Sunday, September 19, 2010

Lemon Tree



We have emptied out our lemon tree and these are the results. Or rather, the beginnings of the results.

On the left, the zest of all the lemons, sitting in Everclear. After a month or so, I'll add syrup (2 cups of water boiled with 2 cups of sugar), strain it and bottle it as Limoncello. Apparently the BevMo lady said she'd sold three bottles of Everclear on Saturday. 'Tis the season, apparently, to be making Limoncello as Christmas gifts.

On the right, lemons cut into eighths and salted, and then covered with the juice of the remaining lemons. Leave this to ferment for a week, then transfer to the fridge for another month and you have Preserved Lemons which can be used as an ingredient in stews, particularly North African recipes like tagine. Preserved lemons are nothing like fresh lemons - they have a much milder taste.

The problem with both recipes is the waiting a month or more to sample the results thing. Oh, and the waiting six months for more lemons on the tree.

2 comments:

Mike said...

As a child, I had a Ginger Beer Plant, which was much more fun. Here's an arbitrary recipe. There are two key details:
The plant grows exponentially, doubling in size every week.
The bottles receiving the ginger beer need screw caps, and after fermentation, should be opened (or detonated) outside.

Also: I'm claiming "Tis the Season to be Limoncello" as a Zappa reference.

Lyle Hopwood said...

Ooh, I love ginger beer plants. I used to do them many years ago. And yes, a batch with screw caps did explode once.

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