A few minutes and three ingredients – lemon (or lime) juice, sugar, and salt – are all you need to tame and tenderize piquant veggies.

Preserved lemons are a key element in Moroccan cooking, used in lamb and vegetable tagines and in salads.

With hints of spice, a zesty orange tang, and a pronounced shallot flavor to compliment the subtle sweetness, it skews toward the savory side of things, making it a terrific accompaniment to any robust meat dish, such as venison or duck.

Blending cilantro with honey to make a dessert sauce sounds a bit strange, but Chris’s combination is wonderfully refreshing served over chilled yogurt from Mermaid Farm, located on Middle Road in Chilmark.

Serves 10

Native Islander Polly Bassett, who lives in West Tisbury, shares this recipe for a mild but flavorful salsa that you can use as a taco sauce, chip dip, or seasoning sauce.

Serve on top of pancakes and waffles, or use for ice cream parfaits and other desserts such as panna cotta.

This recipe comes from Saving the Seasons: How to Can, Freeze, or Dry Almost Anything by Mary Clemens Meyer and Susanna Meyer, published in 2010 by Herald Press.

Makes about 4 pints

For years, Susan has been making this recipe, adapted from Gourmet, June 1998.