Lemon Peel Confit

Originally, confit was a process of slow cooking meat in its own fat. Fast forward to today’s gastronomic environment, and confit describes the slow, low-heat cooking of almost anything, whether in its own fat, fat or oil from another source (garlic confit is a popular example), or even syrup. Lemon Peel Confit is of the latter type. Here’s a tutorial from the master – worth a view before you start. https://www.instagram.com/p/DLLLL1YoJEz/

INGREDIENTS

5 lemons
100 ml water
100 g sugar

DIRECTIONS

Remove the peel from the lemons, using a channel knife, if you have one, or using a paring knife.

Dice the peel into small pieces, as uniformly as possible.

Add the peel to a sauce pan of water, and bring it to a boil.

After a minute or so, pour the pan’s contents through a strainer.

Add water to the pan, add the peel to the water, and bring it to a boil a second time.

Do this one more time, for a total of three blanchings.

Put the drained lemon peel back in the sauce pan, then add the 100 ml of water and the 100 g of sugar.

Over low heat, allow the peel, water, and sugar to simmer very slowly and gently for about an hour, until the peel is very tender. Don’t have the heat so high that the liquid evaporates.

While the peel is simmering, remove the remaining pith from the lemons, and remove the lemon sections, placing them in a bowl.

Once the lemon peel is nice and tender, add the lemon sections, stirring a bit until the sections have broken down.

Cook over low heat until the mixture has started to thicken, the remove it from the heat and pour it into the bowl.

Allow the lemon peel confit to cool, and once cool you should have a very nice jam, ready to be used to your delight and preference.