No
word yet on a delivery date for our household goods. At least once every day for the
past week or more, I have a moment of complete and overwhelming frustration at
being in life limbo and my total inability to do anything to change that. This
is usually rapidly followed by an internal talking-to about my first world
problems and an attempt to focus my attention elsewhere, on things that I can
control.
This
past weekend, my displacement activity was an afternoon in the kitchen, focused
on cooking projects that I could carry out with the TUK’s limited resources: a
batch of skillet jam for Miss B’s morning toast; a batch of roasted rhubarb
(plus strawberries) for my morning yogurt; a tray of cinder toffee, drizzled with
chocolate and boxed up as a hostess gift for a lunch invitation for the
following day (more on this later); and two jars of preserved lemons.
Preserved
lemons are a great project to undertake when you’re itching to can something,
but the circumstances aren’t auspicious. At the moment, I don’t have a pot deep
enough to water-bath can anything. Nor is it exactly high season for cannable
produce in Canberra right now, what with it being the last month of winter and
all. But citrus is definitely still in season – I got 2 kilos (~4.5 lbs) of
various kinds for about AUD $5 last week at the famers’ market – and preserved
lemons require exactly two ingredients: lemons and salt.
Perhaps
even more appropriately for my current situation, preserved lemons also require
a third, less tangible element: time. Recipes generally recommend that you let
them do their thing (steep? brew? pickle? ferment?) for at least 3 weeks before
using. So this project, in addition to giving purpose to a weekend afternoon
and preserving a fruit at the height of its quality, is also an investment in
my own future – a physical manifestation of the hope that, by the time these
lemons are ready to use, I’ll be back in a kitchen of my own, settling in to
the next phase of this transition.
Preserved
lemons
All
of the recipes I looked at included complicated instructions for slicing into the
lemons to get salt into their insides while keeping them intact. Since I immediately
screwed this technique up on my very first lemon, I made the executive decision
that quartering the lemons wouldn’t dramatically alter the chemical process
going on here, or the taste of the finished product. Plus, it made them easier
to cram into the jars.
8
lemons, unwaxed if possible
2
cups/~12 oz/360 g of kosher/cooking salt
Have
available 1 or 2 clean jars for storing the lemons. Avoid metal lids, as these
could corrode from the salt/acid concentration.
Wash
and dry the lemons, scrubbing skins if necessary to remove any grit or dirt. Put
salt into a medium-sized bowl. Cut the lemons into quarters and toss in the
salt to coat, then stuff into the jars, pressing down on them to release the
juice. Try to extract enough juice to cover the contents of the jar(s); once
you have filled up the jar(s), sprinkle over 1-2 Tbsp of salt as insurance.
Close
the jar(s) and store in a cool place, away from direct sunlight, for at least 3
weeks. Turn the jar(s) occasionally to redistribute the juice and salt.
Stay
tuned for updates on how mine turned out - and what I do with them.
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