On The Fridge

Dinner in 45 Minutes

Zulu Zaalook

4 servings

Preserved lemon teams up with green olives and vinegar for a tart counterpart to the eggplant in this traditional Moroccan eggplant dish. Preserved lemons, with their unusual pickled flavor, are indispensable in Moroccan cooking. Typically, they're made by covering lemons with salted lemon juice for a month. We're providing a method to obtain some of the tang of preserved lemons in just 20 minutes. Serve with rice.

Adapted from "Moroccan Modern," by Hassan M'Souli (Interlink Publishing), published this month.

5 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 thin-skinned lemon, thinly sliced*

1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste

Sugar

4 small eggplants (1 1/2 to 2 pounds total), trimmed

2 garlic cloves, crushed

4 Roma tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced

2 teaspoons sweet paprika