[Sca-cooks] Moroccan preserved lemon recipe

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Stefan wrote:
>Angharad gave us her recipe for salted lemons.
>I have a few questions, though. (no surprise, huh?)
>
>  >  a.. Wide mouth jar that will hold about 10 or so lemons, 
>depending on size of lemons.  Best to boil up some >water and fill 
>the jar to overflowing to sterilize.
>
>Are you leaving the water in the jar? Or dumping it out? Since you 
>are pouring the salt over the lemon slices later, I assume you are 
>dumping it out. If so, is there that much juice in the jar? Or does 
>the salt draw a lot of water from the lemons? How much of the jar is 
>filled with liquid when the lemons are "done"?

I'm not Angharad, but...

Dump out the water. It's just to sterilize the jars. The lemons 
themselves will produce liquid as they cure.

>  >f.. Now pour the juice you prepared earlier into the jar,
>
>Do you mean just the lemon juice, "b.. About 12 to fifteen lemons, 
>making sure to reserve a few for juice"?

Yes.

>  >  g.. When you see that the color of the lemons has changed a bit 
>and that they seem to have gone a bit limp, >they are ready to use 
>in salads. You would remove one or two quarters of a lemon and dice 
>them up and sprinkle >on top and later mix when ready to serve.
>
>Are you dicing up the entire lemon? Peel, pith and pulp? Because 
>later on you say:

Absolutely. The salted lemons transform into tasty tender 
translucence, real tongue tempters...

(well, they're not completely translucent, but all that alliteration 
and consonance sounded good, and they are tender and delicious.)

>  >When you slice a quarter or two for salads, remove the pulp and 
>return it to the jar.  It will be handy later to add >in blended 
>sauces.
>
>Which seems to say you are using just the peel and pulp. You are 
>dipping/straining the pulp out of the jar later to put into these 
>sauces? What kind of sauces would these be?

I don't know which ones Angharad means, but i can post a bunch of 
*modern* Moroccan recipes that use salted lemons.

Let me know if you like and i'll post modern recipes. Also, since 
they have become "fashionable", with a google you should be able to 
turn up "nouveau" recipes using salted lemons.

Alsoi have become addicted... uh, accustomed to a wonderful (but 
rather expensive) mustard made by a very expensive restaurant here in 
NoCal. It's made with finely diced salted lemons (more like the 
"matchhead" size used in many Chinese recipes for ginger and garlic) 
and garlic and herbs. I keep thinking i should try to make my own to 
save money.

Anahita