Moroccan-style Preserved Lemons

Also theoretically applicable to other citrus fruits, though I haven't tried that yet.

Ingredients per pint

• two lemons
• juice of two more lemons
• kosher, rock, or sea salt, perhaps a quarter cup

Slice lemons into usable-sized pieces. So far I've done lengthwise in eighths, but next time I'm going to try rounds. Cover cut surfaces with salt. Obviously, if you do rounds, there'll be more surface area to cover, so use less salt on it. Just sprinkle or something. With wedges, you might stop shy of actually rolling them in salt, but get them good and salty. Pack into a pint jar and add lemon juice to cover. Put lid on, and let it sit for about ten days, shaking every day or so. There's a natural yeast that can actually survive all the salt and acid, and it digests some ingredients of the rind (and may leave some sediment on the bottom of the jar). When rinds are translucent and juice is sort of thick, check for complexified but still lemony aroma, and eat.

The traditional use is to cut the pulp from the rind, rinse the rind, and just use that. Depending on the application, I sometimes omit one or both of those steps. A chunk of this and a few pieces of soy-pickled radish or Sichuan Preserved Vegetable are sufficient to make plain white rice at least interesting. A long thin piece slipped down into a cored-out cucumber makes one tasty vegetable. I also use it in EasyYummyPasta and suck on a (rinsed) piece for sore throats.