You can’t really eat lemons of course, but they’re one of the truly essential seasonings, and you won’t find a professional kitchen that doesn’t use them by the bushel. Even a McDonald’s can’t live without lemons, if only to squeeze into iced tea. For almost any seafood and many vegetables, the best simple preparation is to just add salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon.
If you don’t live in California or another warm citrus-producing region these recipes may not interest you much, but my crop is in and I have to do something with them. Dozens and dozens of them, at least two hundred from my 8-foot tree; this is a good year. I get one big crop which is pretty much peaking right now. What isn’t ripe yet I’ll leave alone and keep picking through spring. When I moved into this house 22 years ago it had three fruit trees; only one is left but this lemon is still happy and productive.
-----
Lemonade
The secret to good lemonade is making simple syrup rather than trying to dissolve sugar in cold liquid. This is more or less the recipe from Joy of Cooking except that I like to reduce calories by using half sugar and half stevia powder. Makes 1 gallon.
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
12 to 15 lemons
1/3 cup stevia powder (or another cup sugar)
Wash the lemons well. Cut the peel from 5 of the lemons in long strips. Juice all the lemons. You want at least a pint of juice.
Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. If you don’t like stevia, start with 2 cups each of sugar and water. Boil 5 minutes, remove from heat. Add the strips of lemon peel and let stand until cool.
Remove the lemon peel from the syrup. Enjoy the candied lemon peel separately. Combine the syrup with the lemon juice, stevia powder, and enough water to make 1 gallon. Chill and serve.
I usually make two batches; the simple syrup plus juice and stevia will be just under a quart and I save that concentrate in a jar in the fridge. Then I can use that for the next gallon of lemonade, or to make soda lemonade like Vietnamese restaurants do. For soda lemonade, combine one part of my lemon concentrate with 3 parts seltzer and add ice.
I drink a lot of lemonade. Besides being delicious on its own, it mixes well with most of my favorite spirits, and turns cheap wine into palatable coolers.
---—
Preserved Lemons
http://www.daringgourmet.com/2014/04/08/how-to-make-preserved-lemons-moroccan-middle-eastern-cooking/
Salt-cured lemons are an important part of North African cuisine — and something I’ve managed to live without all these years. But I have a lot of lemons, so why not? They take a month to get ready, so I have that time to figure out what to do with them. Bon Appetit (I thought they were out of business!) has some suggestions. I know that you do keep only the peel, and wash the salt off that. Makes 1 quart.
8 to 10 lemons
½ cup kosher salt or pickling salt
optional seasonings: a few black peppercorns and a bay leaf or a sprig of rosemary
Sterilize a 1-quart mason jar and lid. Boil about a cup of water and let it cool. Wash the lemons well.
Put 2 teaspoons salt in the bottom of the jar. Make two cuts from one end of each lemon ¾ of the way toward the other end, so it folds open into quarters. Press 2 teaspoons salt into the cut surfaces of each lemon. Put the lemon into the jar, cut side down. Continue to salt lemons and pack them into the jar. Press hard; you want a lot of juice released. Add the optional seasonings if desired while filling the jar.
By the time the lemons are all in, the jar should be mostly full of juice. Use the boiled water to top off the jar to the brim, you don’t want any air space. Seal the lid.
Let sit at room temperature for 3 days, inverting the jar halfway through that time. After that store in the refrigerator. It’s ready after a month and will probably keep a year or more. I’m going to have to really love this stuff to use up two quarts, but what the hell, I have lots more lemons.
---—
Combined with the right amount of sugar, the sharp flavor of lemon is a dessert favorite. From just my own recipe collection, not even resorting to Google, I could write diaries on lemon cakes, or cookies, or pies. Instead here are two different lemon tarts. For either one, start with this lemon curd recipe.
-----
Lemon Curd
From CNN Food Center.
4 large lemons
¾ cup sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
8 egg yolks
Finely grate the zest from the lemons. Squeeze lemons and strain the juice. You want ¾ cup of juice; use another lemon if needed.
Combine zest, juice, sugar and butter in a small nonreactive saucepan and bring to a boil over low heat.
Beat egg yolks in a bowl until combined. Beat ¼ of the boiling liquid into the yolks. Beat this mixture into the boiling liquid and continue beating until thickened and the mixture returns to a gentle simmer, about 3 minutes. Pour lemon curd into a clean bowl. Press plastic wrap against surface. Cover and refrigerate.
---—
Lemon Curd Mini-Tarts
From CNN Food Center. Makes about 2 dozen. If you don’t have the miniature tart pans, just bake the dough as 2-inch cookies and top with a spoonful of lemon curd just before serving.
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg yolk
1-¼ cups cake flour
lemon curd (see above)
fresh raspberries (optional)
fresh mint leaves (optional)
Cream butter and sugar together with a mixer on medium speed until very soft and light. Beat in vanilla and egg yolk and continue beating until smooth and shiny, about 3 minutes.
Sift cake flour and add to butter mixture. Pulse the mixer to incorporate the flour. Scrape dough onto a piece of plastic wrap. Wrap and chill until firm.
Preheat oven to 350°F. On a floured surface, roll the chilled dough out 1/8 inch thick. Cut into 2-inch rounds. Press into buttered tart pans. Fill with dried beans. Bake on the middle oven rack until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool, remove beans, remove tart shells from pan.
No more than an hour before serving, fill each tart with a spoonful of lemon curd. Garnish with berries or mint leaves if desired.
---—
Strawberry-Lemon Cream Tart
From Bon Appetit - for 2 to 4
1/2 cup chilled whipping cream
1/3 cup lemon curd
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of a 17-1/4 ounce package), thawed according to package directions
1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon water
sugar
1 pint strawberries, hulled and halved through stem end
In a chilled bowl and with chilled beaters, whip cream to stiff peaks.
Put lemon curd in a medium bowl. Stir in half of whipped cream. Fold in remaining cream.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll pastry out on lightly floured surface to a 14x11 inch rectangle. Cut 4 1-inch wide strips off the short side and 4 1-inch wide strips off the long side. Transfer pastry rectangle to ungreased cookie sheet.
Pierce with a fork. Brush with some of egg glaze. Arrange 1 pastry strip on each edge of rectangle so outside edges meet, trimming as necessary, forming tart edges. Brush top of strips with egg glaze. Repeat with remaining pastry strips. Brush top of strips with egg and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake tart 5 minutes. Pierce with fork if puffed. Continue baking until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Cool completely.
Spread cream mixture in tart. Arrange strawberries atop lemon cream in rows, cut side down.
---—
Limoncello
I previously diaried making the delicious Italian lemon liqueur. Sometime in the next few weeks I will spend an hour or so scraping the zest off about 45 lemons, and start a new batch.
---—
I’m cooking today but that’s to get ready for my football party tomorrow; when my friend gets here we’ll go out for dinner. What’s for dinner at your place?