Eatwell Recipe 17: Tarragon Pickled Onions

Friday, May 29, 2009

We've been getting these lovely fresh onions in our produce box -- they're so fresh and crisp, nothing like the hard onions with the green sprouts in the middle that we're reduced to buying by the end of the winter.

Fresh onions with tarragon

Last weekend, I was at a friend's house for a birthday barbecue. My friend Ben had made the most delicious pickled onions as a topping for the decadently delicious little sliders he grilled up. What follows is the loose recipe he gave me when I demanded to know his secret via email the next morning.

These pickled onions make a great topping for hamburgers or hot dogs, a yummy addition to tacos or burritos, or a colorful, flavorful addition to a mezze platter.

Tarragon Pickled Onions

If you don't have tarragon on hand, you can use other herbs (dill, cilantro, or thyme would probably be really tasty.) There's also lots of room to be creative with the spices you use -- fresh ginger, cinnamon, anise, bay leaf, cumin, chili pepper, mustard seed, etc., would all add some nice flavor to your pickled onions.

Tarragon pickled onions

Although I've used white onions since that is what we received in our box this past week, I think that red onions would be preferable just because they're prettier.

-- print recipe --
Tarragon Pickled Onions

Ingredients

* 2 large onions, peeled and sliced to whatever size you'd like your pickles to be
* 1 1/2 cups red or white wine vinegar
* 1/2 cup warm water
* 1 tsp sea salt
* 3 tsps sugar
* Handful of fresh tarragon, washed and ripped or coarsely chopped
* Handful of black peppercorns

Directions

1. Combine the vinegar, water, sugar and salt and stir until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Add the peppercorns, tarragon and onions. If the liquid does not cover, add more in equal parts until all the onion slices are submerged.

2. Stir every few hours and refrigerate overnight. These should last in a covered container in the fridge for a few days to a week (if they stick around that long) though they'll be tastiest and crunchiest if eaten right away.

You might also like:

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

Eatwell Recipe 16: Sweet Potato Biscuits

Saturday, May 23, 2009

So far, our little William is a fairly easy baby (fingers crossed for this to continue!) Much to my pleased surprise, I actually had time this morning to bake a batch of these yummy sweet potato biscuits.

Sweet Potato Biscuits Cooling From Oven

This week's CSA produce box included a paper bag full of sweet potatoes and yams (a mix of the two.) Although we like both yams and sweet potatoes, I had trouble believing that we would be able to eat five of them before they went bad so I made a double batch of the biscuits to use up two of the 'taters. The recipe was included in the farm's newsletter and is attributed to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Boiled sweet potatoes awaiting peeling & mashing

Although I am not southern, the appeal of biscuits is far from lost on me. Soft, bready, and short, I think they are good on their own with a little butter or as a way to sop up extra gravy or sauce as part of a meal. And the sweet potatoes in this recipe add a little sweetness, flavor and a pleasing yellow-orange tint. I also threw in some chili powder and ground cumin for a little added pizzaz.

Sweet Potato Biscuits Cooling From Oven

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Biscuits
Makes roughly 10 biscuits

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup sweet potato, cooked and mashed (1 small to medium-sized sweet potato)
* 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

* 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

* 1 Tbsp baking powder

* 1 tsp salt
* 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold
* 3/4 cup milk
* 1/2 tsp chili powder or ground cumin (optional)


Directions


1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and grease a cookie sheet. Quarter the sweet potato, place in a pot of water, bring to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes until sweet potato is soft all the way through. Drain and let cool completely, then peel and mash. Set aside in fridge.


2. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and stir well to combine. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and cut into the dry ingredients using two knives or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Chill until ready to use.


3. Add the milk to the mashed sweet potato and mix well with a whisk or a fork. Add any spices you'd like to use to this mixture. Pour the sweet potato and milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir quickly to form a ball (you may need to use your hands...)


4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead just until it comes together (you don't want to handle it too much or it will get tough.) Pat the dough out lightly with your hands until it is roughly 1/2 inch thick. Cut into rounds with either a biscuit cutter or the floured edge of a drinking glass, tin can, etc.


5. Bake on the greased cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes or until the biscuits are light brown.

Like this recipe? Click here to browse through more Eatwell Recipes.

