Preserved Lemons

As previously mentioned, we're absolutely drowning in lemons at the moment. From somewhere, and I honestly couldn't tell you where, the idea of making preserved lemons appeared. Never mind that I had not idea how they happened, much less what to do with them. Give anything a go once, right?

So, armed with the very simple recipe above, away I went. Now, I didn't actually read the recipe very well, so here's what I did...

1. Take largest jar I could lay my hands on - an Indian sauce jar, big, but not the litre size they suggest. Probably just as well.

2. Raid lemon tree for the smaller lemons, as they'll fit happily into my jar. Also for approximately five nice big lemons for the juice.

3. Wash and dry lemons.

4. Ignoring the part about cutting the bottom flat, I cut each lemon into quarters, without quite cutting all the way through.

5. I then proceeded to stuff the lemons with coarse rock salt, a messy process and one not helped by the fact my hands are covered with small cuts after the rosebush wrestling the day before. Ow.

6. Cram lemons in jar, I made three fit which is plenty for something I'm not actually sure how to use.

7. Cover with more salt, and fill jar with lemon juice.

8. Seal, label and store. Seeing as I neglected to naff about freezing and thawing the lemons before I dunked them in the jar, it seems it will take about 3 months for them to soften, which I presume is the aim.

So now, I have three months to work out what to do with them. Preliminary investigation suggests that it's the skin I'm interested in, not the rest. I have no clue.