Preserved Lemons - Jeanette Smith

Ingredients

1 sterilised preserving jar with a secure lid.  Preferably a lid with rubber or plastic seals as the salt will corrode any metal.  (Covering with cling wrap under the lid helps.)

Natural sea salt

As many lemons as required to tightly fill the jar

Directions

Put 2 tsp of natural salt in the base of jar.

Wash lemons.  Place on a plate to catch any juice and cut lengthwise in quarters, but do not cut through to the base, ie leave the pieces joined.  Ease out any pips. (Don’t worry if you can’t remove them all)

Pack about 1 tablespoon of natural salt into the cuts of each lemon, then close up the lemon and place in jar. 

Repeat until the jar is full, making sure you pack tightly and press each lemon down hard before adding more.

Squeeze the juice from another lemon and pour this and any juice from the plate you have used to cut the lemons; over the lemons in the jar. 

Sprinkle with more salt and top to just overflowing with boiling water. 

Use a skewer or knife blade to carefully move lemons to ensure all air bubbles are removed from the jar and cover tightly.

Leave at room temperature for at least 4 weeks but preferably 6, before use.   After that, lemons will keep in jar for several months.   (I remove from the jar after this and freeze)  Do not worry if a white film appears on top of the jar or on the lemons; just rinse off before use.

Options:

I prefer them plain but if you wish, any (or a mixture) of the following could be layered with the lemons:

1 stick of cinnamon, 3 cloves, 6 crushed coriander seeds, 3 black peppercorns and 1 bay leaf

Contributed by Jeanette Smith, participant on the French Food Discovery Tour with Sarah La Touche