Recipe for pickled lemons for the winter and for every day

In world cuisine there are many recipes that seem strange at first glance. Some of them are sometimes scary to even try, but once you try, you can’t stop, and you carefully write down this recipe in your notebook. One of these strange dishes is pickled lemon.

Ingredients: lemon, paprika, pepper, vegetable oil, salt, garlic
Time to bookmark: Whole year

At first glance, the very phrase “pickled or salted lemon” sounds strange. But this is only until you decide to try it. In Middle Eastern cuisine, pickled lemon is as popular as pickled tomatoes or cucumbers in our country. It is added to salads, fish and meat dishes, or simply eaten with a fork from a jar while eating a fresh baguette.

Lemons are fermented whole, in halves, or cut into pieces. For the sake of convenience, it is of course better to cut it into slices. This way it will ferment more evenly, and most importantly, it will ferment faster.

To begin with, you can try to ferment a small jar, 300 grams. For such a jar you will need:

3 lemons;
one tsp each paprika and hot pepper;
1 head of garlic;
olive oil (refined sunflower oil is possible).

Spices can be replaced with others, or added to your taste what seems more suitable to you. You can make several small jars, adding your own bouquet of spices to each of them.

First of all, you need to wash the lemons thoroughly and pour boiling water over them. This is in case wax was used to preserve them.Under the influence of boiling water, the wax will immediately melt, and what does not melt will be wiped off with a soft cloth towel.

Immediately rinse the jar and lid with boiling water to drain while you prepare the lemons.

Now you need to cut the lemon. As mentioned above, it is better to cut into circles or semi-circles.

Mix coarse salt, pepper, paprika and chopped garlic in a plate. Dip each piece of lemon into this mixture and place in a jar.

Place the lemon tightly, but do not press too hard so as not to damage the delicate lemon slices. Pour the remaining salt mixture into the jar and shake it.

Close the jar with a lid and leave to ferment for about one day. Some say it is better to leave it in the sun, others prefer a cool place. It is better to choose the “golden mean” and leave the jar of lemons in a warm place, but away from sunlight.

The jar needs to be shaken periodically. After about a day, you will see that the lemon has released juice, and this is good. But to prevent the starter from becoming moldy and spoiled, you should pour vegetable oil into the jar so that, mixed with lemon juice, it completely covers the lemons.

Close the jar again and now you need to put it in the refrigerator, on the lowest shelf. The fermentation time in the refrigerator is approximately 5-7 days. After a week, try pickled lemons and get ready to run for a new batch, because such a jar will not last you long.