Zhuang Preserved Lemons / Lemon Duck

[liuzhou]

A few days ago, I was given a lovely gift. A big jar of preserved lemons.

 

I know Moroccan preserved lemons, but had never met Chinese ones. In fact, apart from in the south, in many parts of China it isn't that easy to find lemons, at all.

 

These are apparently a speciality of the southern Zhuang minority of Wuming County near Nanning. The Zhuang people are the largest ethnic minority in China and most live in Guangxi. These preserved lemons feature in their diet and are usually eaten with congee (rice porridge). Lemon Duck is a local speciality and they are also served with fish. They can be served as a relish, too. They are related to the Vietnamese Chanh muối.

 

I'm told that these particular lemons have been soaking in salt and lemon juice for eleven years!

 

 

 

So, of course, you want to know what they taste like. Incredibly lemony. Concentrated lemonness. Sour, but not unpleasantly so. Also a sort of smoky flavour.

 

The following was provided by my dear friend 马芬洲 (Ma Fen Zhou) who is herself Zhuang. It is posted with her permission.

 

How to Make Zhuang Preserved Lemons

By 马芬洲

 

Zhuang preserved lemons is a kind of common food for the southern Zhuang ethnic minority who live around Nanning Prefecture of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in China. The Zhuang people like to make it as a relish for eating with congee or congee with corn powder. This relish is a mixture of chopped preserved lemons, red chilli and garlic or ginger slice in soy sauce and peanut oil or sesame oil.

 

 

Sometimes the Zhuang people use preserved lemons as an ingredient in cooking. The most famous Zhuang food in Guangxi is Lemon Duck, which is a common home cooked dish in Wuming County, which belongs to Nanning Prefecture.

 

The following steps show you how to make Zhuang preserved lemons.

 

Step 1 Shopping

Buy some green lemons.

 

Step 2 Cleaning

Wash green lemons.

 

Step 3 Sunning

Leave green lemons under the sunshine till it gets dry.

 

Step 4 Salting

If you salt 5kg green lemons, mix 0.25kg salt with green lemons. Keep the salted green lemons in a transparent jar. The jar must be well sealed. Leave the jar under the sunshine till the salted green lemons turn yellow. For example, leave it on the balcony. Maybe it will take months to wait for those salted green lemons to turn yellow. Later, get the jar of salted yellow lemons back. Unseal the jar. Then cover 1kg salt over the salted yellow lemons. Seal well the jar again.

 

Step 5 Preserving

Keep the sealed jar of salted yellow lemons at least 3 years. And the colour of salted yellow lemons will turn brown day by day. It can be dark brown later. The longer you keep preserved lemons, the better taste it is. If you eat it earlier than 2 years, it will taste bitter. After 3 years, it can be unsealed. Please use clean chopsticks to pick it. Don’t use oily chopsticks, or the oil will make preserved lemons go bad. Remember to seal the jar well after picking preserved lemons every time.

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[C J Phillips]

That is fabulous! Thanks for the recipe and all that delectable information! What are you going to use those lemons for? Any good ideas?

[liuzhou]

I've eaten one in the relish described. I'm now trying to extract the "secret" recipe for the Lemon Duck from my Zhuang friend's grandmother. Sweet-talking her failed. Bribes failed. Guess we're going to have to torture her.

I will post it if I ever get it.

[C J Phillips]

Sign me up for the eGullet Black Ops.

[TheFuzzy]

Linzou,

Cool! Any idea why they're so brown?

Well, I've been keeping my Moroccan Preserved Lemons for 2 years now, I guess I don't have to worry about them.

[liuzhou]

Any idea why they're so brown?

Nope. But I think if you stick most things in salt and sun for eleven years ...

Have you never seen an Australian surfer?

[TheFuzzy]

Any idea why they're so brown?

Have you never seen an Australian surfer? 

Hah!

Edited August 20, 2008 by TheFuzzy (log)

[liuzhou]

At the weekend, I finally set off in search of the fabled Nanning preserved lemon duck. Cunningly, I went to Nanning where I called my aforementioned Zhuang friend who called an ex-high school classmate whose grandfather happened to be the founder of Nanning's first preserved lemon duck restaurant.

