Creating continues

I have so many lemons on my tree and since it’s growing in my garden I feel a sense of duty to use them all. So I made another batch of marmalade, this time with grated ginger. I don’t know that I can taste the ginger, maybe I need a lot more. Anyway, most of these end up being gifts, because I’m trying not to eat a lot of carbs – ie. toast. Although I do spread it on chicken, put some hot spices on top and toss in the oven. I also give a lot of jars away.

I love Moroccan preserved lemons. Yes, I can buy some at my local market, but they aren’t very good. Highly processed and not especially tasty. Time to make my own.

I didn’t take pictures of the process. It’s simple, cut the lemons into quarters, but not all the way through. Pack with salt and let sit for a few weeks. One of the recipes recommended adding spices, like a cinnamon stick, bay leaves and peppers. I ran out of cinnamon sticks so put in coriander or allspice instead. We shall see.

Some recipes called for covering the lemons all the way with liquid. Others didn’t, but recommend turning the jars over after a few days. My understanding is that the salt will draw out a lot of moisture.

All I could find at my market were medium sized mason jars. If this is successful, I’ll go buy larger ones. I was only able to squeeze in 4 or maybe 5 lemons in a jar. Once again, these are wonderful when cooking chicken.

Yes, friends can look forward to receiving a jar of these as well…

I am happy to say that between the marmalade and the preserved lemons I probably used 80 lemons. Not bad, but there are still plenty on the tree. It’s a Meyer lemon tree, it doesn’t produce fruit year round, just in the winter. Another thing I might do is juice a bunch of them, freeze the juice in ice cube trays and have them for the summer.