The Eatwell Project: a year of seasonal recipes -- logo by Eve Fox

Gifts From The Kitchen Gods: Frozen Chopped Herbs

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I often find myself wishing that I had a little fresh basil, cilantro, thyme or dill on hand. Not a whole bunch, just a pinch to brighten up some salad dressing, add a little flavor to a dish, or to make a garnish with.

Unless you happen to a) have a big herb garden, and b) live in an area of the country with a year-round growing season, the chances are that you, too, have been caught herb-less from time to time.

But there is a solution -- frozen chopped herbs! These are just as handy as frozen stock cubes and pretty easy to make (and even easier to buy.)

Frozen, chopped oregano

You can do this during harvest time if you have your own garden or just make smaller batches any time you have too large a bunch of herbs to use up before they'll go bad. You can either freeze each herb singly or make a frozen herb mix if you routinely use two or more herbs together in your cooking.

Freeze Your Own Herbs

1. Buy or pick some fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro, dill, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, basil, marjoram, parsley, mint, etc.)

2. Wash and dry the herbs, removing the stems and discarding any yellowed or bruised leaves.

3. Chop the herbs to the size desired.

4. Lay the chopped herbs out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and freeze for 15-20 minutes.

5. Store the frozen chopped herbs in freezer baggies or any other freezer-proof container you'd like to use.

6. When the time comes to use the herbs there is no need to defrost them before adding them to whatever you're making -- they're so small and thin that they'll thaw very quickly.

Or if you would rather take the easy route (there is no shame...) you can also buy frozen chopped fresh herbs. I've tried a bunch of the ones made by Daregal Gourmet and have found them to be tasty and convenient.

Happy News -- Another Mouth To Feed!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

I wanted to let you all know that there's a new baby here at the Garden of Eating! My husband and I are proud to introduce you all to our son, William (Will, for short), born on May 7th.

Isn't he a cutie?
I also apologize in advance for posting a bit less frequently over the next few months -- this new parent thing takes up a lot of time :)

-Eve

Blogs & Sites I Like

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

I thought it might be nice to give a little shout-out to some of the blogs and sites that I read regularly (in no particular order.) I encourage you all to check them out if you're not already a regular reader. Feel free to suggest your favorite blogs and sites via comments, too.

-Eve

La Tartine Gourmande - a simply beautiful blog written by Bea, a French woman living in Boston. She takes exquisite photos and cooks and bakes the most delightful-looking things. She and her husband had a baby not too long ago and she's also working on a cookbook so she's posting a bit less right now but it's still totally worth adding to your RSS feed or google homepage.

101 Cookbooks - a very California blog written by a woman named Heidi who lives across the SF Bay in Marin. The blog is one healthy, vegetarian but tasty-sounding recipe after another and she also takes good pix. She posts fairly often.

Food Blogga - written by Susan who lives in San Diego -- I first discovered her through a piece she did on fish tacos that was on NPR's Kitchen Window. She posts and a good mix of recipes (and a lot of them!) with nice pix. Susan also does a lot of give-aways and contests if you're interested in that sort of thing.

GhostTown Farm - a blog written by urban farmer (and author) Novella Carpenter about her experiences raising vegetables, fruit, livestock, poultry and bees in her squat garden in the ghetto of Oakland, CA. Her two goats just had babies so now is a great time to check this blog out! She also has a book called Farm City coming out in June that I hope to post a review of soon (loved it!)

Eatwell Farm News - the blog for the farm whose CSA we belong to. It's written by Nigel, the head farmer (he must be British with a name like Nigel...) and I love getting all these details about what life and work on the farm are actually like, particularly since we end up eating the things he's posting about. He posts lots of pictures, too. I find it fascinating.

Sunset's One Block Diet (and others) - Sunset magazine has a series of blogs (about food, gardening, travel, etc.) which are all good. Their web site is also great and I subscribe to the magazine, too, as I love the mix of recipes, decorating, gardening and travel/outdoors articles. Their focus is definitely on the west of the country (both north and south.)

Bitten - one of the NYTimes blogs about food (written primarily by Mark Bittman with a few other regular posters.) Great recipes, down to earth and also socially-conscious.

Eating Liberally - written by my friend Kerry -- a great, very smart blog about the politics of food. Kerry is an avid gardener and writes for a number of other liberal blogs.

