Preserved lemons are a common ingredient in North African, and  especially Moroccan, cuisine. You can actually use them in many dishes - anywhere that would benefit from a bit of citrus flavour.  I've put together some ideas in this blog post about what to do with preserved lemons.

They're very easy to make and it costs very little to make a large jar full, especially in January and February when the new crop of imported lemons enters the UK. 

See here for the preserved lemons recipe.

Recipe Costs

£2 8 lemons (unwaxed)
£1.87 10 tbsp sea salt
£3.87 Total

about £3 per kg of preserved lemons (less than a tenth of the cost of buying them from Rick Stein's website)

After giving the lemons a good scrub in hot water the stalk ends are removed with a sharp knife.

Carefully chop the lemon into quarters taking care not to slice right through (it doesn't matter if you do, they just won't look as pretty)

Squeeze as much of the juice out as possible, this can be made a bit easier by popping the lemons in the microwave for 10 seconds beforehand. I find using my thumb to push done each quarter was the most efficient way.

My eight lemons produced about 500ml of lemon juice, which was just enough to cover them later.

Rub about a tablespoon of course sea salt into each lemon, make sure it gets well into each quarter. Pack the fruit into a steralised jar as you go, squashing each one down as you push it in, this helps to release more juice.

My 8 lemons filled about 2 litres of preserving jar. Spices can be added at this stage, try a cinnamon stick, peppercorns, coriander seeds, a chilli or a bay leaf.

When the jars are packed full, top them up with the lemon juice, making sure there ar no air gaps. If you don't have enough juice then use some bottled lemon juice or little bit of water.
The jars need to be kept for at least a month to allow the salt to draw out the lemon juice. Once opened it's best to keep the jar in the fridge.

Recipe Timings

45 mins preparation

Taste Test

This will have to wait a few weeks.