Cooking Across 4 Generations

When I was young and learning to cook I always wanted to learn to make lemon butter. I used to love it on toast(still do). Nan would always say it was difficult to make so  I never learnt to make it.

When I started in the restaurant I now work in, I had to learn to make it. We use it in one of our more popular desserts, lemon curd tart. I didn’t realise it would be so easy. I can now knock a batch up with out even referring to the recipe, one of the few things I can do that with.  I suppose when you make it every week it is bound to get stuck in your memory.

This is the recipe:

150 grams sugar

200 grams unsalted butter

3 lemons zest only (we use a zester and our mix has long strands in it, if you prefer grate the zest from the lemon on the fine part of the grater)

50 mls lemon juice

150 grams sugar

6 egg yolks ( we use 60gram eggs)

Put the first 4 ingredients in to a small saucepan and melt over medium heat, do not boil.

Whisk yolks and sugar together until well combined.

Pour butter mixture into the egg and sugar and stir. Return to sauce pan, reduce heat to low and stir until thickened. You will need to keep stirring as the high sugar content can catch and then burn. Be careful not to let it boil.  Should be quite thick and it will set more once cold.

We use a normal sweet crust for the tarts and then fill them with the lemon curd filling. We sprinkle icing sugar over the top and then caramelise it with a brulee torch. So easy and totally delicious!

You can also use the curd to  sandwich a sponge together, smother some  on toast, even straight from the spoon(very naughty). You could even stir it through some cheese cake mix.

Thanks for visiting.

V

The price of mangoes is dropping now as they start to enter their season. This has bought to  mind a memory from when I was young. Dad’s brother Rex used to live in Far North Queensland for many years. Around late November Dad would get a call from the railway station to advise him that there was a delivery waiting for him to pick up. Off we would go to the station to pick up a crate approx 80 x 80x 40cm. Inside was a treasure trove of mangoes and pawpaws. Unfortunately I wouldn’t eat them. My brothers and parents would devour them with glee. Now of course I wish I had tried them back then.

So bad was my aversion to mangoes I would not even drink orange and mango juice.

It took me until I was in my 20’s before I actually tried one. Now however it is a different story. Come the warmer months, I actually get cravings for mangoes. The scent of a perfectly ripe one will send me in to a bit of a buying frenzy. We will have mangoes nearly every night when they are at their best. Nothing fancy just nice simple chunks of mango. Should I have a couple of passion fruit in the bowl I will sometimes spoon them over the mango for a touch of tropical bliss. Shame we are eating them in an inner west suburb of Sydney and not on some far tropical beach, swinging in a hammock with a cocktail in one hand. Mmmmm cocktail with mnagoes, time for a google search on that one I think.

Well I’m off to get a mango!