Preserved Lemon

In 1987, on a visit to what I call the Holy Land, I ate the best salad of my life.

Sitting at a small outdoor restaurant in Bethlehem, Palestine, on the West Bank, at one edge of the city’s main square, Manger Square (yes, that is the name), it arrived: no more than the largest flat-leaf parsley leaves I’d ever seen, simply dressed, with rings of shallot and slivers of lemon peel.

But not ordinary lemon peel. These were the yellow exclamation points of the thin peels of preserved lemons, something that I had not eaten before. They were terrifically delicious, slightly salty, very lemony, with all typical lemon tartness pickled away.

Preserved lemons are ubiquitous throughout the cooking of the Middle East and Northern Africa (especially Morocco and Tunisia). I am not sure why we have not taken to them; perhaps they remain strange and exotic.

But preserving lemons is easy, and they last a half year (or more), refrigerated. Their uses are legion, and they add so much more to foods and cooking than the measure of the effort taken to preserve them.

They brighten a parsley salad, needless to say, but also any acid-and-oil salad dressing that might come to mind. Their meat and rind are the spine to chermoula, the marinade and relish (especially for fish dishes) that is the chimichurri or salsa verde of North Africa. But clearly, fish and lemon are destined for each other!

In their most recognized epiphany, preserved lemons are sine qua non for any chicken dish throughout much of those same Mediterranean and Levantine countries. You will find them, also, in tabbouleh and other grain-based preparations, so they migrate seamlessly to our cooked quinoa, prepared pasta, or risotto.

In short, whenever you seek to add vibrancy, color, a bit of saltiness, or the tang of acidity to a dish, see if some preserved lemon might do the trick. I tell you that it will.

RECIPE: Paula Wolfort’s Seven-Day Preserved Lemons
From epicurious.com; Wolfort is an American cookbook writer. Makes 32 wedges.

Ingredients
4 large (about 6 ounces each) lemons, preferably thin-skinned such as Meyer or “sweet” lemons, scrubbed
2/3 cup coarse salt
1 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 5 large lemons)
Olive oil

Directions
Dry lemons well and cut each into 8 wedges. In a bowl toss wedges with salt and transfer to a glass jar (about 6-cup capacity). Add lemon juice and cover jar with a tight-fitting glass lid or plastic-coated lid.

Let lemons stand at room temperature for 7 days, shaking jar each day to redistribute salt and juice. Add oil to cover lemons and store, covered and chilled, up to 6 months.

Recipes that use Preserved Lemon:
Parsley, Shallot, and Preserved Lemon Salad

Chermoula, a Moroccan marinade or relish

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