The Ethicurean - kind of similar to Eating Liberally but with lots of different bloggers involved. Bonnie Powell, the woman who started it, is well-known and very active here in the Bay area food circles - she founded the area's first meat CSA/meat buying club.

Epicurious.com - one of the most comprehensive recipe sites and easy to search. I visit it regularly when I want ideas, inspiration, etc.

A Springy Citrus Treat: Candied Meyer Lemon, Bergamot & Blood Orange Peels

Friday, May 1, 2009

Ever since I first tasted candied bergamot peel at June Taylor's still room last year, I have been craving more of this delicious treat. So when I came across a Martha Stewart article on candying citrus peel a few months ago, I clipped it to hold on to until bergamot season rolled around again.

I thought that meyer lemons would also make delicious candied peel since they, too, have a uniquely lovely flower-like taste and smell. Luckily, we have a meyer lemon tree growing right outside our house. Since I had a couple of blood oranges on hand, I decided to throw them into the mix, too. The more candied citrus peel, the merrier, right?

Basket of bergamots and meyer lemons

Several hours of slicing, peeling, de-pithing, boiling, simmering and sugaring later, I had a big 'ol batch of mixed candied citrus peels to show for it. And they are damn tasty!!! I also had a pitcher of citrus-ade that I'd made from the peeled fruits (though they are a lot harder to squeeze than they are with the peels still on), and several jars worth of citrus-infused simple syrup.

Close up of candied citrus peels
Besides just eating them like candy, you can also chop them up and sprinkle them on other desserts or drop a few peels in a mug of hot water for a refreshing hot treat. Since they will only keep for a few weeks, and you can/should only eat so much of this decadent little dessert, I recommend giving the rest away as gifts.

One nice bonus to making this delightful treat is that you will also end up with a good deal of citrus-infused simple syrup after you've finished simmering the peels in sugar syrup. Definitely save this as it is a delicious, easy way to sweeten and flavor lemonade, iced tea, and any number of creative cocktails (cosmos, vodka gimlets, etc., etc.) It would also add delightful flavor when poured over some sorbet or ice cream or fruit salad. You could also use it to flavor baked goods -- waffles, cakes, etc.

Although I chose the dry, sugary preparation for my peels, you can also leave them in syrup and skip the draining and sugaring step altogether. I'm sure they are delicious over ice cream, etc.


Special thanks to my friend, Naushon, for her willingness to slice, dice and pose as hand model for these photos.

Candied Citrus Peel

Ingredients

* 6 lemons, 4 oranges, or 3 grapefruits (really you can make as much or as little of any kind of fruit as you like, you'll just have to adjust the sugar syrup amounts accordingly)
* Simple syrup -- 2 cups granulated sugar to 1 1/2 cups water (adjust the amount you make according to how large a batch you are making -- you want enough so that all the peels can be submerged)
* Additional granulated sugar for coating the candied peels

Directions

1. Cut the peel into 6-8 sections (trying not to cut into the fruit.)

Removing the peel from a meyer lemon
Gently remove the sections with your fingertips, trying not to rip any of them. Once you're done peeling, remove any excess pith with your paring knife.

Removing the peel from a meyer lemon
2. Bring a couple cups of water to a boil in a pot and add the slices of peel. Simmer for 3-5 minutes, then drain. Repeat two more times.

First round of blanching for the meyer lemon peels
3. After you've blanched the peel three times, make a sugar syrup by heating the sugar and water in a saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture has come to a boil. Add the peels and return to a gentle boil, then lower heat to reduce to a simmer. Simmer for roughly 1 hour until the peels are tender and sweet. Cool for a little while, then drain the peels (they may still be extremely hot so be careful.)
Draining the meyer lemon peels after first round of blanching
4. Remove excess liquid then roll the peels in granulated sugar until they are fully coated. Place them on a wire rack to cool and finish drying (if you don't have a rack, you can also just use a piece of waxed or parchment paper on a baking sheet, instead.)

Drying the sugar coated peels
5. Store them in an airtight container for up to two weeks at room temperature.

Candied citrus peels!