 

Well, he didn't found a preserved lemon duck restaurant, but he did open a hole in the wall, two table restaurant. Later, his daughter, introduced lemon duck to the menu and the place really took off. Today, they have seven outlets throughout Nanning and they ain't hole in the wall. This is the one I ate at.

 

 

We were ushered into this elegantly decorated private room and were served tea as we waited for our guests.

 

 

Finally, we ordered food for five people (including grandson) and were served:

 

Duck's Blood and Chinese Chive Soup

 

This was described on the menu as "A Little Red". It is mixed "wild" vegetables with preserved eggs. I'm told the "wild" vegetable is grown in greenhouses.

 

Shui Jiao. (Dumplings in Soup)

 

"Old Mother's Fish" (Steamed Bass)

 

Papaya and Red Clams

 

And, of course, the star of the show - Preserved Lemon Duck.

 

Everything was excellent, but it's the duck I came for. It was sensational. They offered a choice of three different breeds of duck, but grandson recommended the cheapest - Pekin Duck - the same beast traditionally used for Peking Duck.

 

The dish is duck, infused with the scent and flavor of lemon, but a deep rich flavor. The lemon is so obvious but never overwhelmed the duckiness. Apart from the duck and preserved lemons, identifiable ingredients were ginger and whole garlic cloves.

 

So it was time to interrogate grandson (who admitted that he had eaten this dish almost every day of his 24 years and never tires of it.) How to make it!

 

He carefully explained the process.

 

Take a duck. Stuff it with the ingredients.

 

"What ingredients?"

 

The ingredients for the duck.

 

Then roast the duck with the ingredients. There are many ingredients.

 

Cook the preserved lemons separately with the ingredients for preserved lemons.

 

Chop the duck into small pieces and add the lemon at the last minute.

 

Serve.

 

Ingredients?

 

Yes, many ingredients.

 

I was clearly getting nowhere!

 

He did later point out that it is difficult for them to expand much more as there is a shortage of "ingredients" and that it takes an absolute minimum of three months to make the preserved lemons.

 

I understand their reluctance to give away their "secret" to passing foreigners (or anyone else.) They are not the only lemon duck restaurant in Nanning, but the were the originals and are regarded still as the best. I will be back.

 

P.S. When we asked for the bill, we were told it had been "lost". Grandson had cancelled it!

 

From memory the duck was ¥20 (about $3 US, £1.60, €2). Other dishes were. around the ¥18-25 mark. Very reasonable.

Edited August 30, 2018 by liuzhou
typos (log)

[jo-mel]

liuzhou -- sounds like the restaurant grandson is related to your Zhuang friend's Grandmother!! I bet if either DID give you a recipe, they would leave out a couple of key ingredients! LOL!

[Ce'nedra]

Wow insight into Zhuang food! Thanks so much for creating this thread -was a really interesting read.

It's funny how people are so protective over their recipes hahha!

[liuzhou]

Slight correction (Too late to edit)

The Lemon Duck was ¥20 per jin (500 grammes). Still very reasonable.

[liuzhou]

If anyone finds themselves in Nanning and wants to try - here are the addresses (in Chinese) of six of the branches. The seventh is the newest and not on their advertising yet.

[TheFuzzy]

Liuzhou,

Hah!

Reminds me of a shopping experience I had in a Thai supermarket once. I found a utensil for sale I not only couldn't identify, I couldn't even conceive of its use.

"What is this?"

"It's eight dollars."

[pause. wait for friends to stop snickering.]

"What's it used for?"

"It's for cooking."

[longer pause]

"Fine, I'll take it."

We christened it "Mr. Thingy" and I think it ended up being someone's wedding present.

[hzrt8w]

liuzhou: do you know the Chinese name (Chinese characters) for this "preserved lemon"?

[liuzhou]

liuzhou:  do you know the Chinese name (Chinese characters) for this "preserved lemon"?

←

酸柠檬 (酸檸檬)

[liuzhou]

I came across this recipe in Chinese. Unfortunately, it doesn't give quantities for the ingredients, but it gives enough information for me to experiment with.

 

Here is my loose translation.

 

"Lemon duck is Wuming County's characteristic dish. The cooking method is to take a slaughtered, cleaned duck and cut it into pieces and stir fry until cooked medium rare then add slivers of pickled chilli pepper, pickled mustard, pickled ginger, pickled lemon, smoked plum, ginger and mashed garlic. Simmer together till the duck is nearly well done, add salted beans, sesame oil and cooked till well done and then remove from pan. Its taste is sour and peppery together, with delicious flavour and is extremely appetising."

