Lemony Day

Our Meyer lemon tree was full of fruit, bringing my mind to lemony treats. We had lemon martinis and my ultra-delicious lemon sorbet. That left me with a still large load of lemons. 

I drew two ideas from my Friend Foodgal: Limoncello and Lemon Vanilla Bean Marmalade.

Act I: Limoncello

 
Lemon zest floating in a sea of booze!

Limoncello is an Italian lemon liquor made by simply soaking lemon zest — the yellow part of the rind — in vodka or grain acohol (which can be 150 proof or more). I started by surveying the limoncello recipes on the web. They called for soaking the zest of 10 lemons in vodka or grain alcohol for anywhere from four days to two months! Then add sugar and water and leave it for a few hours to a week. 

Here is what we have so far:

 

Curls of lemon rind, from a Microplane grater in potent Everclear, slowly turning yellow. We'll be back with an update in a couple of weeks. 

Act II: Lemony Marmalade

Next up, we have several cups of thinly sliced lemon and their juice:

   

When I slice something juicy, I use a thin plastic cutting board in a rimmed sheet pan. (Works especially well for your holiday turkey.) 

 

The lemon slices were boiled and are now cooling. I'll add sugar and vanilla later. 

More to come...

 
 

Comments

[Carolyn Jung]

Can't wait to see what you think of both the limoncello and the marmalade. I love how the lemons in the marmalade just make the house smell so wonderful, too.

[Rob Feckler]

Mm, that limoncello sounds refreshing! Nothing like a good combo of vodka and lemons together. You can use some stronger stuff for it too, right? Like Everclear.