Preserved Meyer Lemons

I may be sick of winter, fed up with snow, tired of being a hermit, but I am not yet tired of the fruits winter brings.  I love citrus.  Give me anything tart or sour and I am one happy girl. 

David Lebovitz once said that there are two kinds of people in this world, and I paraphrase here; chocolate lovers or lemon lovers.  How right that man is.  I'd like to say that I am sorry to 99% of the world, but I really don't like chocolate.  Not one little eensy, teensy bit, but give me a lemon, a lime, a grapefruit, a kumquat, a tangerine, a satsuma, yuzu, heck, even an Ugli fruit and I am happy.

Since Meyer lemon season is winding down to a close rather soon and since I have been cooking things in the Morrocan, Lebanese, Turkish, North African realm of late, I thought I would preserve some lemons.  Meyer just seemed like an interesting choice and Marcella Hazan had a nice easy way of preserving them so i thought I would give it a try.

All you need is a clean canning jar, some kosher salt, some Meyer lemons and a bit of olive oil.  I'm not going to tell you specific quantities, because it depends on the jar you have and the number of lemons you wish to preserve, but I will tell you what I did with my 10 lemons.  Six lemons were blanched for 5 minutes and then drained and left to cool.  I sliced them open, removed as many seeds as I could and tossed them in a bowl with 2/3 cup of course sea salt (or kosher if you wish). 

I tossed them around, packed them in the jar, poured over the excess salt from the bowl.  The other 4 lemons I juiced and poured into the jar.  Your goal is to almost cover your lemons with the juice.  Then I topped it off with some olive oil to cover everything.  These are now hanging out for about a week and when I walk by them, or think of it, I just shake everything up a bit.  I don't know how I am going to use these yet, but I am sure to think up something good.  Perhaps more reports later.

Comments

[Janet]

bet you the blanched lemons made the kitchen smell good!

[KT]

Yum!!!! Nigella has a fantastic recipe for spiced, oil preserved limes which I have made and it is lovely. No blanching, but there is freezing. Meyer lemons are my all time favorite- we had a bush growing up. Mmmm.

[Pieds Des Anges (Kyla)]

Yeah me neither, I don't love chocolate. Gotta get some preserved lemons up soon...

[Anna]

I bit into a preserved lemon once, not knowing what it was (and yet convinced that it should be sweet). I was not a happy camper. How does one use preserved lemons in cooking? I am not sure I have ever had them in a dish.