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| During the basting / cooking process |
Preserved lemons in a marinade
taste wonderful on lamb or chicken. You can buy them in the ‘specialty’ food
section of a supermarket, Middle Eastern / Turkish grocers or you can make your
own. I am near the end of a jar I made over a year ago they are wonderful in
salads and on vegetables as well. The flavour also matures and changes over
time; mine initially tangy and fresh have a deeper and mellower flavour now.
This lamb is really easy to prepare, aromatic and flavourful. Due to the long
cooking and basting, the lemony flavours really infuse the meat. As the meat is
very rich and pungent serve it with some simple sides such as flat breads,
yoghurt salad, tomato salad and couscous.
Recipe for preserved lemons
One Kilner jar scrubbed with
soapy boiling water and rinsed
10 unwaxed lemons – obviously how
many depends on the size of your jar.
Peppercorns –green, black or both
4 bay leaves
A small handful of whole green
chilli peppers
A few sprigs of rosemary or other
aromatic herbs
Salt crystals– approximately 250g
for 10 lemons
Extra lemon juice to cover (7
lemons juiced approximately)
Method
Cut each lemon into quarters but leave it on a ‘hinge’ so all of the quarters are still attached. Then rub salt inside each lemon and squash it back into shape. Now layer them in a Kilmer jar with the salt, bay leaves, pepper corns and chilli between each layer of lemons. Pour over the lemon juice. Leave for 8 weeks before using. Turn the jar upside down every few days to move the salt around. Store somewhere cool and not in direct sunlight.
Recipe for slow
cooked lamb with preserved lemons
Ingredients
1/2 a lamb shoulder
is enough for 4 people. You will need an enormous pot for a whole shoulder. The
below makes a lot of marinade and therefore you wouldn't need to scale up the
amounts for the whole.
Preserved lemons – 2
big lemons or 4 small.
2 whole bulbs of
garlic – peeled and each clove chopped in half
1 large onion
4 cardamom pods -
crushed, seeds removed and pod discarded
1 heaped tbsp Cumin
seeds
1 tbsp ground
coriander
Small bunch of
Coriander
Butter – 75g
Water - 150ml
Grease proof
paper
1 tsp of ground all
spice berries
Method
Blitz up the
preserved lemon, onion, cumin, garlic, a handful of coriander roughly chopped,
allspice, and cardamom in a food processor. Add the melted butter to the
mixture and season with salt and pepper.
Make some incisions
in the middle to infuse the meat and cover it in the mixture. Leave it to
marinade for a few hours or overnight if you have the time.
Preheat the oven to
230°C so the oven is nice and hot and then turn it down to 130°C to slowly cook
the meat.
Place the meat in a
big pot with a tight fitting lid. Once the meat is in, add the water give it
all a bit of a stir and put a layer of grease proof paper around the meat
carefully tucking it round. Then a layer of tin foil over the top of the pot
and then the lid. Cook in the oven for 6/7 hours. Check on it every few hours
and baste the meat with the juices. If you feel the juices are running low add
more water. By this point the meat should be falling off the bone. Finally put
the pot on the hob on a medium heat and baste again with the juices. Remove the
meat from the juices. The meat juices are very fatty and delicious but probably
a bit oily for some people. I would serve them separately.
Eat it with couscous,
flatbread of some kind, a fresh simple salad and a cucumber and yoghurt raita.
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| Served with simple sides |