How Preserved Lemon Brightens Every Dish

As a boy in Morocco, Mourad Lahlou, the chef and owner of the restaurants Mourad and Aziza in San Francisco, was sometimes tasked with fetching a preserved lemon from a dark stairwell, where the big clay pots of fermenting citrus were stored. Frightened by the intimidating space, he would shove his arm into a pot, grab a lemon and run back down the stairs as fast as he could.

Recipe: Buttermilk Potato Salad With Preserved Lemon

It may have been scary, but, now 55, Mr. Lahlou waxes poetic about preserved lemons. “The taste, or rather the sensation of a preserved lemon is indescribable,” he said.

A staple of Moroccan cooking, preserved lemon is used in Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, South and East Asian dishes, lending a sharp zing and depth infinitely more intriguing than fresh lemon juice.

Ayesha Nurdjaja, the chef and partner at Shukette and Shuka in New York, calls preserved lemons a kind of get-out-of-jail pantry ingredient. At her restaurants, she combines them with fresh herbs, as a condiment for kebabs or crudo and, at home, as the star of a quick marinade for shrimp or chicken. She even uses the lemon in cocktails.