A friend at work brought some lemons for me. About two dozen lemons. They are incredibly juicy, and not too sour. I am currently drinking lemonade, and my lemon bars are cooling. (That’s her payment/reward.)
She says she has tons more, but I’m afraid these will go bad before I have a chance to use most of them. I was planning to juice some and freeze lemon juice cubes to use later, but what else can I do with tons of lemons?
Theobroma
You can make Moroccan preserved lemons. Just quarter them (but not all the way through, i.e. let them still join together at one end), rub salt liberally inside, push 'em into a big jar. When full of salt & lemons, add enough juice (and olive oil, optionally) to cover. In about three or four weeks, your lemons will be ready to use.
Used how? Just google “preserved lemons” and “recipe” and you’ll find a zillion uses for them. They’re awesome.
Actually, here’s a nice page about preserved lemons.
You can, of course, also make lemon meringue pie, use lemons as a marinade for chicken, etc…
Make some lemon curd. Yum.
Candied lemon peels are amazing, and you’re sure to have a lot of them in very short order. You can use them as garnish for cakes or drinks or just eat them, which is my preferred mode of consumption. You can also dip them in chocolate after candying them. A quick Google will bring up a ton of recipes.
Candied orange and grapefruit peels are also delicious.
Shrimp scampi
Melt butter in a skillet or wok
add about 4 or 5 cloves of crushed garlic
add juice of 1 lemon
add zest of 1 lemon (be very careful to get the yellow peel and not the white under it)
throw in about a p;ound of shrimp shelled and deveined
sautee until shrimp turn pink
serve over rice or pasta
Cut a lemon in half. Spoon off the “meat” without scraping the white part off.
Make lemon ice cream, using the lemon halves to freeze it in. The outer part of the ice cream will have a slight bitter tang, the inside won’t. The bitter taste comes from the outside (yellow) skin, scraping more white off will lead to more bitter taste.
Cut the lemons in half and cut a little bit off each end so the halves will stand up on their own. Scoop out the meat. Insert, in this order: a slice of mozzarella, an anchovy (optional), half a cherry tomato, some dried red chili (optional), a fresh basil leaf. Cover with another slice of mozzarella.
Stick into the oven at about 185 degrees Celsius for about 5-7 minutes, so that the cheese is sufficiently melted. Scoop out the cheese-basil-tomato-anchovy mess and eat it on a slice of bread. The cheese will have absorbed some lemon flavor.
Really, really good.
So that when you come back, you can…
Make limoncello–there was a thread about it here recently.
Braised chicken with lemon and honey. Excellent recipe. I’ve done it with a whole chicken, pieces or even boneless skinless breasts. I cut the lemons small enough to be bite sized and eat them, rind and all, when cooked, they get so tender and yummy (my kids eat the pulpy bits, but leave the peel behind.)
Lemon pepper green beans. Very easy, very tasty.
Lemon brunch parfait. A yummy and healthy breakfast or desert option. I add the juice of the lemon to the couscous/yogurt mixture.
ceviche, of course
I second the lemon curd idea. Here’s a great recipe for it: Lemon Curd Filling. This stuff is sooooo good, I have a hard time not just eating it with a spoon (you’re “supposed” to spread it on things, like toast, or cupcakes. It’s awfully hard to resist just sticking a finger in, though!)
I bet if you try you can make the candied lemon peels and something with juice/pulp. If you run out of ideas, you can always juice the lemons and freeze the juice in your ice cube trays, so that you have fresh lemon juice on hand all the time! Yummy.
Along the same lines as stargazer’s suggestion… I would zest a few of the lemons and freeze the zest. It would be a nice recipe ingredient to have on hand. (Also, I checked the Cook’s Illustrated website, and their tests showed that freezing did not hurt the flavor of lemon zest.)
According to CNN you should sell them online.
Grab your Official Straight Dope Coffee Cup and fill it half-way with water. Microwave until it’s just hotter than you can drink. Pour in a bunch of bourbon. Stir in a skosh of honey. Cut a lemon in half. Ream or if you’re macho, single-fistedly squeeze one of the halves into your cup. Stir. Drink immediately and slowly. When you wake up you’ll wonder why there’s half a lemon on your counter.
Wow! Thanks, guys!
I’ll try some stuff this weekend. If I can use them all up, my friend can always get me more!
(I’ll post whatever I make)
Theobroma
…mmmmm…candied lemon peel…
When life hands you lemons…
…you clone them and make super-lemons!
Or twist the peel for a vodka drink. I’m not sure which one.
At any rate, is there any equivalent for lemons for key lime pie?
I like to make lemon-pepper salmon. Cut lemons into slices. Place salmon fillet that has been tossed with olive oil, salt, and lemon pepper seasoning on 2 lemon slices. Top with 2 more slices. Bake for about 15-20 minutes at 375°, until fish flakes easily with a fork. Broil for about 3-4 minutes more to crisp up the edges of the fish if you like. (Sometimes I tuck a fresh rosemary sprig in between the fish and top lemons.) Easy-peasy!
When life gives you lemons, you make…
LEMONADE!
Holy moly! Did you catch the calories and fat grams on this recipe?! That can’t be right, can it? I’d like to try it, but one serving has 1/2 the calories for an entire day (1073 calories; 68 fat grams, 19 grams saturated) :eek: .