You might also like:
Want even more recipes, photos, giveaways, and food-related inspiration? "Like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter or Pinterest.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Eatwell Recipe 17: Tarragon Pickled Onions

We've been getting these lovely fresh onions in our produce box -- they're so fresh and crisp, nothing like the hard onions with the green sprouts in the middle that we're reduced to buying by the end of the winter.

Fresh onions with tarragon

Last weekend, I was at a friend's house for a birthday barbecue. My friend Ben had made the most delicious pickled onions as a topping for the decadently delicious little sliders he grilled up. What follows is the loose recipe he gave me when I demanded to know his secret via email the next morning.

These pickled onions make a great topping for hamburgers or hot dogs, a yummy addition to tacos or burritos, or a colorful, flavorful addition to a mezze platter.

Tarragon Pickled Onions

If you don't have tarragon on hand, you can use other herbs (dill, cilantro, or thyme would probably be really tasty.) There's also lots of room to be creative with the spices you use -- fresh ginger, cinnamon, anise, bay leaf, cumin, chili pepper, mustard seed, etc., would all add some nice flavor to your pickled onions.

Tarragon pickled onions

Although I've used white onions since that is what we received in our box this past week, I think that red onions would be preferable just because they're prettier.

-- print recipe --
Tarragon Pickled Onions

Ingredients

* 2 large onions, peeled and sliced to whatever size you'd like your pickles to be
* 1 1/2 cups red or white wine vinegar
* 1/2 cup warm water
* 1 tsp sea salt
* 3 tsps sugar
* Handful of fresh tarragon, washed and ripped or coarsely chopped
* Handful of black peppercorns

Directions

1. Combine the vinegar, water, sugar and salt and stir until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Add the peppercorns, tarragon and onions. If the liquid does not cover, add more in equal parts until all the onion slices are submerged.

2. Stir every few hours and refrigerate overnight. These should last in a covered container in the fridge for a few days to a week (if they stick around that long) though they'll be tastiest and crunchiest if eaten right away.

You might also like:

For more delicious recipes, gardening ideas, foraging tips, and food-related inspiration "like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Eatwell Recipe 16: Sweet Potato Biscuits

So far, our little William is a fairly easy baby (fingers crossed for this to continue!) Much to my pleased surprise, I actually had time this morning to bake a batch of these yummy sweet potato biscuits.

Sweet Potato Biscuits Cooling From Oven

This week's CSA produce box included a paper bag full of sweet potatoes and yams (a mix of the two.) Although we like both yams and sweet potatoes, I had trouble believing that we would be able to eat five of them before they went bad so I made a double batch of the biscuits to use up two of the 'taters. The recipe was included in the farm's newsletter and is attributed to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Boiled sweet potatoes awaiting peeling & mashing

Although I am not southern, the appeal of biscuits is far from lost on me. Soft, bready, and short, I think they are good on their own with a little butter or as a way to sop up extra gravy or sauce as part of a meal. And the sweet potatoes in this recipe add a little sweetness, flavor and a pleasing yellow-orange tint. I also threw in some chili powder and ground cumin for a little added pizzaz.

Sweet Potato Biscuits Cooling From Oven

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Biscuits
Makes roughly 10 biscuits

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup sweet potato, cooked and mashed (1 small to medium-sized sweet potato)
* 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

* 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

* 1 Tbsp baking powder

* 1 tsp salt
* 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold
* 3/4 cup milk
* 1/2 tsp chili powder or ground cumin (optional)


Directions


1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and grease a cookie sheet. Quarter the sweet potato, place in a pot of water, bring to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes until sweet potato is soft all the way through. Drain and let cool completely, then peel and mash. Set aside in fridge.


2. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and stir well to combine. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and cut into the dry ingredients using two knives or a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Chill until ready to use.


3. Add the milk to the mashed sweet potato and mix well with a whisk or a fork. Add any spices you'd like to use to this mixture. Pour the sweet potato and milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir quickly to form a ball (you may need to use your hands...)


4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead just until it comes together (you don't want to handle it too much or it will get tough.) Pat the dough out lightly with your hands until it is roughly 1/2 inch thick. Cut into rounds with either a biscuit cutter or the floured edge of a drinking glass, tin can, etc.


5. Bake on the greased cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes or until the biscuits are light brown.

Like this recipe? Click here to browse through more Eatwell Recipes.

