Hello! My name is Chef Shannon Overmiller. I’m executive chef of The Majestic in Old Town Alexandria. Today I’m preparing for you fried green tomatoes with a garnishment of preserved lemons.

Preserved lemons is a simple process though it does take approximately two weeks or longer for the lemons to cure. Basically it’s a pickled lemon or cured lemon. And you only want to use the outside for your garnish. To begin, you take four lemons or the amount that you desire. For this recipe we’re doing four. Slice them lengthwise place them to a container. At this stage, you simply take a mixture of one part sugar, to two parts salt. In this case, it was two in four cups and to take the juice, approximately four ounces or the juice of say, four lemons to cover. And then you want to take water to cover the lemons. I also like to add in some aromatics such as juniper berries, star anise, which is a dried herb similar to the taste of liquorice, just a touch more.

Once the mixture is together, leave the lemons covered in a container, sealed for two weeks, stirring occasionally. And the end result, after the two weeks is up, you come out with a mixture. The lemons as you see, once they’ve been in the brine for two weeks, they become soft. And at this stage, every part of the lemon is delicious, and I like to utilize both parts. But for the garnish for the tomatoes, you simply take off the yellow, not the white. And you dice finely, or brunoise. And this is a perfect balance to go against the Ricotta salata and then the tomato ragu that we’re going to do later. The acid brings out some of the lovely characteristics of the fried green tomato. That is preserved lemon.