Creamy Frozen Lemon Dessert

Though these may look like mini cheesecakes, they're actually not ... these creamy little frozen lemon treats are just as rich but light at the same time and PERFECT for summer!

I've tried my hand at curd once before and it ended up a nice dessert when incorporated with freshly whipped cream and fruit, as you see here in my citrus curd with raspberries however this version is MUCH nicer as I love the frozen element to it, really brings out the citrus flavour and transforms the whipped cream into something else entirely!

Start with the lemon curd, which is the easiest thing in the world to whip up especially with this recipe that only uses 3-4 ingredients and trust me in 10 minutes you'll have a luscious citrusy sweet curd with very little effort.

Easy Lemon Curd

- 6 egg yolks

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

- 1 tsp lemon zest

Instructions:

1. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a small saucepan and set aside.

2. Add lemon juice plus zest to the eggs/sugar mixture and cook egg mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick. Should take 10 minutes to get to a gravy-like consistency. Pour the mixture through a fine strainer and allow to cool for 30 minutes.

Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the curd and and refrigerate overnight or up to 4 hours.

If you'd like to enjoy it as is you can add a tsp of butter at the end as it's cooling and swirl it in for a nice sheen and richness but as it will be incorporated with heavy cream in this recipe we're using it as is.

Creamy Frozen Lemon Dessert

The following day or after 4 hours of lemon curd chilling ...

Prepare a muffin tray lined with 6-8 paper cupcake/muffin liners.

Whip 2 cups of heavy cream (35%) with a few drops of vanilla (and I added 1 tbsp powder sugar) until soft peaks form, stop at this point.

Using a whisk beat the curd as to break up the stiffness until it's pale and creamy.  Using a spatula add half the curd into the whipped cream and gently fold in incorporating.  Add the rest and at this point you can fold it in again or just gently swirl it in.

Fill your muffin cups and tap the pan on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles from the little desserts.

Chill in the freezer overnight or up to 4 hours again.

Blueberry sauce: 

2 cups fresh (or frozen) blueberries

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

- Add blueberries to a small saucepan, add lemon juice, sugar, as well as lemon zest.   Heat on high and simmer for 5 minutes.  Crush half of the blueberries (just using the back of a fork to create more of a sauce)

Allow to cool, then cover and refrigerate until needed.

To assemble dessert remove frozen lemon whips from freezer and gently remove the paper (it comes off easily, don't worry)
Set on plate and top with blueberry sauce! You could add lemon slices to the plate if desired for presentation.

Courtesy: Thanks to dieter's downfall for the recipe, she added ginger to her lemon curd which sounds AMAZING and I was super tempted but not everyone here likes ginger so next time I make these I'm going to be adding some spicy zestiness for sure! 

The Mulberry Tree

Photos of yesterday's road trip to pickup my Illinois Everbearing Mulberry tree ... it involved homemade marble butter cake for the road, a little thrifting in guelph where I found some fun items including a severly tarnished footed silver tray, and other little kitchen items.

Through today's strong winds, rain and hail we put the tree in the ground. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun, this little robin perched up on the fence of tree watching the entire time, I think he was excited seeing the earth being turned upside down with all the yummy june beetle grubs so I collected them for him on the deck and sure enough he was courageous enough to come down and fill up his beak taking them back to his little ones in a nearby tree.

I'm SO excited about this fruiting mulberry, been trying to track this variety down for a while now and happy to have found it at the Green Barn Nursery in Elora, Ontario which is just north of St.Jacob's and Elmira which we frequented quite a bit already this year for farmer's market trips and the maple syrup festival.  These guys at the nursery have a fabulous variety of fruit trees as well as tropical ornamental indoor fruit trees which I was tempted to buy but perhaps in the future!

So here's a cake recipe for you!

Marble Butter Cake 

Courtesy of Miss Tam Chiak

Yield 1 8-inch round 3-inch high cake in this preparation

Cooking time 1 hour Prep time 30 minutes 

Ingredients:

8 large eggs, separated

250g castor sugar

340g unsalted butter (3/4 lb or 1 1/2 cups butter)

250g all purpose flour

1 1/2teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon lemon juice

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 160°C (325 F) with a wire rack in the middle. Use a spring form pan, do NOT butter or flour it though. 

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Cream butter in the bowl till light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the 100g sugar till light. Gradually add this into the butter and beat on medium speed till just incorporated. Add in all purpose flour into the mixture in 3-4 batches.

