Meyer lemon creme brulee

I had two Meyer lemons about to go bad, so I juiced them. Then I got a craving for creme brulee, so I made these. It's my basic creme brulee recipe, with the juice of two Meyer lemons added along with the cream.

The flavor is subtle, but yummy.

Meyer lemon risotto with goat cheese and basil

This is a basic risotto with goat cheese instead of parmesan or heavy cream, and the juice and zest of one Meyer lemon stirred in at the end (along with a handful of fresh chopped basil). The one downside is that the delicate lemon flavor is mostly lost with reheating, so eat this up while it's hot.

Chicken tagine with preserved lemons

My new favorite way to prepare chicken!

First, a story. As you know, I usually only buy whole chickens. Cheaper, taste better, you can use the scraps for broth. Every once in a while I'll buy chicken parts on sale (still, usually bone and skin on--cheaper, taste better). But currently I only had two whole chickens in the freezer.

And this recipe called for chicken parts.

There are two ways to get around this problem, without buying something new. 1) Re-jigger the recipe so you can use a whole chicken, or 2) Cut up the chicken. Normally I'd go with 1). But this recipe (as you'll see below) resisted tinkering with in that way, so I was going to have to cut up the chicken myself.

I'd never cut up a whole chicken into its component parts before, and it was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. So I can now recommend this method.

But before you go butchering your own chicken carcass, make sure you have a really good, really heavy-duty pair of kitchen shears. I do, and I'd much rather use those than try to do it with a knife. I have super-sharp, top of the line knives, and I still feel like they're inadequate to serious butchery (as my adventures in fish gutting with the kitchen shears have proven).

So I used the scissors to cut up the chicken--literally--and broke it down into its component parts: two wings, two legs + thighs, two breasts. A good pair of scissors will cut right through a ball-and-socket joint. The giblets and backbone I threw into a stockpot, along with a freezer bag full of vegetable scraps, to make chicken broth.

Then I made this chicken tagine.

1 whole chicken (or equivalent), in parts (or just chicken thighs)

1 teaspoon saffron threads (saffron is expensive--if you don't have any, skip this part and just add more turmeric, below)

olive oil

2 medium onions, sliced

5-6 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons each ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, lime juice

1 small bunch of cilantro, chopped

2 preserved lemons, pulp removed and chopped, and skins cut up into small dice

1 cup green olives, halved

Toast the saffron in a small skillet and set aside. (Like I said, it's expensive, so if you don't already have some, just skip this part.)

In a Dutch oven or large skillet with lid, saute the onions and garlic in oil until soft. Add spices, half of the cilantro, the saffron, and salt and pepper. Stir, and add the chicken parts, on top of the onions. Sprinkle the cut-up lemon pulp over the chicken.  Add a cup or so of water and cover. Let simmer 30-45  minutes or until chicken is cooked through. (Check periodically and add more water if necessary.)

Add olives and simmer 10 more minutes. Add reserved lemon peel and rest of the cilantro. Salt to taste. Serve with rice.

This is a great Middle Eastern dish, with a really nice combination of flavors. Easy to whip up, flavorful enough for a dinner party.

Cost: one whole chicken (purchased in bulk), $4. Preserved lemons, made myself (cost of lemons, maybe $4, also in bulk, and I used only two of those, so 50 cents). Olives, $3.50 from deli. Cilantro, $1.59. Everything else, excluding the cost of the saffron, maybe 75 cents. Total: A little over $10 total, for six adult servings, not including the rice. If we include another $1 for the rice (I used brown rice, which is a little more expensive), that's still only $1.80 per serving.

Preserved Meyer lemon martini (or, The Dirty Pucker)

If you like dirty martinis, you'll like this. If not, well, beware. It's very briny.

3 oz gin or vodka
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1/4 - 1/2 oz preserved lemon brine
a piece of preserved lemon
a few drops of lemon bitters

Combine the liquids, shake, pour, garnish with lemon piece.

