Recipes for tasty bites made by organic Lopud lemons
Photo by Tour Guide Rosy, Written by Beti Mihajlović
If you ever come to Lopud, look for lemon trees. You’ll find them in most of gardens on Lopud island. Specifically search for Citrus limon “Lisbon”, which we call “limun mjesečar” on Lopud. This type of lemon tree gives fruits almost all year long and provides perfect ingredients for any type of sweet bites you would like to make. Their skin is thick and firm, which makes it great to make “lemoncini” or candied lemon peels. Also, they provide a lot of juice to make homemade lemonade concentrate waiting for you in the refrigerator when the need arises. Moreover, you don’t want to miss homemade Lopud lemons jam. You can also add a bit of bitter orange in jam for extra yumminess.
We bring you three simple recipes to make lemoncini, jam and juice out of only two ingredients – lemons and sugar. If you have any other ideas on what can be made with lemons, please let us know so we can try them out! We’ll make sure to save some for you when you arrive to Apartments Mihajlović.
Why we love lemons
One lemon provides about about half of the reference daily intake of vitamin C. This makes them especially helpful during winter and spring cold and flu season. Also, lemons are being given credit for fighting overweight, anemia, improving digestion, reducing cancer risk, etc. You can find out more about health benefits here.
If you’ve been to our Lopud apartments, then you know that first thing you’ll get when you arrive is a freshly squeezed ice cold lemon juice. After the airplane flight, car or bus ride and then a ferry ride to Lopud, you’ll probably need one. Our lemons are completely organic so we can use them whole to make really tasty homemade bites and juices. If you can get organic lemons at a local store, and you have some time at your hand, why not try one of the recipes at home? They’ll bring some of Lopud’s smells and tastes to your home.
Simple recipe 1: Homemade Lopud lemon concentrate
All you need is freshly squeezed lemon juice and granulated sugar. Use 1 kilo of sugar on 1 litre of juice. Mix them over medium-low heat. Just before the mixture boils, turn it off. The most important thing is to stir it all the time until the sugar is completely melted. Remove it from the heat. Preheat glass bottles in which you plan to store the concentrate. Put the homemade lemon concentrate in the bottles carefully, since it’s hot. Close the bottles and turn them upside down. Cover them with dishtowel and leave them to cool off slowly. This way you will create vacuum in the bottle and your juice will last longer. Once the bottles get’s cold, put them in the refrigerator. You can also freeze them. This way then can last several months. When you’re thirsty, simply mix some concentrate with water. Enjoy!
Simple recipe 2: Homemade candied Lopud lemon peels
There are many different recipes on how to make a perfect candied lemon peels, but we find this one the easiest and the best one we’ve tried. And we’ve tried many. Silvia Vlahušić, the co-owner of Acanthus, Dubrovnik based company specialised in landscape horticulture, gave us this recipe. Peel the lemons, leave a bit of white part of the skin but take out everything else. Boil the peels in water once, just for a minute, and then drain the hot water. Pour in cold water, boil again. Repeat this 3 times. Now take the peels and measure them. You will need 1 kilo of sugar for 1 kilo of peels. Mix these two together and leave for 24 hours. Add 4 decilitres of water for 1 kilo of peels and mix on medium-low heat. When the water evaporates turn the heat off. Take a small amount of peels, cover them with sugar and put on baking paper to dry. Once they are dry, put them in glass containers.
Simple recipe 3: Homemade lemon jam
This is probably the simplest lemon jam recipes of all. All you need is lemons and sugar. Fill your pancakes or top your cakes and tarts with this zesty lemon jam. We could call this lemon marmalade recipe too because it has lemon zest and chopped lemons with the skin on. What you see on the picture is me chopping lemon peel into small pieces to make the jam. This is what I’ve found online since I didn’t ask my dad first. There was no need to do this. I’ve spent 2 hours in vain. All you need to do is take a whole lemon and blend it. In this way you get the juice out and peel cut into small pieces in minutes. Then you just measure it. For 1 kilo of blended lemons you need 1 kilo of sugar. Put those two together and simmer for about 30 minutes over medium low heat. You’ll know it’s done when you get it thicker than concentrated juice but not too thick. It will get thicker once it cools. Repeat the same procedure for putting into glass containers as given for homemade lemon concentrate. Enjoy!
Beti
Hi! I’m Beti, the daughter of the owners of Apartments Mihajlović. I’ll probably be the one you’ll talk to long before you get to the island, since I manage all the bookings. I’m happy to help you with any questions you might have.
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