Sunday with Marlena Spieler

Pickled/Preserved lemons are a big part of our culture.  It is made in a myriad of ways. Lemons are chopped up and preserved in plain salted water  or we add a few spices to it as well. We have been making Manisha’s lemon pickles for the past few years and we were proud to feature it at the Slow Food Nation two years ago. After which, Lynn gave me a jar of preserved lemons which was fantastic.  We just rinsed and ate them.

This week was extremely busy and we hardly cooked. When Eileen dropped by to see me at my cooking class, she brought some home grown Meyer Lemons, we were inspired to make some preserved lemons. They are so easy to make that it does not call for a recipe. Marlena’s recipe is even simpler than this one, simply salt, lemon juice and some boiling water. What can one do, if the hand has a mind of its own and starts throwing a few spices into the bottle?

Lemons – 6-8

Cardamom – 4

Cloves – one to two studded in each lemon

Cinnamon – 1 small stick

Fenugreek Seeds – ¼ tsp

Whole Black Pepper – 1 tsp

Fennel seeds – ¼ tsp

Lemon juice – 2 T

Sea Salt – roughly ¾ cup

Place a thin layer of salt in the bottom of a clean jar

• Wash and clean the lemons thoroughly
• Cut the ends of the lemons and start cutting a cross into the lemons, but don’t go all the way through
• Pack salt into the lemons and you can pierce a clove or two on the sides of each lemon and place it in the bottle.
• Finish by drizzling lemon juice on top and all the spices.

You can start using the lemon in roughly 20 – 30 days, Store it in a cool dark corner of your pantry, It can be used in salads, flavoring rice, in a lot of Moroccan dishes or like us eat it as is.

Eileen had made some Doro Wat and Mel some awesome looking Chicken. Go take a look!! We just realized we don’t have a pickles category on our website Hmm, we have to make some pickles this year!