It’s been a very foodie week, all in all. I have been keeping an eye on my lemons and limes, turning them over every couple of days, watching to see what happens. Turns out, not a lot really. The level of juice rose steadily through the week, the colours of the skins faded and the salt dissolved. Below I’ll tell you what to do next, or rather what I did next. What I love about this sort of thing is that it’s open to interpretation. I still want to hear if you have any ideas or try something different. ‘How do you eat yours?’ as they say!

I also made the Turkey and Courgette Burgers from Jerusalem. Yum Yum! And the sumac and yoghurt sauce that went with them has been added to everything we’ve eaten ever since. The kids loved them too. We had them in pitta breads with a tomato, avocado and mozzarella salad.

In my search for the perfect brownie, I tried a recipe given to me by Lisa Cook, a friend. Her brownies are infamous and having tasted them I need to see if I could replicate them. They are very rich and definitely adult brownies. I made them in my brownie tin which is smaller and deeper than the dimensions the recipe called for. As a result they could have done with 5 more minutes but after a night in the fridge were seriously fudgy and oh so decadent! I will share the recipe with you in a few weeks when I do a brownie special. In the meantime if you are desperate to try them you can find the recipe on Lisa’s husband’s food blog. It is a beautiful blog and very well written. Do go have a look!

Friday found me in Notting Hill. I went into Books for Cooks hoping to find a book on canning. Now that I have the preserving bug and with the hope that this year’s veggy patch crop will be far better than last’s, I think canning could be an interesting experiment this summer. However, we arrived 20minutes after the lunch service had started at about 12pm. It was mayhem! The tables were full, as was the shop, with people queuing around the bookshelves, waiting for a table. The food did look good though. My advice if you are thinking of heading there for lunch is go super early. I’m talking 11.30! I gave up looking for books. I’ll go back when it’s quieter. Let me know if you have any recommendations though! Instead, my friend and I headed for The Diner at The Electric on Portabello Rd. I’ll let you shortly how it was in News & Reviews. I also popped into Ottolenghi to pick up a copy of the book for a friend and grab supper. What a nice treat! And yes, I am a little obsessed at the moment!

Saturday meant the week was up and it was time to go back to the lemons and limes. The lemons looked good and I followed Ottolenghi’s advice and gave each lemon a good squeeze adding the juice to the jar. I then just added a few pink peppercorns and with a wooden spoon, pushed the lemons as deep into the jar as I could. I topped up the lemon juice with a couple more fresh lemons so that they were fully submerged and sealed the lid again. Popped them in the fridge and now they sit for another 4 weeks.

I decided to split the limes. The first half I treated much as the lemons, pushing them down into a smaller jar to squeeze out the juice. I then added a couple of bay leaves and some pink peppercorns ( they are so pretty and not as strong as black), and then I topped up the jar with the juice of 3 more limes and the original juice, so that everything was under juice.

The second half, I rinsed under cold water, taking the salt off, then stuffed them into a smaller jar with some chilli flakes. I then mixed about 250 ml of olive oil with a tablespoon of Baharat spice mix and added that to the jar, totally covering the limes.

The first jar of limes in salt with bay and peppercorns, I will try in cocktails and the second batch in oil and Middle Eastern spices, will be used in cooking. Everything needs to sit for four weeks now so lots of time to plot and plan recipes. I am keeping the limes in oil, in the larder and the limes in salt, in the fridge with the lemons. Now I just need a little patience, something I’m not to good at but I’m assured the wait will be worth it. I’ll let you know!

Enjoy!

Kate x