Recipe: Preserved lemons (shortcut method)

As a follow up to the recipe for preserved lemons, this method for preserving is not traditional, but if you don't want to wait a month for your lemons to be ready, it will produce a nice product in a couple days.  When I used it at work, we gave it three days to cure, but obviously more time will get you closer to the real thing.  Of course you can incorporate the traditional aromatics from the other recipe, but we kept it simple when we used it.  The inclusion of sugar in the recipe will add some sweetness to the end result - you may even prefer it and want to use sugar with a full cure.  Since the sugar will have an effect on the preservative quality of the recipe, best to keep it in the fridge during the curing as well.  As with the other recipe, rinse the excess salt and sugar off the lemons before using them.

You will need:

5            lemons
1/4C      kosher salt (or more)
1/4C      sugar (or more)

optional:  Sufi spice mix from other preserved lemon recipe
                fresh lemon juice

Method:

 - Wash the lemons well
 - slice the lemons into slices 1/4" / 1.5cm thick and take the seeds out
 - into a glass jar or quality plastic container, put down a layer of salt
 - start layering in the slices of lemons, alternating layers of sugar and salt between each layer and dispersing the aromatics in the process (if using them)
 - when all the lemons are in, make sure you have a tight fit in your container by gently pressing down
 - add any lemon juice you want to add
 - depending where you left off in the layering, add a last layer of sugar or salt to cover
 - store in the fridge to cure
 - if your container allows, flip it upside down each day for 3 days or more to ensure even curing
 - after 3 days you should be ready to use at will