Lemon Love Notes

I have shared this recipe around a bit lately. I posted it over on the Taste forums before they went down for maintenance. I number of the members over there tell me how much they loved them and that the recipe was very popular. I, myself, had not made it in a long time though.

This is my mum's recipe and I remember asking her to make it all the time. It wasn't something that she did make a lot however it made it more special when she did make it. There is another recipe that I used to beg her to make all the time I haven't made it in years either, I will have to dig that one out as well. She always used to let me help her make it. It is such an easy recipe that it really is one that the kids can help with making. I remember pressing the base into the pan and mixing up the ingredient for the topping. Mum would, of course, take it in and out of the oven and would pour the filling over the base. Even when I was older it was still something that we always made together. I made it this past weekend to take along to my Toastmasters meeting tonight and it was enjoyed by all.

Mum has some notes next to a few things. I am also not sure why the recipe specifies an ungreased pan. I both grease and line the pan. Also I have used my slice pan to make it rather than a 20 cm square. Finally the one I made on the weekend I made the base as it but made 1 1/2 times the topping recipe, I this it was better. I then cooked it for 28 minutes and it seemed perfectly cooked.

Lemon Love Notes

Base: 

125g butter, melted

1 c flour

1/4 c icing sugar

Combine all ingredient and press into an ungreased 20cm square pan. Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 8 minutes (I usually bake for 12 - 15 min) or until golden brown. Cool slightly.

Topping:

2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 c sugar (Mum says 3/4 c)

2 eggs, beaten

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp lemon zest (Mum just says more! I usually use 1 tbsp)

Combine sugar, flour, baking powder. Add eggs, juice & zest and mix well. Pour over base and bake at 350 F for 25 min. Top puffs up in baking but falls when cooled. Cool in pan and sprinkle with icing sugar to serve. 

Cooks Club Challenge - Spiced lemon chicken

Over on Taste forums this past month there was a new Cook's Club challenge. The three chosen recipes looked really good. I only ended up making one of them though. 

The recipe that I did end up making was the Spiced Orange Roast Chicken. I didn't have any oranges but did have plenty of lemons so I decided to use them.  I made half the recipe, as I usually do, and the only change was substituting the orange for lemon. It was a really good recipe. I think that, for me, the orange would have made it too sweet. The lemon added a wonderful tang to the dish. The coriander, cumin and tumeric. I think a little pinch of cayenne would have added another dimension to it as well. I served it with rice and steamed zucchini. A very successful meal from the challenge. I can't wait to have a go at this month's challenge which has just been posted over on the forums. 

Blueberry sour cream bundt cake

I was looking for something to make to take to a bbq with friends a few weeks ago. I had some blueberries in the fridge that had been there for a little while. They were still fine but thought that I would use them up in a cake. I also had some sour cream that was marching toward its use by date so went searching for a recipe that I could use both in. I hadn't used my bundt pan in a long time so I thought that it would to give it another work out. While searching I came across Martha Stewart's Blueberry lemon bundt cake. I reduced the sugars by half and it only too about 50 minutes to cook. I made a lemon glaze to put on it. I used the new CSR LoGiCane icing sugar. I was just going to make a plain white glaze but this icing sure isn't pure white and it turned into a grey murky colour so I added in, a little too much, yellow colouring paste. 

It tasted really good, it was dense though. When I first cut into it I thought that it wasn't completely cooked but it wasn't doughy like I thought it was going to be. Several people went back for seconds and that is really the mark of how good it is right?

September 2012 - Chicken Paillard with prosciutto

I made the two recipes from this issue very close together. This one wasn't quite as good as the jerk pork belly but it was still good.

Chicken Paillard with Prosciutto (Bill Granger) 

1 tbsp olive oil 

4 x 170 g chicken breast fillets, cut into thirds lengthwise and flatten (I didn't flatten)

1 lemon, sliced 

20 g unsalted butter 

4 thin prosciutto slices, roughly torn

4 green onions, thinly sliced 

1 tbsp capers (these aren't in the original recipe)

300 ml chicken stock

2 tbsp creme fraiche

Heat oil in pan. Season chicken and cook in batches with lemon until cooked and browned. Set aside. 

