I mad, crazy, stupid love meyer lemons so why not preserve them? Genius!

This is why not!

I am a lemon lover to the core, it's in my DNA.  My Dad loves everything lemony too, we are two lemon heads!

It is sheer torture staring at a glass jar of what were once the most beautiful, bright, juicy, sweet, heavenly meyer lemons and watch them gradually turn into limp little water-balloons!  I keep having to remind myself that it will pay off in the end.

Here's what you do...

 Grab a bag of lemons, I prefer meyer for everything.

Find a good sized jar with a tight seal.
Scrub your lemons well. I use a new toothbrush that my kind dentist regularly supplies me with.
{Thanks Doctor Martin!}

Quarter each lemon ALMOST all the way through and pack with salt.  I used up what was left of my pretty pink Himalayan Sea Salt then switched over to  regular Sea Salt. 

Pack in as much as you can.  Just use your fingers and kinda squeeze it together.  Try not to lose any juice, every drop counts!

Smoosh in as many lemons as you can fit in the jar.  My CSA box only had 4 so eventually it left a lot of extra space that needed to be filled with more salt and oil.  In hindsight I should have gone to the market and picked up a couple more.



One recipe I saw included whole star anise, a chili pepper, peppercorns etc.  I just went basic for my first go-round but I think next time I will get a bit more creative.

Now you take a wooden spoon and smash the juice out of the lemons.  Close the lid and set it aside.

The next day....more mashing.

When you have juiced them as much as possible (takes a few days) you then fill the extra space all the way to the top with more lemon juice (from the extra lemons you were smart enough to have on hand), sea salt and oil.  I used meyer lemon oil, not sure that it was necessary.  I read that sometimes the top lemon will get moldy if it is not covered all the way so take it to the top.



Once you have filled the jar all the way you do not open it anymore.  Put it in a dark cool place in your kitchen but one that you won't forget about it.  When you walk by it give it a shake to mix up the juices, salt and oil.


This is the stage in which I realized the seal on my my cute little jar sucked.  Apparently it is for fun stuff like buttons or M&M's NOT preserving lemons. I transferred everything over to a not so cute pickle jar. 

You wake and shake every day for 30 days.

{They start to look yucky, but keep the faith.}

On the 30th day you move the jar into your fridge and they are ready to use.

Pull a lemon out, rinse the salt and seeds from it and throw in in what ever you may be slow cooking that would improve with a citrusy zing.  I am so excited to try this out!  You can use the whole lemon, just the pulp, juice or strips of rind depending on what you are doing with it.  A little should go a long way.


Is it wrong to plan my next several meals based on one ingredient?  My mind is reeling!  I can put one in the next chicken I roast!  It's about time I slow cooked a bolognese or ragu sauce.  Mmmm, a nice parchment wrapped halibut. Tikka Masala! Lemongrass soup! Little rind strips in a beautiful risotto!  The pulp and juice would go great in a bloody mary!

Okay, apparently I'm playing a funky round of food jeopardy with myself.  There are a ton of recipes out there since preserved lemons are used in many Indian & Moroccan dishes but you could put it in pretty much anything.  I cannot wait to get home!

. . .
. .
.

Good Goddess! Apparently my fridge is set way too high!  I went to pull them out and this is what I found...

FROZEN preserved lemons?! Grrr....

Here's a flashy link to distract you from the above.

*** Huffington Post blurb about meyer lemons. ***

32 days later....

Isn't she beautiful?!

I was ravenous and exhausted when I got home so I decided to forgo the slow roasting of anything.  Of course I still had to try these out so I laid a half of lemon cut into thin slices over a couple of chicken breasts with some salt, pepper and a little chicken stock.  Afterwards I drizzled on a little white wine, capers and butter sauce.  I put the other half of sliced lemon in a frying pan with some french green beans and shallots. 

I wanted to see if the citrus would infuse my light dishes.  It wasn't much, merely a hint of lemon but it was enough of a tease that I just have to see what a whole lemon cooked long enough to break it down can do!  I'll be sure to update. :)

Gnocchi Gnight!

My fantastically rad childhood friend Jimmy has saved me from the boredom of many a high school class, we almost took flight in a little old convertible, he taught me how to ski (sort of), and now he has instructed me in the art of making gnocchi from scratch!
I love this man-boy and his trusty dog Holmes!

What you need:

A bag of potatoes (3lbs - 5lbs)
A potato ricer (looks like a big garlic press)
4-6 Eggs (we used 2 each)
Flour
Nutmeg (optional)
A knife
A fork
A bowl
A pot for boiling water
A sieve or slotted spoon
Pasta sauce

and plenty of time, 3-4hrs.

Step #1

Boil peeled potatoes.

Step #2

Half potatoes and press through the potato ricer.  They can get clogged pretty easily, but no biggie.

Step #3

Form a potato ball.

I sprinkled in some nutmeg.
It turns out it wasn't enough to notice so be generous with it if that's the flavor you are going for.

Step #4

Make a "nest" for an egg.

