MasterChef at Home: Sabina Newton’s Preserved Lemons

You know what time it is, people. Time to level up our home cooking with a sweet little recipe from our most recent MasterChef alum.

Today, we’ve been treated to a 5-minute recipe from Sabina Newton who sadly saw her time on MasterChef come to a close after attempting to pull together a dessert course for guests at fine dining restaurant Society.

Speaking with 10 about the Finals Week challenge, Newton said:

“You just have this sense of impending doom. At least in a Mystery Box you lift up the lid and there are eight ingredients underneath, you can always pick and choose which ones you want to work with — unless it’s the everything box. With this, you don’t get the choice, you have to use that ingredient. If you don’t like it, too bad. That’s all you get.”

This time around, she was given macadamias and it didn’t work in her favour, unfortunately.

Lucky for us, however, Newton was happy to share a recipe using an ingredient she does enjoy working with: lemons.

Check it out below.

How to make Sabina Newton’s preserved lemons

Newton told Lifehacker Australia over email:

“I always use the juice of a lemon and then throw away the lemon peel and skin, either when cooking or eating. Which is so, so wasteful. Nowadays, whenever I have leftover lemon peel and skin I add it to a recycled glass jar along with salt which turns otherwise thrown out lemon peel into preserved lemon. This also makes for a lovely gift to friends and family.”

Time to prepare: 5 minutes/2 weeks wait time until you can use it

What you’ll need

• 3 Lemons with or without Juice
• 3 Tablespoons of fine cooking salt
• A sterilized jar

Directions

1. Sterilize Jar By placing it in the oven for 5 minutes at 200 degrees.
2. Cut lemon into wedges or chunks, roll each chunk through fine sea salt and place in the jar.
3. Leave the lemons for 14 days or until fragrant and soft.
4. Enjoy the preserved lemon in your favourite tagines, roast dinners, desserts and broths. My favourite way to use preserved lemon is in a green olive and chicken tagine or a preserved lemon curd for desserts which is just delicious. This recipe is super fun and allows you to make a product from waste. So get preserving!

Wondering what to make for dinner tonight? Try this 15-minute Vietnamese beef by Tommy Pham.