Preserved Lemons, Morrocan Style

I’m taking part in My Food Trail’s cookbook challenge – a weekly program for those of us who love to buy cookbooks that end up sitting on the bookshelf for a long long time. Each week has a theme and you cook a different recipe from one of your cookbooks.

Week 1’s theme is Citrus. The first thing that came to my mind was Moroccan. I’m not sure why because I rarely cook Moroccan apart from the random Chicken with packet Moroccan spices which doesn’t really count. I do love Moroccan food though and a while ago I bought a beautiful cookbook called “Moorish” – this will be the first recipe I actually try from it!

A lot of the recipes in this book have preserved lemons as an ingredient so I thought I’d make some that I can then use later on with some more recipes.

Here is how you make preserved lemons, Moroccan style.

1.5kg thin skinned lemons

350g sea salt

1 tablespoon coriander seeds, lightly crushed

2 cinnamon sticks

2 lemon leaves or bay leaves

2 tablespoons honey

250ml lemon juice

750ml warm water

Wash and dry the lemons. Cut them lengthways into quarters from the point of the lemon to 3/4 of the way down, but leave them joined together at the base.Place them in a plastic bag in the freezer for 24 hours. This speeds up the maturing process. Defrost the lemons. Stuff the centre of each lemon with a heaped teaspoon of salt.

Arrange them neatly in a 2 litre jar, sprinkling each layer with more salt and crushed coriander seeds as you go. I didn’t have a 2 litre jar so I just used 2 smaller jars.

Stuff the cinamon sticks into the jar with the lemon leaves.

Mix the honey and lemon juice with the warm water until the honey disolves. Pour into the jar so that the lemons are completely covered. Screw on the lid and put the jar into a large pot. Pour in enough warm water to come halfway up the sides of the jar and slowly bring to the boil.

Boil for 6 minutes, then remove from the heat. Lift the jar out of the water and store in a cool, dry place for at least a month before opening. Once open, keep refrigerated.

So I’ll have to wait until next year to try out a recipe…I’ve got my eye on a lemon risotto…stay tuned!