While preparing a slow cooked leg of lamb for dinner, I was adding aromatics to the pan. As well as herbs, onion and garlic, I also added some preserved lemons to give it some zesty lift.

Suddenly I thought… wait hang on, this is pickled, salty citrus… that sounds like exactly the sort of flavour pairing that would match a cold martini.

Preserved lemons are often found in Indian and Moroccan cooking. Unlike pickling with vinegar, they are preserved in brine, much like olives, but the addition of the naturally acidic lemon juice gives them a much sharper flavour.

A preserved lemon feels somewhere between an olive and a pickled onion in terms of vinegary-acidity, but it is saltier than most pickles and the citrus gives it a lifting, pallette-cleansing quality.

So I got to work to find out more. Here is the result:

• Take a preserved lemon and slice a round from the centre.
• Slice one round for each of the martinis you want to serve.

• Pour a classic martini using these instructions, but according to preference and without adding a garnish.

• Instead, rub the lemon round gently around the rim of the glass to impart some of the salty citrus flavour, then sit it on the glass as a garnish with flair.

• And that’s it! Serve immediately.

You can drop the lemon into the drink if you like. If you do, then the more you sip down, the saltier and more citrus the drink will become. They are very salty so they aren’t for everyone.

If you particularly like the flavour you can add a teaspoon of the pickling brine, much like you would with a dirty martini.

It’s got a real North African twist on the flavour of a classic martini, and it’s particularly tantalising at the end of a hot day, preferably before a nice meal.

Perhaps Moroccan tagine or maybe a nice Levantine hummus kawarma.

في صحتك!