Sweet and sour lemon/ Limon aigre doux
For cooking the lemons
12 large lemons
2.5L water
50g gros sel
50g castor sugar
3 cloves of garlic
For sweet and sour sauce preparation
500ml honey
3 big dried chilli (less or more if you prefer)
2 cloves of garlic
500g castor sugar
85g fine salt
Note 1: You will need some new and/or used jars to store your limon aigre doux
Note 2: You might believe that the amount of salt is high but this is actually required to neutralise the high acidity in lemons
Procedure
Step 1: In your pan add water, gros sel (50g), sugar (50g) and 3 cloves of garlic (grated) and allow to boil. In the meantime, wash your lemons
Step 2: As soon as the water starts to boil, add your lemons and let them cook/boil for a good 30 minutes !
Step 3 : After 30 minutes transfer your lemons in a colander to remove the excess water. They will be soft and somehow shrink when pressed like in the picture below (right). Allow them to cool completely.
Step 4: When your lemons have cooled completely, cut 10 of them into thin slices. Reserve the remaining 2 lemons for next step
Step 5: Wash the pan you initially used to boil the lemons and then add in your honey, chilli, 2 cloves of garlic (thinly cut), your 2 reserved lemons from the previous step (coarsely cut), your sugar and salt. Take your hand mixer and mix mix mix !
Step 6: When all the ingredients have blended uniformly, allow the mixture to cook on a low-medium heat. As soon as it boils, use your timer or clock but ensure that same mixture boils for about 5 minutes. After that allow to cool completely.
Note: The idea of boiling the mixture is to remove all water present as far as possible to ensure a nice consistency of the syrup.
Step 7: When your honey mixture has cooled, transfer in your lemon slices from step 4.
Note 1: Do not add the slices when your mixture is still hot because it may cause the lemon slices to harden (caramelize ).
Note 2: At times the mixture color might appear "milky" which is due to the air trapped in while we mixed everything in step 5 but no worry about that, as you stir and stir those air will escape and you will obtain a nice golden colour ..
Step 8: Voiiiiiiiiiiiiiila !
Step 9: Sterilize your new and/or used jars by immersing them in boiling water for 2 minutes. Allow them to dry then fill them with your sweet and sour lemon mixture !
Note: I use cling film on the outer border of the jars while filling them to ensure for a "cleaner" work
Step 10: A little bit of decoration to show you care will never harm ..
Enjoy and share the joy ..
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING !...
