a slow-cooking notebook — no authored identity, demonstration content only
There is a kind of onion — brown, soft, a little sticky — that you only get by waiting. Not simmering, not frying, but something in between. I used to skip it. Now I plan around it.
The trick is a wide pan and a slightly-too-low heat. If you hear sizzling, you've gone too far. If you hear nothing, you're close.
Rinse until the water is almost clear. Not entirely clear — that's a different rice. Soak for twenty minutes in cold salted water. Drain. Parboil. Drain again. The steaming part is the one everyone argues about, and I have no strong opinion.
Preserved lemon keeps for a year. Fresh lemon keeps for a week. Lemon zest keeps for roughly the time between wanting it and remembering you have it.