Winter can be so gray, sometimes it's nice to have something a little bright in the kitchen. Preserved lemons not only add a cheerful yellow, but they add brightness to the flavor of things like chicken, fish, and rice dishes. Preserved lemons are a trademark of North African, particularly Moroccan cuisine. They are salty and tangy and you can use them anywhere you might normally use lemons for a little extra zing. To do them properly, you will need a month or so to spare, so make sure you decide to make them before you get all impatient to eat them. Once they are ready, it is suggested that they be rinsed off prior to using as they are quite salty.
Making preserved lemons is quite easy, and there are recipes all over the internet for them. At it's most basic, all you need is lemons and salt. Let the lemons hang out in the salt and lemon juice for about a month and they are ready to go. My lemon recipe is from the book Well-Preserved. If you want to be more complex, you can add spices. The spice mix can be of your own devising, but there are also many suggestions and recipes on the internet. Since mine came from a book, I've taken the liberty of searching out some nice looking recipes that readers can try if they don't have a recipe of their own:
FoodGal's Meyer lemon recipe (Meyer lemons were the type of lemon suggested for use in the recipe I used. Meyer lemons are a bit more thin-skinned and also juicier. You can use regular lemons as well but you may need to use more to get the right amount of juice)
David Lebovitz's Moroccan lemons (This recipe gives some nice suggestions for spice combinations)
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