Lentils and lemons

Late winter light.

The tree is, once again, heaving.

 

Two large, freshly sealed jars of preserved lemons sit on the kitchen bench. I'm eyeing off the lemon bars in Alice Medrich's exquisite Pure Dessert, a book even the most baking-phobic will covet. As a study in Beauty, if nothing else.

Now ripe, the lemons are added to everything I can think of. Still, it's not nearly enough.   

The recipes I'm drawn to lately are light on technique, lists and, indeed, order, but heavy on seductive phrasing and description.

Case in point? Last night's lentils. Courtesy of Maggie Beer, in Maggie's Harvest. 

Make a warm lentil salad by adding diced preserved lemons, fennel, celery and carrot to freshly cooked lentils and then toss through masses of just-plucked coriander leaves. Dress this with a vinaigrette of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice and serve with grilled quail.

To which I would add only the following: make that vinaigrette a garlicky one and no quail. Poor wee bony birdies. But thick rounds of soft, ashed goats cheese balanced on top? Perfection.

That top image of our lemon tree goes out to bee and jai of Jugalbandi, for the August edition of Click!

Comments

[Simona]

That's some lemon harvest! Lemon sorbet, perhaps?

[Ed]

I'm very jealous of your lemon tree. Ours is pathetic and spindly yielding one lemon this year, the first in three years. And now the possums are eating the bark.

[Susan]

Adam and Eve would have been in *just* as much trouble with this tree as the apple. ; } I would be tempted to pluck them all straight away.

[Callipygia]

If that recipe doesn't prompt me to finally make preserved lemons, nothing ever will. Sounds divine and yeah, those quails far too bony to eat.

[Johanna]

yes your lemons look gorgeous and bountiful - and they do add something to so many meals (as well as looking lovely in the fruit bowl) - this is a good reminder to me that I must remember the preserved lemons buried deep in the back of my fridge

[Ricki]

I'm so envious of that lemon tree! Gorgeous. I think I'd rather have an abundance of lemons than mint. . .though they'd go nicely together, I'd wager :)

[Shula]

Wish I'd read this before I came to visit.

Not a bloody lemon in the house.

I would have done you the most Enormous Favour and taken a bag off your hands.

Next time.

[vegetablej]

Oh. Oh and oh. If that's what late winter looks like where you live I can only sigh. Gorgeous lemons paired up with complementary violet on your so pretty new homesite.

How about making some lemon liqueur with a few of them? I'm also thinking lemon and black pepper vodka.

Cheers to your new site!

[Holler]

Oh, yes, I will have some of that! Beautiful photos Lucy :)

[Aimee]

With lemons at my local store costing me 2/$.99, it looks like money does grow on trees! I'm glad you appreciate your bounty and I've got 50 things off the top of my head of what I would do with a plethora of lemons.

[Destiny]

Thank you for visiting my blog! I hope you realize how lucky you are to have too many lemons! They are so expen$ive here, especially for organic. :o( Do you ever just juice a bunch of them, then freeze it for later? Or make candied peels? That's something I've wanted to do for a long time now. Have fun!

[Lisa]

Just gorgeous. I've been so busy lately! I'm just getting caught up on all of your latest entries just now.

[Rosa]

Aaaaaaaaah... (well, you know how I feel about lemons!).

[Wendy]

Sounds beautiful. And once again, I envy your lemon tree. :)

[Nora]

Oh Lucy, I am so envious of that lemon tree! I've always wanted a lemon tree....

Will you be posting the lemon & vanilla marmalade?

[Mari]

I love these images...breathtaking.