Step #5

Sprinkle with flour.
Break yolk up with fingertips.
Knead.
Repeat step #4 & #5.
Don't be afraid to add lots of flour if you need to, it won't effect the gnocchi.

Step #6
 
Knead into a dough like consistency, not too sticky.
Quarter the ball of dough.

Step #7

Continuously sprinkle workspace with flour.  Take one quarter of dough and roll into a bread stick shape maybe an inch thick, half stick again for a more manageable roll.

This was the part I struggled with.  One end would get skinny while the other would be thick and cube like.  I had all these random flaps.  It was ridiculous.  Jimmy was very patient with me. Yes ladies, he's single...

Step #8

Cut gnocchi into bite size pieces. 
Sip wine. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Step #9

Take fork and press down on each piece while rolling it towards you.  I went super slow at first trying to make them perfect, which is impossible, but shape really doesn't matter.

Step #10

Drop about 10 or 15 into a pot of boiling water. 

Each piece floats to the top when it is fully cooked. 

Don't forget to drop one or two to your Holmey.

He'll appreciate it.

Take a slotted spoon, scoop out floating gnocchi and place in a bowl.

Keep going...

Drizzle a little olive oil to keep them from sticking together.  In fact they will keep for a few days if you cover them in canola oil and refrigerate them.










Now for the sauce....

  Jimmy made this incredible tomato sauce that took him 20 years to perfect. It was simmering stove top when I arrived...so distracting, my mouth watered for hours!

I whipped together a lemon cream sauce made with butter, lemon zest & juice from 2 lemons, a couple tablespoons of lemon thyme leaves, cracked pepper, a splash of white wine, Cheyenne pepper, shredded Parmesan cheese and some fried sage leaves. 

 Finally we sat down with two heaping bowls and Gorillaz live at the Apollo.



This epic evening kept me out way to late on a "school night" so of course the next morning I end up temporarily forgetting my totally unforgettable pasta.  I was pouting at my desk for a good long time but eventually focused on the silver lining of an amazing dinner
UNTIL....I got an email with this!

"Decided to have gnocchi for lunch and they were even better a day later."

Damn.


I've been day dreaming about this for hours....

Gnocchi Gnight round due!

 If I'm stuck doing math, I might as well be doing math while eating gnocchi. 
According to my calculations, I am about 1/6th of my way through this beauty and about 75% done with my homework!

Cornmeal Mush...a family tradition (slightly more cilivlized than Bocephus's)

A far back as I can remember we've eaten mush for breakfast.

The name is just awful.  I'm quite sure we rolled our eyes back in our heads, jutted our tongues out and pretended to gag the first time we heard it.  I was joking about it with my mother-in-law who is French-Canadian.  She told me about an old family tradition of her own where they would take the left overs from dinner the night before, mince it all up, make a patty out of it then fry it to a crisp.  For such a mosh posh it had the most beautiful sounding name!  So we decided to name this dish La Mushie` which really means something entirely different but she was on a filet mignon buzz and was on my second Manhattan. 

 
All Recipes Presents Fried/Baked Cornmeal Mush

Ingredients

• 2 + 1 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1.       In a medium saucepan, heat (2 cups) water to boiling. Reduce heat to medium. 

2.      (In a bowl pour 1 cup cold water) stir in salt (you may be tempted to add more,  don't do it especially if you plan on frying it in bacon drippings)and cornmeal. (Whisk fast until cornmeal starts to thicken, then slowly pour into the boiling water.  Continue to whisk fast.)  Cook, stirring regularly, until mixture is thick.

3.      Spoon (dump) cornmeal mixture into a lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

4.     In the morning, melt butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Slice cornmeal mush into 1 inch wide slices. Cook in melted butter (or bacon drippings) until golden brown on both sides.(Some top with powdered sugar, a variety of jams, or lemon curd.  I just use syrup.)

  

I read some comments below the recipe where people preferred baking to frying which I suppose is healthier (boring).  I really like mine crispy, but I thought I would give it a try.  I took half the sliced cormeal mush and baked it on a sheet of parchment at 400 degrees for 10 minutes on each side.  

 In the battle of fried vs. baked...

 Fried won out hands down...shocker ;)

And here's why.  The baked version was hardly touched because visually it looked just like it did "raw" and there was only a slight crispness to it. I could've kept it in the oven longer but seriously...if you're going to go, go all the way!  For me the bacony crunchy shell with a soft warm middle is oh so gooood.  Fear not, they did not go to waste. In the amount of time it takes my morning tea to brew I was able to toss a couple in a pan for a little crisping up and had the perfect commuter's breakfast over the next couple of days.  This salty, sweet and hearty breakfast is perfect for those chilly winter mornings!

I love reading the comments when I pull a recipe off the web. At times you gain some clarity, others a unique spin and every now and then a big red flag to steer clear!  Some other interesting suggestions were to pair with spicy beans or marinara sauce like you would polenta and one family's Christmas tradition is to add green or red food coloring, alternating every year.  
Have fun with it!