Since I started talking about onion marmalade recently, how can I get past pickled lemons now? Salting them now is not that late, you just need to wait for the result for a whole month, but pickling them, for example, quickly, is the thing!
Pickled lemons are, first of all, the Mediterranean and North Africa, it seems to me. There is no fuss with them, and do not believe those who say that imported lemons cannot be pickled, they say, you have to take lemons straight from the tree.
Believe me, in the rest of the world they perfectly pickle and pickle and do everything with imported purchased lemons.
The only but: they must be thoroughly washed. I do not know if it is relevant now for citrus fruits, but earlier, in order for them not to fade, the skin was covered with a thin layer of paraffin or some other wax-like substance. Probably, from this it went that citrus fruits with skin cannot be cooked ...
So we arrange a bath day for the lemons: we bathe in a hot ode with a brush, rinsing at the very end, again, with hot water. Some of the bravest and most hygienic people, as far as I know, wash lemons with soap. BUT I'm not risking it - because the peel of citrus fruits manages to absorb the soapy taste and aroma with a bang (as for me).
After the lemons are peeled, we take:
- Directly the lemons themselves - six pieces;
- A couple of heads of garlic;
- A glass of oil, ideally olive oil;
- 5-6 tablespoons (no slides!) Brown sugar;
- A spoon (coffee or tea, here for an amateur) of cayenne pepper or chili pepper, a little peppercorns, bay leaf (whoever loves);
- Coarse salt - from a tablespoon without a slide and higher, here to taste.
How we cook:
Cut the lemons into thin slices - no thicker than half a centimeter.
We clean the garlic, cut the cloves into petals.
Now we put everything in layers in a jar - sprinkle the lemons with sugar, salt and pepper, shift with garlic petals.
When the jar is full, pour the lemon juice into it - the one that leaked out during cutting, and fill it with oil. We close the lid, shake it and send it to the refrigerator for a day or two.
Then you can go to the table.
Enjoy your meal!