, to my taste, are even better in a G&T than the ripe ones.

As for pickled lemons, there is another, much quicker way of preparing them. You boil in strongly salted water for about 20 minutes or until the skin is soft. When cool, cut in half, remove all the pulp and pith and cover with oil. Ready to use in less than a week.

Sid