Reduce heat and add butter cook prosciutto, onion and capers for a few minutes and then add stock. Simmer for 5 minutes to thicken slightly and then stir in creme fraiche and season to taste. 

Fish with Lemon-Roasted Potatoes and Fennel Chilli Relish

This is another recipe I made ages ago. Bill's original recipe was for baked snapper. However, I didn't want to cook a whole fish so I just pan-fried a fish fillet. Unfortunately the fish I picked, I can't remember what now, was just awful and I didn't end up eating the whole meal. I guess that my opinion of this recipe has been coloured by inferior ingredients. Perhaps I will give it another go with a whole fish. The potatoes were very good though. 

Fish with Lemon-Roasted Potatoes and Fennel Chilli Relish

Ingredients: 

• 2 fish fillets
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil

Method: 

• Heat olive oil over a medium heat. 
• Season fish with salt & pepper. 
• Pan fry for a few minutes each side or until cooked through. 

Lemon-roasted potatoes

Ingredients: 

• 300g chat potatoes, unpeeled, quartered
• 1/2 lemon, finely sliced 
• 1 bay leaf (optional) 
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper 
• 1 clove garlic, unpeeled, crushed  
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method: 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Place all ingredients in a bowl and toss until potatoes are coated in oil. 
• Spread on a baking dish and cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes. 
• Remove foil and bake a further 20 minutes or until golden brown. 
• Serve with freshly ground black pepper.

Fennel chilli relish 

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 fennel bulb, finely chopped to 5mm dice
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped 
• juice of 1/2 a lemon   
• 2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped 
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
• sea salt 
• freshly ground black pepper

Place all ingredients in a bowl and combine. 

Lemon Souffle Cakes

I made these ages ago. The lemony flavour was great but the batter was difficult to work with. It was really runny and produced a really soft "pancake". I suppose that was the way it was supposed to be given the name soufflé cake. However for me all that meant was that they were really hard to flip while cooking. I think I would prefer to just add some lemon zest and juice to my mum's pancake recipe or to Bill's ricotta hotcake recipe.  

Bill Granger's Lemon Soufflé Cakes

Ingredients :

• 3/4 c buttermilk
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 25g unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 c plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 2 egg whites

Method:

• Combine buttermilk, egg yolks, lemon juice, zest and vanilla essence then add melted butter and mix well.
• Combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Make a well in the centre and gradually whisk in the wet ingredients until they are just combined.
• Whip the egg whites to soft peaks then fold them into the buttermilk mixture using a large metal spoon.
• Melt a small amount of butter in a fry pan over a medium heat. Add a couple spoons full of batter and cook until golden brown on the bottom, flip the cake over and cook until golden brown on both sides. Keep warm while cooking the rest. 
• Serve with halved strawberries tossed in a little honey.

May 2004 - Baked Lemon & Coconut Meringue Cheesecake

Issue #27 is an interesting issue of delicious. magazine. There was plenty of stuff to read in it. I just loved the article about Rome perhaps one of these days I will travel some where other than Canada. For my next trip I am hoping to purchase a round the world ticket and actually visit some other places although that may also involve having to win the lottery. *lol*

There were really only two recipes that I really wanted to make out of this issue. One being Valli Little's Ricotta Tortas with Marinated Capsicum, which to be honest is just breadcrumb coated ricotta baked in individual quiche tins. Nothing too fancy but the picture looks so good. It would make a lovely lunch with a little green salad on the side. I really like the marinated capsicum too. I always have a jar of it in the fridge as it is wonderful on a toasted ham, sun-dried tomato, marinated capsicum and cream cheese panini (or focaccia depending on what I have on hand).

