Preserved Citrus Trio

WOW it has been a week for me, it seems that all I have had time for lately is getting to work, coming home then going to bed.  Things at work have been busy and the days there have been getting longer... add to that the construction on my "expressway" to and from and well time gets away.   I have a few posts in the works but haven't been able to take the time to sit down and write.

This post is a little different twist on one from a year or so back, to give you a quick history... a recipe at work called for preserved lemons and gave a quick recipe for them it involved cutting lemons almost all of the way through, packing then in Kosher Salt and microwaving them for several minutes.  I said to one of the chefs that I work with "this can't be to traditional recipe handed down for generations can it?  Microwave Tagine?" 

I started looking around and came upon several recipes that were all pretty similar, none of them involved a microwave, but did involve a week or so to prepare.  I made a jar and LOVED them!  they went onto several recipes from Tatines to Fruit Compote.  This year I decided to shake it up a little and make a preserved citrus fruit trio for fun (I know I am just a wild man).

It is pretty simple the ingredients are:

2 Oranges

6 Lemons

8 Limes

2/3 cup Kosher Salt

2 TBS sugar

1/4 cup Olive Oil

Take half the fruit (that is 1 orange 3 lemons 4 limes if you are bad at math) and and blanch then in boiling water for about 5 minutes to then set aside, when they are cool enough to handle cut them into wedges an put them into a bowl.  Remove seeds but try to leave the flesh in tact as much as possible.  When they are all cut put them the salt and sugar and toss together.  Put the citrus rinds into a jar then add to that the juice from the remaining fruit until covered.  Set on the counter, covered for about a week shake it at least twice a day, again I set mine by the coffee pot so I could remember.  After 6 or 7 days add the olive oil and put it in the refrigerator so it is ready to use later.

Confession time, preserved citrus fruit is great to use in Tagines, Stews or as a tart component to fruity dishes but I like to just eat them right out of the jar it takes the flavors of salty and tart to a level that I hadn't pictured before