WHAT ARE PRESERVED LEMONS?

So I used to import these.  However they didn’t sell well so I had to discontinue the line.  This was frustrating because pickled lemon is awesome.  But luckily they are very easy to make at home.  And they have so many different uses in cuisine.  The whole science of preserving highly perishable, warm weather items dates back to the days when everyone dropped dead around 30.  If you were on on a boat in the middle of the ocean, or a log cabin in the dead of winter, pickling was as close as you could get to having fresh fruit a.k.a. not dying of scurvy.

SUGGESTIONS WHEN MAKING PRESERVED LEMONS

• Can you Pickle Fruit?

Preserved lemons are a staple in Morcoccan cooking.  Once you’ve tried them you’ll want to put them in everything. These lemons are easy to make and keep on hand. They’re equally delicious whether you use traditional lemons of Meyer Lemons.

• Do Sour and Salt Go Together?

Pickled lemon lends a sour, salty dimension to your dishes.  They are particularly delicious in stews and pilafs–without the throat scraping bite of vinegar. Of course, if you are of the mind that a “pickle” has to include vinegar, then you might not think preserved lemons fit the bill, since their brine is made from salt. This is a common technique in non-western pickling an one that’s worth a try–in the same way that kosher pickles can either be vinegar or salt based.

• Mandala Tips – For more on pickling check out our post here or for a spicier way to pickle lemons, check out our recipe for Indian Lemon Pickle

WHAT PAIRS WELL WITH PRESERVED LEMONS?

Look, pickles are just fun.  They bring a vibrant flavor to any dish that is very difficult to replicate.  Sure there are assholes all over the place who make cheap, crappy ones that don’t taste very good.  That doesn’t mean that you don’t like pickles.  It means that your good taste has been repressed far too long.  Stumbling across a good pickle, for me, is like when you’re walking in downtown New York City in winter.  After throwing away stale pretzel after stale pretzel, you find that one pretzel vendor who doesn’t pawn a rock hard pretzel off on you.  So if you like the taste that a pickled lemon brings to your dish, you really can’t go wrong adding these to your dish.  Tagines often use these in recipes because of their ability to stand up to other strong, spicy flavors. (written by Chef Stef)