Ode to Citrus and a great lemon bar recipe.

As I walk around my neighborhood this time a year it is hard to ignore the lemon and orange trees laden with fruit. On the central California coast, it is the time of citrus abundance !! It's the time to celebrate this very versatile type of fruit, especially since it is the only fruit really in season right now.

I know you still see apples at the farmer's markets, but do stay away unless you must have an apple pie or applesauce. They have been in cold storage for several months and are soft and mushy. I know strawberries are showing up in store, probably from way down south, but it's still too early for them to have much flavor.

There are so many type of citrus to explore.

I made curd last week from the mandarins off my tree and some limes from a friend. The combination was sensational, the lime provided the tang that my mandarins were missing.

This weekend after picking half a bushel of huge Meyer's lemon's from a friend's tree, I made a big batch of my favorite lemonade, refreshing but not too sweet.

My sister grows Rangpur limes, which would fool anyone into thinking they are tangerines, except when you taste them. I juice them, to use when I make my sunrise marmalade, combining them with my mandarins and Meyer's lemons.

Don't forget to use citrus in savory dishes as well. I love to grate lime or lemon zest into my kale salads. In fact I don't make a separate dressing, just the citrus juice, citrus zest, olive oil and salt that I use to massage the kale with. Then to bump it up another notch, I add segments of mandarins or oranges to the kale. You can do this with a regular green salad as well.

I have made mandarin vinegar and lime infused olive oil this winter so far. Both of these items are so very simple and yet take full advance of the citrus on hand.

On my list for today: preserved lemons , after 7 to 10 days I'll have wonderful salty, sour lemons to use in marinade, salad dressing or my favorite yogurt sauce.

Last but not least, I finally found a simple and very satisfying lemon bar cookie recipe. I looked over a lot of recipes from the Food Network, Smitten Kitchen, even Martha Stewart, they were all too complicated or used too many eggs or had comments that made me cringe and move on ;-)

I found this one from Joy of Baking.

Lemon bars

Do remember to take the butter out a few hours before you make them.

Ingredients

The crust

1/2 cup ( 1 stick) butter

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup unbleached flour

a pinch of salt

The filling

1 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice ( 2 large lemons)

1 tablespoon lemon zest ( or just us whatever you get from the two lemons)

2 tablespoons unbleached flour

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray an 8 by 8 inch baking pan or glass dish with cooking oil spray.

2) In the bowl of your electric mixer or with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and powdered sugar.

3) Add the flour and salt, mixing until it is crumbly and just comes together.

4) Press into the bottom of your pan.

5) Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until lightly brown around the edges. Cool on a rack.

6) While the crust is cooling, beat together the eggs, sugar until nice and smooth.

7) Grate the lemons and juice them.

8) Add the juice and zest to the egg/sugar mixture and combine.

9) Fold in the 2 tablespoons flour.

10) Pour the filling over the crust.

11) Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until the filling has just set, the top will be slightly brown.

12) Cool on a rack, then in the fridge to make them easier to cut.

13) Dust with powdered sugar before serving. YUM !!

Creme caramel, no it is not creme brulee...

The other day I decided to make French onion soup and the obvious dessert for me was creme caramel.

Creme caramel is the French version of  custard or flan with caramelized sugar on the bottom ( unlike creme brulee which has a light crust of caramelized sugar on the top and a very different rich custard beneath).
It is a standard dessert in every restaurant in Paris. I spent eight years of my childhood in Paris. My mother loved this simple dessert and would try it whenever we ate out ( or that's the way it seemed to me.)

This recipe is straight from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Yes, her recipes have lots of steps and can be intimidating, just like life, take it one step at a time.

Lining the dish with caramel.

Ingredients
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons water

1) I use one large ceramic baking dish that holds at least 6 cups, you can also do small ramekins.
The recipe calls for the dish to be warm. I fill the pan it sits in with hot water while I make the caramel.

2) Place the sugar and water in a small heavy bottom saucepan and stir to dissolve the sugar.
3) Cook over moderate heat and allow to come to a boil. Watch it carefully !!

4) It will turn caramel colored fairly quickly.

5) When the sugar has turned color, remove the pan from the stove and pour into the dish which has been removed form the hot water, swirl it around so that it covers the bottom of the dish.

(Sidebar, cool thing...have you ever had a dessert with spun sugar ?? My sister used to make this fanciful yule log dessert complete with meringue mushrooms and spun sugar spider webs. It was impressive... you can use the caramelized sugar to make those spider webs.)

Making the custard. 
Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Ingredients
2 1/2 cup milk
1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks

1) Bring the milk with the vanilla bean if you are using one to just below a simmer in a saucepan.

2) Cover and allow to steep while you prepare the rest of the mixture.

3) For the next part you can use a Kitchenaid with a whisk attachment or do it by hand with a whisk.

4) Place the eggs and egg yolks in a mixing bowl, slowly mix in the sugar until light and foamy.

5) Continue beating while you very slowly add the hot milk ( minus the vanilla bean). This can be tedious and messy, just hang in there. Add the vanilla extract if you did not use a bean.

6) Strain the mixture into your dish with a sieve, this removes any weird little eggs bits or forgotten vanilla beans ;-)

7) Boil enough water to fill a baking pan that will hold your dish.

8) Place the pan and the dish of custard on the lower rack of your oven, then carefully pour in the boiling water.
9) Reduce the oven temperature to 325 and bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

10) I prefer to to serve my creme caramel chilled or at room temperature.  Either way it should rest for several hours or overnight in the fridge. Since I make it in a large dish, I don't bother to unmold the whole thing. Instead I scoop out the portions, serving them in small ramekins with the caramel sauce drizzled over. You can remover any caramel that sticks to the bottom with a tablespoon or two of boiling water.

The only problem with this dessert is that it disappears too quickly !!

What to make for Valentine's Day.

Reservations always come to mind on Valentine's Day...

If you cook a lot like I do, going out to eat is a special treat.

If you decide to stay home or need to because of work, the kids or money, there are still ways to make that evening meal a special one.

Set a nice table, use good dishes, fresh flowers and some candles.

It's definitely the time to splurge.

Make something you love but usually don't have, maybe a nice piece of fresh fish or crab or a rich dish of pasta.

Here are a few ideas from past posts.

I recently posted about crab manicotti. With crab in season this would be  fabulous, to make it vegetarian just replace the crab with some steamed spinach. Serve with a simple green salad.

If life is too busy for something with lots of steps: roasting a whole chicken is so easy, makes the house smell good and it you have kids they will love it too. Serve it with your favorite roasted vegetables or a beet salad, and cornbread.

For a beautiful plant based meal, try the red lentil soup, if you have lots of time make the stuffed flatbreads to go with. If time is short serve with store bought naan and a kale salad.

Now for dessert !!
If chocolate is your true love, have a fresh simple dinner and crown it with a rich sinfully chocolate dessert.
Molten Chocolate Cakes are very quick and so decadent, especially served with vanilla ice cream.

Or the flourless chocolate cake, my friend Susan makes is exquisite and can be made in advance.

If chocolate is not your thing how about a cheesecake tart or a ginger cake with hot caramel sauce.

If my ideas don't quite fit your tastes, browse this blog for more inspiration.

Food made with love and shared with the ones we love is the best valentine there is :-)