Around the Passover Table by Jayne Cohen

it generously inside and out with salt. Scoop up any salt that falls into the bowl and repack it onto the lemon. Close up the lemons, then pack them tightly into the jar, pushing them down hard with your hands or a wooden spoon to help release their juices.
    ADD enough lemon juice to cover the lemons; if they are not completely submerged, mold may form on the top layer of the fruit.
    SPRINKLE the top with about 2 tablespoons salt and close the lid tightly. Shake the jar well to dissolve the salt. Store in a cool (but unrefrigerated), dry place. Turn the jar upside down and shake vigorously everyday to redistribute the salted juice.
    THE rind of the lemons should be soft and ready to use in about one week. Dribble a thin layer of oil over the lemons and store the jar in the refrigerator. When using, taste, and if very salty, rinse in cold water before adding to recipes.
    THE preserved lemons will keep, refrigerated, for up to 1 year.

    Lemon Fried Chicken with Tart Salad Topping
    yield: 4 TO 5 SERVINGS
    â€œWhy on this night do we dip twice, and on other nights, we dip only once?” asks the youngest child as part of the Four Questions at the seder, seeking an explanation of the mysteries encoded in the ritual Passover meal.
    And the head of the family answers that on this night we dip bitter herbs into haroset to remind us of the mortar the Jews used to build Pharaoh’s cities and the bitterness they suffered. We dip vegetables in salt water or vinegar to commemorate both the joy of spring and the tears of the Jewish slaves.
    But when did we dip once? In ancient times, when the diet of the Jews comprised mainly bread—and heavy bread at that, often made from barley or other coarse grains—they dipped the bread in vinegar, onions, or bitter herbs (the maror of the seder plate) to make the leaden starch more palatable and more digestible.
    Arugula was then collected wild by the poor. Purslane—a lemony-flavored, small-leafed green currently gracing mesclun salads—and cress were gathered and later cultivated by Jewish farmers. Jews dipped rough bread into the sharp greens or combined them into a sandwich. (In some Haggadahs, Ashkenazi Jews, unfamiliar with this erstwhile Mediterranean custom of dunking, have changed the question to “. . . and on other nights, we dip not at all?”)
    â€œLo, this is the bread of affliction,” the Haggadah refers to the matzoh. And after a few days of the coarse, unleavened bread in every guise imaginable, we too, like the ancients, need spring’s sharp greens coursing through systems now sluggish and logy.
    In this adaptation of a popular Milanese dish, we reenact the dipping one more time: the crisp, matzoh meal-coated chicken is dipped into a salad of tart greens, tomato, and onion.
    FOR THE CUTLETS
    2 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
    3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
    1 ⁄ 4 cup olive oil, for frying, plus 1 teaspoon
    About 1 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoons salt
    About 1 ⁄ 4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    1 3 ⁄ 4 to 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken cutlets, trimmed of fat and gristle and pounded lightly to a uniform thickness
    2 large eggs
    1 cup matzoh meal, seasoned to taste with salt and pepper
    1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
    FOR THE SALAD
    1 ⁄ 2 pound ripe tomatoes, diced (1 cup)
    3 ⁄ 4 cup finely chopped onion
    2 tablespoons fine-quality extra virgin olive oil
    1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
    1 teaspoon dried oregano
    Salt and freshly ground black pepper
    2 cups sharp salad greens (such as arugula, watercress, endive, radicchio, sorrel, flat-leaf parsley, purslane, or—preferably—a mixture of these), washed, dried, and torn into bite-size pieces

    Accompaniment: lemon wedges
    PREPARE the cutlets: in a large bowl, blend together the garlic, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon olive oil, salt, and pepper. Add the chicken, toss to coat thoroughly with the mixture, and refrigerate to marinate, covered, for 1 to 2