 

As Jo-mel said, there is probably a key ingredient or two missing.

Edited August 30, 2018 by liuzhou
formatting (log)

[LuckysticksPRC]

My girlfriend's mother always gives her a couple of jars of these to take home to me whenever they get a chance. Her father makes lots of sour dipping sauces for his poultry dishes, a custom he claims is unique to his style of Zhuang cooking.

Zhuang cooking is basically absent from cooking discussions in China, but I think what they do with poultry deserves recognition...also for kourou 扣肉. If you're in Nanning, go to the printing street behind the giant discount clothing mall downtown. At the end of the street, at the corner, is small 老友粉店 that has good noodles, but possibly the best kourou in all of Guangxi Province. Served on sticky rice with a little sweet Chinese sausage 香肠 cooked into it, and just a touch of the kourou sauce poured over the whole thing. Absolute country comfort fillin' food, Zhuang-style.

[liuzhou]

Kou rou isn't Zhuang, though. It originated among the Hakka people.

 

The Guangxi version is slightly different in that the slices of pork belly are interleaved with slices of taro, whereas the original uses mustard greens.

 

Personally, I can't stand the stuff. Too fatty for me. Although, I may steal the odd piece of taro, seriously annoying mother-in-law who insists that you must eat the pork and the taro together.

 

By the way, she will severely disagree with you that the Nanning place does the best in Guangxi. As the whole world knows - she does!

Edited August 30, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[C J Phillips]

"Mr. Thingy"! I have a drawer with a bunch of things I can't figure out what they're supposed to be for. Torture equipment? Medieval dentistry tools? Who knows.

I was wondering whether the preserved lemons you're talking about are at all like Hakka salted limes. I talked about them on my blog earlier this year and have a recipe there, and would be fascinated to know if they are in any way similar in taste and texture. The Hakka recipe calls for calamondins instead of lemons, so they cure pretty quickly and don't need to be sunned. However, they do turn a dark brown and taste delicious.

Thanks!

(So envious of that trip to Nanning...)

http://carolynjphillips.blogspot.com/2011/01/hakka-salted-limes.html

[Jenni]

I was wondering whether the preserved lemons you're talking about are at all like Hakka salted limes. I talked about them on my blog earlier this year and have a recipe there, and would be fascinated to know if they are in any way similar in taste and texture. The Hakka recipe calls for calamondins instead of lemons, so they cure pretty quickly and don't need to be sunned.

Are calamondins the same thing as kalamansi limes? They are so delicious! My brother's housemate is filipino and he brought back a load from his last visit.

Incidentally, the preserved lemons in this thread look delicious. Rather like lemon/lime pickle actually!

[judiu]

@The Fuzzy and C J Phillips: We have several "What the heck is this thing" threads, and Andisenji is our guru. If you'll take pictures of the "stuff" (technical term, that) and post them, you might be surprised at what you'll find out!

[liuzhou]

I was wondering whether the preserved lemons you're talking about are at all like Hakka salted limes.

Yes, sort of similar.

However, I have found that the Zhuang ones have a much deeper lemon flavor and are less salty.

No extra salt is added when I remove one, as you describe.

Coincidentally, last night I had one of the batch in my first post. Now 12 years old and getting better.

[fluffyboy]

Interesting! Initial thought it looks like preserved plum

[liuzhou]

I can't count! They are now 14 years old.

[pinkmagnolia921]

I am really glad I found this post. I made Moroccan Preserved Lemons at least 10 years ago and they have turned black and look just like the ones in the post. I don't know why they turned black--I thought that maybe all the acid from my canning jars corroded the lid and interacted with the metal somehow. However, I have continued to use them anyway and so far no one from my family has gotten food poisoning, LOL, so I assume they are OK. I use them in my Lemon & Olive Tagine Recipe. I have an Emile Henry Tagine and they have a recipe for preserved lemons, but they suggest adding vinegar to prevent them from turning black...hmm...however, they cover theirs with salted water, whereas I covered mine with 100% lemon juice (and salt.) So, I guess I'll just keep on using them...