Sunday, June 6, 2010

Love and Lemons

There will be a lovely village wedding in July.  Kim and I are doing what we envision an old Tuscan style wedding by way of a Provence celebration held in Corrales would be like.  A long table in the garden, for a hundred people, bread and wines in carafes on the table, Moroccan candlelit lanterns in the trees for dancing under.  One of the dinner choices will be roasted salmon with North African spices and pickled lemons.  I've already had dinner tonight-but just thinking about that salmon makes my mouth want it!  I'm going to cook it over coals because I love the smokiness and I've already begun the pickled lemons.
Siddig's beautiful mother Gloria first showed me how to do these.  What an interesting accomplished woman she was, and I was always slightly in awe of this woman who left England in the 60's to go to the Sudan on a vacation that ended up as a life. Or one of her cat lives, anyway.  Once she saw Siddig's father on the dock, as she described it to me, she was done.  In love.  Not so easy in those times, marrying a black man and folding into a lifestyle that has a built in distrust for outsiders. But she lived there in love and left with love and had all the experiences from that time dancing around her at all times like fairy lights. I got to learn all sorts of things- the proper names of things in the garden, North African cooking techniques, and how to gluttonously eat the first asparagus of the year-a whole plate of it- as lunch with ice cold wine and nothing else.
So, in case you want to do these lemons, wash about 3 lemons that will fit snugly in a jar.  Run the jar through a dish washer to sterilize it [or boil it].  Fill the bottom of the jar with course salt and make two cuts in the lemons, but leave them in tack at one end.  Fill this opening in the lemon with salt, at least a tablespoon full, and stuff it into the jar.  Repeat with the lemons till you have a tight fit, and cover them with lemon juice.  Screw the top on and leave in a dark place for at least 6 weeks.  The lemons will last about a year, and of course if you use one out of a jar, refrigerate the rest.  When you use the lemon in a dish you rinse the salt off of it and you can use just the rind or both the fruit and the rind.  Chicken with olives and pickled lemons is a wonderful use for these as well.  Gloria would be very pleased.

10 comments:

  1. As an addendum, I also added bay leaves and cinnamon sticks to my lemons-this is the first time I've tried it, but I'm thinking it will be wonderful.

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  2. Bay leaves? Interesting choice. Cinnamon I can understand.

    What about Oregano and Garlic? Give it a Greek homage.

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  3. Forgive my ignorance, but what will the lemons taste like with what you added? Sounds wonderful, and I am curious.

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  4. I am curious too, because lemon with salt and spices look like something unusual :)

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  5. Salt would cut the acid and bring out the lemony flavour. Still not sure about the bay leaf though.

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  6. Bay leaf adds a depth of flavor-when I steam artichokes I add lemon, bay leaf,garlic,salt and peppercorns and its wonderful.Also, its used in brines so I think its going to work.

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  7. It sounds like something very tasty. I should try it :)

    My mother adds bay leafs and pepercorns when she cooks potatoes with bacon. I like it very much. And I like this taste.

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  8. Do you just seal after filling, or do you need to boil them in the canner to get a seal?

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  9. No, no need to boil. Just leave them in a dark place.

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  10. the lemons were fabulous! And weirdly, the cinnamon and bay leaf flavor didn't come through at all. Next time, I won't bother I think.

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