3. Whisk the egg whites until foamy. Gradually add in lemon juice and the remaining 150g of sugar until stiff peaks form. With a spatula, fold in the meringue into the egg yolk mixture in 3-4 batches. Add in vanilla extract until incorporated.

4. Divide the batter into two, 3/4 in one batch and the rest in another bowl. Sieve cocoa powder over the lesser batch and fold to mix well. Pour batter into tin, alternating between the two mixtures, starting with the yellow batter. Rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. With a long skewer, swirl around the batter to create the marble effect. Bake for 40-55 minutes or until a tester inserted into the middle of the cake come out clean.

5. Cool on wire rack completely before serving. Cake keeps at room temperature up to three days and can be frozen up to 3 months.

NOTE: PLEASE don't be foolish (like me!!) and use a kitchen aid/kitchen blender/mixer, it's not worth doing it all by hand :(((( 


... and finally here's a fun silver cleaning technique.
Wrap your piece of silver/silver plated loosely in foil and set it in a bucket big enough to hold it.  Sprinkle with baking soda (1 cup baking soda per every gallon water) and pour hot boiling water overtop.  Eventually the tarnish will begin to gravitate to the foil and it will turn black... after soaking remove the silver from the water and polish with a paper towel or soft cloth, as the cloth gets black use another corner or another clean piece of paper towel and eventually you'll have some pretty shiny silver!  I had to do this 2 times with the foil/boiling method and polished with silvo the following day.  It's getting there...

Okra Stew - Bamia

Middle Eastern Okra & Lamb stew (Bamia)

- Lamb shoulder (as much as you'd like, I only had a few uncooked pieces leftover from the poutine the other day)

- 1 bag frozen okra, thawed

- 4-6 cloves garlic

- 1 tbsp Oil & 1 tbsp olive oil 

- Salt & blackpepper

- Passata tomato (strained tomato, or canned, or tomato paste, or fresh chopped tomatoes)

It's very simple!

1- Heat the oil and brown the pieces of lamb shoulder, season with salt and pepper. Add a couple of cloves of garlic and water to cover.  Simmer on medium low until tender (about 1 or 2 hours)

2- In another saucepan add some olive oil and the remaining cloves of garlic (roughly crushed) then add tomato paste or Passata or chopped tomatoes (strain water and set aside)  On medium heat just turn using a wooden spoon until all the raw flavour of the tomato is released and it smells nice and caramelized. Season with a tiny bit of salt.

Add the tomato to the lamb soup as well as the okra, bring it up to a near boil and then simmer again for another 30-40 minutes until okra is tender.

RICE: 

- 2 cups golden or Sila basmati (parboiled basmati, easily found in an Afghan store) 

 Wash until water runs clear and soak for 3-5 hours in a large bowl with plenty of water.

In a large pot bring water to a boil, add a drizzle of oil and enough salt to season water (as if making pasta).  When it's boiling strain the rice from it's soaking water add to the boiling water, boil until al-dante and drain in a fine colander. Splash with cool water to cool it down (at this point you can just leave it until you're ready to cook it an hour before serving time. 

You can either drizzle with oil in a baking dish and bake covered with foil OR do it stove top, today I've done it stove top and experimented with a bit of Tah dig (crispy layer Persian style... it didn't turn out that dark but I'm trying!!! )

If you want to steam the rice and not worry much layer the bottom of your non stick pot with pieces of thinly sliced potato.  

Using a non stick pot I add a drizzle of oil (and a tsp of butter) to the bottom and a sprinkling of water  (add the potatoes at this point OR not) a tiny sprinkling of salt (just because!) and then I add the rice from the colander (it should be seasoned enough from boiling but if not add a sprinkle of salt to it and even a drizzle of oil to the colander and then using a slotted spoon move it gently into the pot 

You do not want to mix up the rice in the colander as to break up the grains so be gently. 

Once it's all in the pot create a dome shape and use the back of a spoon to push down a couple of places in the rice to create "steam holes" (I added a knob of butter to the top too as to melt down while cooking) 

Adding a few tbsp of water over the rice and covering with a lid wrapped in a kitchen towel I set the pot on medium high for 3-5 mins and then to low for 45 mins - 1 hour. 

When it's done you can remove the lid and flip it onto a large serving plate (if it worked out you'll get a nice crispy golden "crown" on top) and all your guests will be impressed! 

Enjoy! (while I continue to work on my crispy tah dig technique!)

Spring time & Sweets