Lemon season is in full swing here in Cyprus, and the tree in my garden is absolutely bursting! After gifting bags of fruit to everyone I know and fueling our lemonade fix, I wanted a way to bottle up that sunshine for the rest of the year. Preserving them in salt was the perfect answer. It’s so simple to do, yet the flavor is such a game-changer, you’ll honestly wonder how you ever lived without them in your pantry!
Ingredients:
- 8-10 thin skin organic and unwaxed lemons (Eureka, Meyer)
- Lots of salt (I used pink Himalayan)
Steps:
1.To sterilize your 0.5L jar, start by washing it well in warm soapy water. Then add the jar and lid in a pot with boiling water on a medium heat and boil them 10 minutes.
2.After 10 minutes, remove carefully both the jar and the lid and place them upside up on clean kitchen towel to dry.
3.Wash scrab the lemons well.
4.Slice off the top and bottom of each lemon (let 2 aside), so they have a flat top and bottom.
5.Then stand each lemon and slice it half lengthwise not all the way through, as we want it stay attached at the base. Turn it 90 degrees and cut it again.
6.Add 2-3 tablespoons in the bottom of the jar, then add a generous tablespoon of salt in each lemon, open slightly the segments to fill in the salt, but be careful not to detach the segments.
7.Add the salt filled lemons in the jar and press them down, to release their juices, with something steady, I'm using a rolling pin.
8.Add as many lemons as you can possibly add, then cover them with the juice of the 2 lemons you kept aside earlier.
9.The lemons must be submerged into the lemon juice, you might need to use a weight to press them down. I used a small bowl to keep them down.
10.Keep them in a cupboard in your kitchen for 3 weeks. And for the first 2 weeks, gently shake the jar and turn it upside down every day.
11.After 3 weeks, store the jar in the fridge and start using it.
12.You can use the whole lemon, in stews, pastas (try my preserved lemon and oyster mushrrom pasta), salads, dressings, curries, but I prefer to use the peel since all the flavour is concentrated there.
Enjoy!
Notes:
*Be generous with the salt. It’s what keeps your lemons safe. It stops the 'bad' bacteria that cause mold from growing, while letting the 'good' bacteria thrive. These good bacteria turn the lemon's natural sugars into a mild acid that preserves the fruit and gives it that amazing, tangy flavor we love.
*It is important that the lemons are submerged into the lemon juice, to creating an oxygen-free zone where the good bacteria can preserve the fruit while the bad stuff is "suffocated."