The Eatwell Project: a year of seasonal recipes -- logo by Eve Fox

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Gifts From The Kitchen Gods: Frozen Chopped Herbs

I often find myself wishing that I had a little fresh basil, cilantro, thyme or dill on hand. Not a whole bunch, just a pinch to brighten up some salad dressing, add a little flavor to a dish, or to make a garnish with.

Unless you happen to a) have a big herb garden, and b) live in an area of the country with a year-round growing season, the chances are that you, too, have been caught herb-less from time to time.

But there is a solution -- frozen chopped herbs! These are just as handy as frozen stock cubes and pretty easy to make (and even easier to buy.)

Frozen, chopped oregano

You can do this during harvest time if you have your own garden or just make smaller batches any time you have too large a bunch of herbs to use up before they'll go bad. You can either freeze each herb singly or make a frozen herb mix if you routinely use two or more herbs together in your cooking.

Freeze Your Own Herbs

1. Buy or pick some fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro, dill, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, basil, marjoram, parsley, mint, etc.)

2. Wash and dry the herbs, removing the stems and discarding any yellowed or bruised leaves.

3. Chop the herbs to the size desired.

4. Lay the chopped herbs out in a single layer on a cookie sheet and freeze for 15-20 minutes.

5. Store the frozen chopped herbs in freezer baggies or any other freezer-proof container you'd like to use.

6. When the time comes to use the herbs there is no need to defrost them before adding them to whatever you're making -- they're so small and thin that they'll thaw very quickly.

Or if you would rather take the easy route (there is no shame...) you can also buy frozen chopped fresh herbs. I've tried a bunch of the ones made by Daregal Gourmet and have found them to be tasty and convenient.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Happy News -- Another Mouth To Feed!

I wanted to let you all know that there's a new baby here at the Garden of Eating! My husband and I are proud to introduce you all to our son, William (Will, for short), born on May 7th.

Isn't he a cutie?
I also apologize in advance for posting a bit less frequently over the next few months -- this new parent thing takes up a lot of time :)

-Eve

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Blogs & Sites I Like

I thought it might be nice to give a little shout-out to some of the blogs and sites that I read regularly (in no particular order.) I encourage you all to check them out if you're not already a regular reader. Feel free to suggest your favorite blogs and sites via comments, too.

-Eve

La Tartine Gourmande - a simply beautiful blog written by Bea, a French woman living in Boston. She takes exquisite photos and cooks and bakes the most delightful-looking things. She and her husband had a baby not too long ago and she's also working on a cookbook so she's posting a bit less right now but it's still totally worth adding to your RSS feed or google homepage.

101 Cookbooks - a very California blog written by a woman named Heidi who lives across the SF Bay in Marin. The blog is one healthy, vegetarian but tasty-sounding recipe after another and she also takes good pix. She posts fairly often.

Food Blogga - written by Susan who lives in San Diego -- I first discovered her through a piece she did on fish tacos that was on NPR's Kitchen Window. She posts and a good mix of recipes (and a lot of them!) with nice pix. Susan also does a lot of give-aways and contests if you're interested in that sort of thing.

GhostTown Farm - a blog written by urban farmer (and author) Novella Carpenter about her experiences raising vegetables, fruit, livestock, poultry and bees in her squat garden in the ghetto of Oakland, CA. Her two goats just had babies so now is a great time to check this blog out! She also has a book called Farm City coming out in June that I hope to post a review of soon (loved it!)

Eatwell Farm News - the blog for the farm whose CSA we belong to. It's written by Nigel, the head farmer (he must be British with a name like Nigel...) and I love getting all these details about what life and work on the farm are actually like, particularly since we end up eating the things he's posting about. He posts lots of pictures, too. I find it fascinating.

Sunset's One Block Diet (and others) - Sunset magazine has a series of blogs (about food, gardening, travel, etc.) which are all good. Their web site is also great and I subscribe to the magazine, too, as I love the mix of recipes, decorating, gardening and travel/outdoors articles. Their focus is definitely on the west of the country (both north and south.)

Bitten - one of the NYTimes blogs about food (written primarily by Mark Bittman with a few other regular posters.) Great recipes, down to earth and also socially-conscious.

Eating Liberally - written by my friend Kerry -- a great, very smart blog about the politics of food. Kerry is an avid gardener and writes for a number of other liberal blogs.

