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 !!
