Salt lemons
Salted lemons are a specialty of Morocco's North African cuisine . The lemons pickled in brine are an important characteristic and an essential ingredient of the Moroccan cuisine.
Manufacturing
The unsprayed, thin-skinned lemons are first washed off and - following some of the recipes - watered for three to four days. Then the surface of the fruit is cut with a knife. Depending on the recipe variant, this is done by making incisions in the pulp leaving out certain areas - a lemon tip or the inside - to ensure that the fruit parts hold together. Then the cut surfaces are filled with coarse sea salt.
After preparation, the lemons are placed in a closable vessel, which is then filled with lemon juice and boiling water. If you like, you can also add other flavoring ingredients and spices, preferably cinnamon, bay leaves, coriander seeds, pepper, cloves or (lemon) olive oil.
The salt lemons, which are completely covered by liquid, must be stored in the sealed container for four weeks before the desired result is achieved.
use
Salt lemons, with their less acidic taste than unpickled lemons and their gelatinous consistency, are one of the most important flavor ingredients in Moroccan cuisine. Its scope extends over the flavoring of salads, couscous and fish and meat-containing tagine -Gerichten. Due to the high salt content, further addition of salt is often unnecessary.
The brine, which has taken on a thick consistency during the manufacturing process, can also be used for seasoning or as a substitute for vinegar.
See also
- Chanh muối , salty lemons in Vietnamese cuisine
- Loomi , Arabic condiment made from dried salty limes
literature
- Barbara Lutterbeck, Jürgen Christ: Orient. Cuisine and culture. Gräfe and Unzer , Munich 2002, ISBN 9783774227903 , p. 131 (available from Google Books )