It’s freezing cold outside today, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to hole up at home and make something yummy.  Today’s plan is preserved (or salt cured) lemons.  I made these last year and have fallen completely in love with them.  They are delicious in any sort of vegetable dish (we use them most every time we make chicken or vegetable soup) and are called for in lots of Moroccan recipes.  They’ve become a must-have staple in my kitchen.

There is a bit of a seasonal aspect to them.  They’re best made with Meyer lemons, and those are easiest to find (at least where I live) in January and February.  So this seems the perfect time to make them.  If you want to make them too, you’ll need the following things.

Meyer lemons: I’ve got about 20 here.  That’s not quite a year’s supply for us, but it was all the store had.  I’ll likely do more if the store has more next time I’m there.

Backup lemons: You need these for extra juice.  You can do this with just regular lemons if you can’t find the Meyer ones, but in my case, these will just be the supporting actors.  Be prepared for the cashier to ask what the heck you’re doing with all these lemons.

Salt: You want sea salt, and coarse-grained sea salt if you can find it.  Cheap is fine (Trader Joes, $1.49 for the canister, and you won’t actually need two), this is not the place to break out your fancy-pants pink salt from some exotic locale.

Mason Jars: I use the wide mouth (that bit is important) pint jars from Ball.  You should use whatever you’ve got on hand.  This is not a fancy full on canning/jam-making process.  It’s shoving stuff in jars.  It’s very low stress, a washed out jam jar would work if you want to do a test run without buying anything.

I’ll be back next time with the step-by-step bits so you can make them too.  Just so long as you promise to invite me over for dinner.