Nothing makes Beth Lee happier than food.

“I can talk about food 24 hours a day,” Lee, author of “The Essential Jewish Baking Cookbook,” cooking teacher and OG food blogger at OMGYummy.com, told the Journal.

In 2010 Lee, who worked in marketing and communications for high tech companies in Silicon Valley, discovered she liked “pita chips better than memory chips.”

“We had just come back from a trip with the kids,” said Lee, whose family plans trips around food. (Who doesn’t?) “I think it was my son who said, ‘Mom, if you love food, why don’t you start writing a blog?”

When they searched for names on the internet, they were surprised and delighted to discover that OMGYummy was available.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, where I was going to go with it, but sometimes those are the best changes of direction in your life,” Lee said. She dug in, figured out blogging/ social media and never looked back.

Her cooking – and blog – and eclectic.

“If you go to my blog, you won’t find just Jewish food,” Lee said.

Her husband is a California native; his parents were from Hawaii and his grandparents were from Korea. Lee is an American-born Ashkenazi Jew with a Polish and Russian background.

“We have a very eclectic mix of cultures and foods that we love,” she said. “On top of that, I have a love for Middle Eastern cuisine and Middle Eastern ingredients, like preserved lemons, sumac and za’atar.”

Lee has “preserved lemon lover” in her bio. Her recipe for preserved lemons is below.

“They’re an amazing ingredient,” she said. “I encourage everybody to take a lemon, put a slit in it, put some salt in it, stick it in a jar and wait for it to become a preserved lemon.”

Not only will preserved lemons change your life, Lee predicts they will become your new favorite condiment.

“Any place you need some lemon, preserved lemon can come into play,” she said. “[Most people] think about it [for] savory first, but in fact, they’re really wonderful in a sweet way, too.”

For instance, Lee uses them in cheesecake, muffins, pasta, a marinade, dressing, the list keeps going. Anything you add preserved lemon to will upscale your meal tenfold.

“I’ll be honest, some nights I can barely cook,” Lee said. “I took out Trader Joe’s frozen fish filets [and] made a tartar sauce; instead of just putting a little lemon in the tartar sauce, I cut up a little preserved lemon and added it in.”

That little bit of lemon took it from “eh” to “wow.”

Small adjustments can make a huge difference in cooking. However, Lee said, just try one new thing at a time.

“[Instead of trying to learn a whole cuisine, focus on something simple,” Lee said. “Take a recipe you’re already comfortable with and add [a] new ingredient to it.”

This can be some new produce, a new flavor, anything.

For example, Lee recalled the first time she ate za’atar in a restaurant.

“They brought it to the table [and] put some olive oil with it,” she said. “This is no joke: I practically tackled the waiter. I’m like, ‘What is this flavor?’”

Taste is a great motivator to experiment in the kitchen.

“Think about what excites you, because then you’re going to want to create that … or find a way to get it into your kitchen, onto your table and into your mouth.”

To learn more about Beth Lee and get more recipes go to OMGYummy.com and follow @OMGYummy on Instagram.

For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:

Preserved Lemons, Ottolenghi-style

6 – 8 lemons Meyer, Eureka, Lisbon

6 – 8 tablespoons kosher salt

1 cup lemon juice approximately – enough to cover the lemons in the jar after one week

1 sprig rosemary (optional)

2 sprigs thyme (optional)

10 peppercorns (optional)

1 spicy red pepper (optional)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Sterilize your 1 qt glass jar canning jar; run it through the dishwasher, run under very hot water, use your instant pot – just make sure it is clean.

Cut 2 slits in each lemon to create a well to put the salt in, being careful not to slice all the way through. (If you do, no big deal, many people preserve quartered lemons. It will work too). Add about 1 tablespoon of kosher salt to each lemon.

Place the lemons in the glass jar fitting them in as tightly packed as you can.

Close the jar and let them sit in a cool dry place for about a week. You’ll notice juice beginning to accumulate in the jar.

After a week, open the jar, add your aromatics of choice – thyme, rosemary, peppercorns, coriander, cardamom, star anise, cinnamon, a whole pepper – your taste buds can be your guide. Then cover the lemons and aromatics with enough lemon juice to cover them all and close it up.

Let it sit out in that cool dry place for 3 or 4 more weeks. You can occasionally shake it about if you’d like. Right before you refrigerate, top with a seal of olive oil, then place in the refrigerator and start experimenting!

Notes:

Some recipes for preserved lemons add the juice to cover the lemons from the very beginning along with the aromatics, rather than waiting a week. This works too!

Use organic, unwaxed lemons if at all possible. If not, be sure to scrub the outer skins well to remove any coating.

Remember to store the jar in a cool place, preferably under 70 degrees, until you refrigerate them. Warm environments are not optimal for preservation.

There is some new discussion among sources/experts about whether white mold is indeed harmless or not. When in doubt, throw the lemons out! My previous opinion (and what I’ve always done) was: If white mold develops on any of your lemons, it is generally harmless – just remove/rinse it off. And for sure, any other colors of mold are not good and if you see them, toss the lemons. I have rarely had any issues except a touch of white mold a couple times. And I lived to tell this tale.

Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.