Israeli couscous with butternut squash and preserved lemons

Remember those preserved Meyer lemons I started a while ago?

This is an excellent use for them.

(Adapted from Epicurious.)

1 preserved lemon (regular or Meyer)

1 1/2 pound butternut squash, roasted, peeled and seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch dice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 3/4 cups Israeli couscous
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick
1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries or cherries (I used currants)
Halve lemon and scoop out flesh, keeping both flesh and peel. Cut enough peel into 1/4-inch dice to measure 1/4 cup. Put lemon flesh in a sieve set over a bowl and press with back of a spoon to extract juice.


Saute onion in olive oil until soft, and toss with roasted squash. Cook couscous with cinnamon stick in a large pot of boiling salted water 10 minutes, or until just tender, and drain in a colander (do not rinse). Add couscous to vegetables and toss with 2 tablespoons oil to coat. Add lemon peel and juice, parsley, nuts, and fruit, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to mix well.

This is really good and surprisingly hearty; another half a preserved lemon wouldn't hurt anything.

Salt-baked whole fish with Meyer lemons

This is a great way to cook fish, and looks really pretty for a dinner party or something. Caveat: make it for people who don't care about the final presentation, as it's tricky to pull off clean fillets. For me, anyway. When the fish was done, I ended up with a plate full of fish pieces. Which, fine, they taste just as good, but clearly I'm going to need some practice in table-side fish dissection.

The fish doesn't taste salty at all--the salt forms a crust on the outside of the fish, locking in moisture. The fish turns out really tasty and juicy, and the salt crust cracks right off when it's done.

Take a whole fish, any kind, head, tail and skin still on. Rinse and pat dry.

Line a big roasting pan with kosher salt (you'll need a couple of pounds of kosher salt, total) and a couple bay leaves, like so:

Then lay the fish in there.

(This is a haddock, btw.)

Quarter a Meyer lemon, and stuff the inside cavity with the quarters.

Isn't that cute?

Then pour more salt over the fish, like so:

Bake at 400 for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the fish. This one was pretty big, probably at least 2.5 or 3 pounds.

When it's done, it'll look like this:

...which is pretty much exactly the same. Crack off the salt, peel back the top layer of fish, and remove to a plate. Grab the tail and pull toward the head--the tail, skeleton and head will all come off at once. Drop that into the trash can. This is what it looks like after that:

Then remove the bottom layer of fish to a plate.

There. Done. Juicy, fresh, whole fish with a minimum of effort. Squeeze more lemon juice over, and enjoy.

Preserved Meyer lemons

Preserved lemons (the regular kind) are used in Moroccan and Middle Eastern cooking quite a bit. They're salty and tangy all at once, and since I had both a box of Meyer lemons and some canning jars, I decided to make my own. These babies will be delish with some Israeli couscous and butternut squash and maybe some dried cherries.

You can use regular lemons for this, as well (preferably organic/unwaxed). Either way, scrub them good to clean the outsides, and sterilize the jar by boiling it for 15 minutes. You'll need around 6 lemons to each quart jar.

Once the lemons are cleaned, slice the end off, and cut an X into each lemon, stopping about 2/3 of the way down. You don't want to cut it all the way into quarters. Put a couple tablespoons of kosher salt in the bottom of the jar. Get a good tablespoon of salt inside each lemon, rubbing it in thoroughly, as well as a little on the outside. Squish each lemon into the jar. Keep squishing. The jar should be filled with juice when you're done cramming all the lemons in. If not, add a little more juice to the top. Add a couple more tablespoons of salt to the top, and seal the jar.

Leave at room temperature for 2-3 days, flipping the jar upside down each day to redistribute the juice and salt. Then put it in the fridge and continue the flipping process, every other day.

The lemons will be ready in about three weeks. Wash off the excess salt when using (you'll use the peel and everything, which is why it's important to get unwaxed lemons if at all possible). They'll keep in the fridge for six months or so.

I just jarred this batch yesterday, so I'll report back in a month to let you know how they turned out!