How Preserved Lemon Brightens Every Dish
A staple of Moroccan cooking, preserved lemon adds zest and depth to earthy dishes like potato salad and lentil soup.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 LemonIt 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.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
