🍋🇲🇦 Preserved lemons 🇲🇦🍋 by @papi.mati

Preserved lemon is not something I'm used to do. I did have too many lemons at home and started to google what I could do with that though. Besides less unusual solutions like lemonade or lemon jam, I've read that I could also put it in the jars.

It's an ingredient commonly used in northern Africa, India and in Europe in Cyprus and, sometimes in southern Italy or Greece. I thought - why not to try? I don't regret at all - the taste is delicious and it works perfectly with cous cous and meat or as the surprising ingredient of some salads.

I have decided to share the recipe with all of you, hoping that you will enjoy it as much as me.

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Ingredients:

🍋 6 lemons
🍋 Laurel leaves
🍋 Cinnamon
🍋 Pepper seeds
🍋 75g of unrefined salt (perfectly sea salt or rock salt)
🍋 Boiled water

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Preparation:

1️⃣ Like with all the preserves, we start with preparing the jars. It has to be perfectly sterilized otherwise our food will be rotten and we will be forced to throw it away. To sterilize the jars, cover it with boiled water or put it in the hot Owen for 15 minutes.

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2️⃣ Now it's time to clean our lemons. Perfectly if you have organic lemons from the garden or any other place where pesticides are not in use. We will be using lemons with the skin so it's very important to keep it very clean. Bath the limons in boiled water

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3️⃣ To remove the dirt from the skin (and wax which sometimes cover limons from the shop), brush it well. I used the old toothbrush to do it, but you can use new sponge or loofah instead.

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4️⃣ Cut 4 limons. Now, there are several techniques how to do it. Some people are just cutting it in cross but without separating it totally, others cut it in halves, four or eight parts. I cut it in eight as I will be using small jars.

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5️⃣ Boil the water and while it's boiling, put all the limons into the jars. Try to keep them quite tight inside, put as much as it's possible.

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6️⃣ Squeeze the juice from remaining two lemons, making sure that your juice doesn't contain seeds. Put the juice into the jars.

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7️⃣ Now add salt, small bay leaf in each jar, two or three pepper seeds and a bit of cinnamon. If you have a cinnamon in a piece, it will work better than molded.

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8️⃣ Add boiled, hot water to the jars, covering everything with it and close the jars immediately. Leave the jars in a cold, dark place for a month. For the first week shake the jars once per day to help salt distribute equally.

Lemons are ready to eat after a month. Unopened can be stored up to one year. After opening keep in the fridge and eat in one week.

Thank you for reading,
@papi.mati

If you want to check other recipes I've published on steemit, check this link