How-to Make Preserved Lemons

Along with the gluten-free cooking demo I hosted on Saturday night at Surfas, I had the pleasure of hosting a hands-on preserved lemons workshop this weekend at the Patchwork Show Edible Edition in Costa Mesa and it was so much fun! It was a packed house. My only regret is that I didn’t stop to take some photos of everyone working on their jars of preserved lemons. It was so fun for me to look out and see everyone getting their hands dirty and learning to do make something new. Not a single person there had ever made preserved lemons!

For those that were are the workshop, these are the instructions for what I taught you on Sunday, thanks again so much for coming. For those that couldn’t make it to the workshop, here is how you easy it is to make preserved lemons. It is really this simple.

I prefer to work with a 16-ounce or quart-sized wide-mouthed jar when I can, but they just aren’t always available at our house, I literally use jars for everything. So, these measurements are for one 12-ounce jar. Adjust your quantities as needed for different sized jars or multiples. Additionally it should be noted, the amount of salt and the number of lemons is just an approximation. It doesn’t have to be exact and it will depend on the size of your lemons.

By the way, you can also add spices to your preserved lemons such as, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves, coriander, dried peppers, cardamom, etc. Read the rest of this entry »