Posts Tagged Meyer Lemons
Shaker Lemon Pie
Posted by castironidaho in Recipes on February 17, 2011
Shaker Lemon Pie
So as it turns out, we’re not done yet with the Meyer Lemons! Marty was intrigued by this recipe in the Joy of Cooking, and when I told him I would make him any dessert he wanted for Valentine’s Day, he picked this. Amazingly, the Boise Coop was offering Meyer Lemons produced in Idaho, from a farm in Hagerman. Idaho’s unique geothermal resources allow producers to heat greenhouses using naturally heated geothermal water, and in a few places where the conditions are right, and on a very small scale, produce crazy things like lemons that would otherwise never grow in our snowy northern state!
So, for just $5.99 a pound, we picked up a few:
There are a couple of interesting things about this pie. It uses the whole lemon, sliced in very thin slices. Also it’s the only lemon pie I’ve ever eaten with a top crust, rather than meringue or something. It was good, intensely lemony. Joy of Cooking says that the recipe is associated with the nineteenth century Shakers, but was popular among all Americans at that time. Here’s the recipe.
Crust:
Any crust recipe will do, or a bought crust, the Boise Coop sells lovely frozen ones. We tried the Deluxe Butter Flaky Pastry Dough recommended by Joy of Cooking. Whoa, buttery.
- 2 1/2 c flour
- 1 tsp. white sugar
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 sticks butter (1/2 lb)
- 1/4 c vegetable shortening like Crisco
- 1/3 c plus 1 Tbsp. ice water (for a really buttery pastry crust, it’s important that everything be cold.)
Mix flour, sugar, salt in a large bowl. Cut butter into little pieces and combine with flour using a pastry blender, 2 knives, a fork, or your hands. Butter should be chopped into pea-sized pieces. Work fast and don’t let the butter get warm and melty. Add shortening and combine with pastry blender. Drizzle water over mixture and cut in with a firm rubber spatula. Once the balls of dough start sticking together, you’ve added enough water. I found the recipe to be a little dry and added a few more tablespoons of water. Divide dough in half, form into two flat disks. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling out.
Filling:
- 2 or 3 large lemons
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 4 large eggs
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 3 Tbsp flour
Grate zest from lemons. Slice the remaining lemons paper-thin with a very sharp knife. Combine with sugar and salt in a glass or stainless steel bowl. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 2-24 hours. The longer the lemons macerate, the better. It should look like this:
Whisk eggs until frothy. Whisk in melted butter and flour. Stir lemon mixture into egg mixture and pour into prepared pie crust. Cover with top crust. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes. Reduce temp to 350 and bake 20 to 30 minutes more, until done.
Serve with Mint Whipped Cream:
- 1 c whipping cream
- 1 Tbsp. crushed dried mint
Whisk until the cream whips and serve!
The Boise Citrus Trials
Posted by castironidaho in Places we eat on January 27, 2011
Citrus fruits are a perfect winter fruit for so many reasons. They are harvested in the winter months, when little else is in season. They are full of vitamin C, which strengthens the immune system and helps us to ward off, or recover from, winter colds and flues. I had a cold myself recently, so have been indulging in extra citrus.
As a former Florida Girl, citrus fruits are near and dear to my heart. My local farmers’ market citrus grower used to offer at least a dozen varieties of oranges, grapefruit, and tangerines from his orchard. You could sample slices at the market and buy them by the pound or by the bushel. The grower was probably in his 70s, and hadn’t raised his prices in years. I used to buy a bushel of grapefruit to take my parents at Christmas, for which he charged $12. I used to tell him that he should charge more, and he’d say that he’d been charging $12 for so long, that raising his prices would just confuse him.
Here in Idaho, needless to say, really good citrus is much harder to come by. The Fred Meyer was trying hard though, with this sign featuring less commonly found citrus varieties:
Marty and I decided to sample them, and try to locate some quality citrus here in Boise.
We got a Cara Cara orange, a Blood orange, and a couple of Texas red grapefruit at Freddy’s. The Meyer lemons turned out to be false advertising: they were sold out, so we found those at the Boise Co-op instead. We also picked up some organic navel oranges there.
So, what did we think? The Blood Oranges were pretty and red, but a little tart. Something different, but not my favorite orange. The Cara Caras were sweeter but not anything spectacular either as far as oranges go. The Texas grapefruits were juicy and good, so we do recommend those. Marty claims that TX grapefruit are better than FL ones, which I doubt, but the TX ones looked a lot better than the FL ones at Freddys, so we didn’t buy any. The sad truth is that Florida is probably just too far away.
I thought that the clear winners were the organic navel oranges from the Co-op. Personally, when shopping for oranges, I like to look for the thinnest skinned ones, and these were the thinnest-skinned of our samples. I hate it when you peel and orange and the skin is so thick that it’s hard to remove and the orange is a third smaller than you thought it was. I think that the thick-skinned ones are bred for shipability, sadly, like a lot of things are these days, while the thinner skinned are the more traditional varieties, maybe actually bred for taste and juiciness.
We’re also partial to the clementines popular at Christmas time. Tiny, extra sweet, and extra easy to peel, they’re hard to beat.
That left us with the Meyer Lemons. Read on to see what we did with those.
Meyer Lemon Sponge Custard
Posted by castironidaho in Recipes on January 27, 2011
We’d also purchased some Meyer Lemons along with the Boise Citrus Trials. According to Wikipedia, Meyer Lemons are a cross between a lemon and an orange, and are sweeter and less acidic than a regular lemon. Also, they’re only available in the winter months, unlike other lemons, which are around all year.
What to make with the Meyer Lemons? We perused the Joy of Cooking for a lemon dessert recipe, thinking of maybe a lemon meringue pie. Instead we came across this: “This is a magical dessert. During baking, the batter mysteriously divides into a quivery layer of lemon custard on the bottom and a light and spongy cake on top.”
We were sold and decided to give it a try. Here’s the recipe:
Lemon Sponge Custard
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2/3 c sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
Combine. Beat in, in order:
- 3 egg yolks
- 3 Tbsp flour
- ¼ c lemon juice
- 2 – 3 tsp lemon zest
- 1 c milk
In separate bowl, beat 4 lg egg whites until stiff but still moist. Fold gently into batter. Ladle into oven safe custard cups. Bake in a water bath 30-40 min. Let stand 10 min in water bath before serving.
This dessert can be served hot, warm, or cold. JOY suggested topping it with raspberry sauce, but we only had blueberries in our freezer so used those instead:
- 2 handfuls frozen blueberries
- 2 Tbsp sugar
Heat in cast iron until berries are thawed and warm. Puree a half the mixture and return to pan.
In order to get the most juice from these lemons, we heated them a little in hot water first, then rolled them around on the counter, firmly pressing with the palm of the hand, and then squeezed them out.
