Lemon marmalade

You don't always have to make lemonade when life hands you lemons, you can make marmalade too.

10-12 meyer lemons -
sugar - will be measured by volume  (explained later on)
water

Wash and dry the lemons, squeeze them and reserve the juice. Thinly slice the squeezed lemons, pith and all, only discard all the seeds.
Measure the  cut lemon slices- and use the sugar in this proportion:
1 cup of sugar for each cup of lemon slices.
Use a large non-reactive cooking pot. Put in the lemons and about a cup of water. Bring to a boil.
Add the appropriate amount of sugar, stir and let cook on a low flame, maintaining a simmer. The lemons will release some liquid on their own and cook in that mixture.Cook till the peels are tender and you get a thick and creamy consistency. Add the reserved lemon juice, cook down for another 10 minutes.
Taste and add additional sugar according to personal taste.

STORING:

1. Put jars and lids on a large baking sheet or pan and heat in a 225° oven for 15 minutes or heat them in a large pot of boiling water for 10 minutes.
2. Carefully transfer lemon mixture to jars (a wide-mouth funnel is useful here if you have one), leaving about 1/2-inch headspace in each jar between the top of the mixture mixture and the the top of the jar. Put the lids on the jars and twist on the rings. Process in a large pot of boiling water for 10 minutes or run through an otherwise empty dishwasher on the "sanitizing" cycle or any cycle that will include 10 minutes of high heat.
3. Let cool on counter before storing in a cupboard for up to 6 months. Once opened, keep refrigerated.

Shrikhand

A friend asked for this recipe - so here goes.

1 container Sour Cream OR Yogurt if you want a low-fat variety
Powdered sugar ( confectioners sugar)
Cardamom (5-6 pods)
Nutmeg (1/8 tsp
Saffron (few strands)
Pistachios (sliced)
Almonds (sliced)
Cheesecloth

Tie up the sour cream in cheese cloth and let it hang to drip at least 6 hours. You will have to let it drip overnight if you are using yogurt.
Remove from cheesecloth and measure by volume. Add equal amount by volume of sugar.
This really depends on how sweet you want it and how tart the cream is. I prefer the shrikhand not to be cloyingly sweet. Sometimes it needs about a 1/4 cup of sugar more to each cup of cream.
Beat this mixture well so there are no lumps. Using a whisk is best. Do a taste test for sweetness.

Add powdered cardamom, nutmeg, saffron and the nuts. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Serve chilled. You can garnish with sliced nuts when you serve.

Variations:

Instead of the saffron and nuts you can add diced mango for 'amrakhand'. Do not add mango pulp- it does not give the same results.

Enjoy