These are not the lemons you buy at Safeway, all rind and dry and tough as an old boot on the inside. I'm always looking for things to do with them, as witness the lemon pull-apart coffee cake from last year. This year...
From the recipes in the back of Kerry Greenwood's fifth Corinna Chapman novel, Forbidden Fruit:
Cordial
8 lemons, juice of all and grated rind of three
1 kg white sugar
8 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon tartaric acid
2 tablespoons citric acid
Mix all ingredients together until sugar dissolves. Bottle and seal.
To serve, dilute one in four with water or soda water or, as a special treat, mineral water.
Wonderful with gin...
Cook's notes:
*I hunted up hill and down dale and all over Homer for citric acid and couldn't find it. I substituted Ball's Fruit-Fresh, which is according to the label made in large part from citric acid and I hope and pray accomplishes the same object.
*I substituted cream of tartar for tartaric acid, which Google assures me is the same thing.
Cook's portion:
*I had a little left over after I filled the bottles. I added some water and ice and voila! Lemonade. Divine.
sounds so good. gonna tryit. just make potato rosemary cupcakes. but dang no powder sugar for the irish cheddar icing. dang.!
ReplyDeleteOoooh - I just made preserved lemons today - I might just have to go buy some more to try this!
ReplyDeleteK - would you share your recipe?? My CA friend sent me a big box of lemons and I don't know what to do with most of them!
ReplyDeleteI've been having a hell of a time trying to find citric acid too (it seems to be called for often in canning recipes). I randomly found some at an Indian grocer in Berkeley, sitting on the spice shelf between the cardamom and the cumin.
ReplyDeleteK, I'd like that preserved lemon recipe, too.
ReplyDeleteSorry - just saw the requests! Here's the blog post about the preserved lemons:
ReplyDeletehttp://myoldnewhouse.blogspot.ca/2012/03/when-life-gives-you-lemons.html
Thanks, K!
ReplyDelete