Ask the A2K cooks!

I wouldn't use ethanol. Part of the good taste is the distinct rum flavor that's so well absorbed by the fruits. It tastes divine with whipped cream.

Oh okay, I missed that part where littlek said, that her rum was only 40 %.

Free Duck knows more.

I like to finely dice preserved lemons and mix them with sautéed vegetables, such as green beans, fava beans, or to elevate lowly rounds of carrots into something interesting and exotic, perhaps tossing in a few cumin seeds as well. They're also good mashed into butter with some fresh herbs, then smeared on top of grilled fish or a nice hunk of caramelized roasted winter squash. And I've been known to sneak some into a batch of tapenade, as well as adding some finely-chopped little pieces to a batch of lemon ice cream too!

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For the big Christmas fête this year, I made one of my favorite recipes, Israeli Couscous With Roasted Butternut Squash and Preserved Lemon to go with the Lamb Tagine that I cooked the day before...which made entertaining 15 ravenous Parisians a breeze. And speaking of braised meats or tagines, you can add thin strips of preserved lemons to any braising liquid during the last few minutes of cooking, which adds a nice little bit of bright, lemony flavor to whatever you're cooking. But do take care when adding them to a recipe; hold back on adding salt since the lemons will certainly add quite a bit more salty flavor than you think.

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To use: Remove lemons from the liquid and rinse. Split in half and scrape out the pulp. Slice the lemon peels into thin strips or cut into small dices. You may wish to press the pulp through a sieve to obtain the flavorful juice, which can be used for flavoring as well, then discard the innards.

"Mémé!" I cried. "Do you put preserved lemons in yours?" She looked at me with wide, innocent eyes. "Yes, of course, cherie. I've told you that a hundred times! You can use them if you like."

Um, no, you didn't tell me. Preserved lemons were the secret ingredient that she failed to mention--the je ne sais quoi, the dose of Moroccan mystery. It turns out that Mémé has be secretly using them a whole lot--in her salmon, in her olive stew, in her salade cuite, in her vegetarian chick pea tagine. To me, preserved lemons are the premier secret ingredient in North African cuisine.

Their taste is a bit tart, yes, but it is intensely lemony and different from using just juice and zest. The lemons are preserved whole--flesh, pith, and zest"by being packed in salt and their own juice for a month. The result is small, round, yellow lemons (you generally start with the smallest, roundest ones) that are soft and entirely edible, although I still remove the seeds. I think it is the pith and the skin that so inform the flavor, that make them taste more like lemon than any lemon you've ever had. To use them, you can slice or dice as you wish--just be sure to give them a quick rinse. And if you want to tone down their flavor, blanch them for 30 seconds to a minute in boiling water.

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For this month's recipes, I wanted to do something different. I figured you could find a million recipes online that use preserved lemons in yet another tagine. Although, if you are going the tagine route, let me recommend that you do a seafood tagine--these pair so beautifully with seafood. They would also be a wonderful addition to broth for mussels or clams. But I've chosen some unorthodox preparations that really highlight their flavor: Preserved Lemon Citrus Chicken with Chervil Gremolata; Parmesan, Preserved Lemon, and Thyme Wafers; and Preserved Lemon Semifreddo with Basil Syrup.

Preserved lemons are more flexible than you might think. I've enjoyed them on the following things, some more traditional than others - all highly recommended; thin-crust wood fire oven pizzas (as a garnish/topping), in various slow-cooked tagines, in cous cous and a few other whole grain salads, and as an accent in a tomato based panzanella. Paula Wolfert has a Spicy Potato Tagine with Preserved Lemon and Olives in her Slow Mediterranean Kitchen that I look forward to trying. I bought a tagine as a wedding present for a friend of mine, and will try to convince him (most likely through some sort of bribe) to loan it back to me for a weekend.