As much as I liked the sound of the ricotta tortas there really was only one recipe that I truly wanted to make from this issue and one that I was itching to taste from the moment I saw it. It is the winning recipe from a competition on ABC radio here in Australia and it is not hard to see why this Baked Lemon & Coconut Meringue Cheesecake recipe won the competition either. It is a glorious recipe that was beautiful and creamy and deliciously full of citrus tang. It was not overly sweet, which I think is important in a citrus dessert. Some of them are just so sweet that it over powers that lovely tang that lemons, especially, have. I would probably use a plain biscuit for the base next time I make it. The Nice biscuits were good but I don't think that the extra sugar in them is necessary. I ended up making half the recipe and made individual ones rather than one big one. I was so happy with this that I will be making it the next time I am entertaining. In fact, I loved it so much I wanted to make it again straight away. While there are a few steps it is still really easy to make and I highly recommend it.

Baked Lemon & Coconut Meringue Cheesecake

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 330 g Nice biscuits (I would use any plain biscuit)
  
• 120 g unsalted butter, melted
  
• 500 g cream cheese, softened
• 2/3 c (150 g) caster sugar
• 4 eggs, plus 2 extra egg yolks
  
• 1/2 c (125 ml) lemon juice
  
• Zest of 1 lemon

Meringue topping

• 2 eggwhites
  
• 1/2 c (110 g) caster sugar
  
• 1 c dessicated coconut (I used shredded and would use slightly less next time)
  

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 160 C.
  
• Grease an 8-cm deep 20 cm loose bottomed tart pan.
  
• Process biscuits to fine crumbs, add butter and 1 tbsp water and blitz to combine.
• Press into base and sides of tart pan. Place on a baking tray and refrigerate until needed.
  
• Blitz cream cheese in cleaned processor bowl until smooth then slowly add sugar and mix thoroughly.
  
• Add eggs and extra yolks one at a time, blitzing only until just combined. Add juice and zest and process until combined.
  
• Pour into tart pan and bake for 30 minutes (or until there is only a slight wobble).
  
• Remove from oven and set aside to cool for 15 minutes.
  

For topping:

• Beat egg whites to soft peaks in a clean bowl.
  
• Gradually add sugar and beat until thick and glossy.
  
• Fold in coconut.
  
• Carefully spread the topping over the cheesecake.
  
• Return to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes or until lightly golden and firm to the touch.
  
• Allow to cool completely.
  

February 2009 - Risoni with Lemon Pepper Prawns

The cover recipe, Strawberry & Almond Crumble with Creme Fraiche, caught my eye but having just made a strawberry pie and strawberry muffins I was strawberried out so I looked a bit further in issue #79.

Jamie Oliver's Roasted Eggplant Tabbouleh sounded really good. Spiced up with cumin and cardamom, I love cardamom, with cucumber and pomegranate arils added in it was just about irresistible. So out to the garden to collect some of the finger eggplants I have growing but I was foiled as there were none that were ready to be picked and it will be a while before they are ready.

The next recipe that I had marked was Sumac Chicken with Persian Tomato Salad, I think that it was marked from when I had made it when I first bought this issue. It was wonderful then and I thought about making it again for here but I decided that it would be best to try something new rather than redoing one that I have already made before. I have also used the same marinade from the recipe on chicken and lamb with excellent results and had them with other sides.

In the end I went with Risoni with Lemon Pepper Prawns. It was okay but not outstanding however that could have been caused by the many changed that I made. I have said previously that I am not a huge fan of seafood but occasionally I do get the urge to have some thing seafoody. This normally consists of canned tuna or salmon made in to a mornay type casserole or formed into patties with some mashed potato and various other bits and pieces. More rarely I buy a few prawns and try something out. The recipe called for sugar snap peas, snow peas and snow pea sprouts. I had, of course, forgotten to write all of these down on my shopping list and I came home without them. Instead of going back down town I decided to replace the sugar snap peas and snow peas with some zucchini that desperately needed to be used. I replaced the snow pea sprouts with flat leaf parsley. Some how my calculation in reducing the recipe from serving 4 to serving 1 were not quite right either. There wasn't enough zucchini, parsley or prawns or should that be there was too much risoni. Either way the balance wasn't right. The lemon in it was nice but all in all it was a bit bland. It probably would have been better if made with either the ingredients listed or more of the stuff that I did use. To be honest I will not be making this again but it takes a lot for me to be convinced to make a seafood dish again.