The Ethicurean - kind of similar to Eating Liberally but with lots of different bloggers involved. Bonnie Powell, the woman who started it, is well-known and very active here in the Bay area food circles - she founded the area's first meat CSA/meat buying club.

Epicurious.com - one of the most comprehensive recipe sites and easy to search. I visit it regularly when I want ideas, inspiration, etc.

Friday, May 1, 2009

A Springy Citrus Treat: Candied Meyer Lemon, Bergamot & Blood Orange Peels

Ever since I first tasted candied bergamot peel at June Taylor's still room last year, I have been craving more of this delicious treat. So when I came across a Martha Stewart article on candying citrus peel a few months ago, I clipped it to hold on to until bergamot season rolled around again.

I thought that meyer lemons would also make delicious candied peel since they, too, have a uniquely lovely flower-like taste and smell. Luckily, we have a meyer lemon tree growing right outside our house. Since I had a couple of blood oranges on hand, I decided to throw them into the mix, too. The more candied citrus peel, the merrier, right?

Basket of bergamots and meyer lemons

Several hours of slicing, peeling, de-pithing, boiling, simmering and sugaring later, I had a big 'ol batch of mixed candied citrus peels to show for it. And they are damn tasty!!! I also had a pitcher of citrus-ade that I'd made from the peeled fruits (though they are a lot harder to squeeze than they are with the peels still on), and several jars worth of citrus-infused simple syrup.

Close up of candied citrus peels
Besides just eating them like candy, you can also chop them up and sprinkle them on other desserts or drop a few peels in a mug of hot water for a refreshing hot treat. Since they will only keep for a few weeks, and you can/should only eat so much of this decadent little dessert, I recommend giving the rest away as gifts.

One nice bonus to making this delightful treat is that you will also end up with a good deal of citrus-infused simple syrup after you've finished simmering the peels in sugar syrup. Definitely save this as it is a delicious, easy way to sweeten and flavor lemonade, iced tea, and any number of creative cocktails (cosmos, vodka gimlets, etc., etc.) It would also add delightful flavor when poured over some sorbet or ice cream or fruit salad. You could also use it to flavor baked goods -- waffles, cakes, etc.

Although I chose the dry, sugary preparation for my peels, you can also leave them in syrup and skip the draining and sugaring step altogether. I'm sure they are delicious over ice cream, etc.


Special thanks to my friend, Naushon, for her willingness to slice, dice and pose as hand model for these photos.

Candied Citrus Peel

Ingredients

* 6 lemons, 4 oranges, or 3 grapefruits (really you can make as much or as little of any kind of fruit as you like, you'll just have to adjust the sugar syrup amounts accordingly)
* Simple syrup -- 2 cups granulated sugar to 1 1/2 cups water (adjust the amount you make according to how large a batch you are making -- you want enough so that all the peels can be submerged)
* Additional granulated sugar for coating the candied peels

Directions

1. Cut the peel into 6-8 sections (trying not to cut into the fruit.)

Removing the peel from a meyer lemon
Gently remove the sections with your fingertips, trying not to rip any of them. Once you're done peeling, remove any excess pith with your paring knife.

Removing the peel from a meyer lemon
2. Bring a couple cups of water to a boil in a pot and add the slices of peel. Simmer for 3-5 minutes, then drain. Repeat two more times.

First round of blanching for the meyer lemon peels
3. After you've blanched the peel three times, make a sugar syrup by heating the sugar and water in a saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture has come to a boil. Add the peels and return to a gentle boil, then lower heat to reduce to a simmer. Simmer for roughly 1 hour until the peels are tender and sweet. Cool for a little while, then drain the peels (they may still be extremely hot so be careful.)
Draining the meyer lemon peels after first round of blanching
4. Remove excess liquid then roll the peels in granulated sugar until they are fully coated. Place them on a wire rack to cool and finish drying (if you don't have a rack, you can also just use a piece of waxed or parchment paper on a baking sheet, instead.)

Drying the sugar coated peels
5. Store them in an airtight container for up to two weeks at room temperature.

Candied citrus peels!

You might also like:
Want even more recipes, photos, giveaways, and food-related inspiration? "Like" the Garden of Eating on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter or Pinterest.