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Preserved Lemons

Preserved Lemons, eat well on universal credit

We’re running out of Preserved Lemons. Oh no!

There’s an easy fix. Make some more. There is some interesting Biochemistry  here but I’m guessing not many folk are interest in that. In simple terms Lactobacillus Bacteria are the only thing on the earth which can tolerate this level of Salt. They work by digesting Sugars / Carbohydrates and converting them into Lactic Acid and Carbon Dioxide.

Ingredients:-

Lemons
Salt and more Salt!
A Kilner type Jar

Method:-

(1) Top and tail your Lemons. Please ensure that they are un-waxed. Waxed Lemons will work, but as we don’t know what wax was used it might not be very good for you.
(2) Chop the Lemons into 8ths. Don’t worry about the pips.
(3) You want about 1/3 weight of Salt compared to the Lemons. Add this to the jar.
(4) Give it all a good shake and clip the lid down.
(5) Pop in a cupboard for 4 months and once do it will outlive you and still be good!

The end produce looks dreadful but if you’ve eating in a Mediterranean restaurant you’ve almost certainty eat Preserved Lemons. The Acidity and Saltiness add a real punch to all sorts of dishes.

Interesting the smell at the coast is caused by Lactobacillus Bacteria digesting stranded Seaweed and releasing Dimethyl Sulphide as a bi-product.

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Halloumi

“H” in our Vegetarian Alphabet was Halloumi. Traditionally Halloumi is made with a mixture of Goat’s and Sheep’s milk. We’ve only a small balcony and the Council would probably not be happy about us grazing a mixed flock on the communal lawns. So Full fat Cows milk did the job.

This was certainly a “Lock Down” time filling gig and realistically it’s probably not worth doing at home normally for the return weight for weight. But we love a challenge. The process is to heat 4l of milk to exactly 32c add Rennet, hold over a water bath at exactly 32c for 45 minutes. Cut the curds, salt and then dehydrate in the fridge overnight. Sounds easy? It took us 4 hours to get to the fridge stage!

But it worked and did taste like the real thing. We grilled some, made crispy Halloumi balls out of the bits we’d broken by being a bit heavy handed and also made roasted Rosecoco Bean and Carrot fritters. A few other bits and bobs and we had a very tasty Buffet style dinner.

 

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