justpigs

March 6, 2010

Weekender: Lemon Buttermilk Muffins

With the persistence of cloudy skies and seemingly constant wet pavement, I must again thank the heavens for bright winter citrus. For those with an abundance of lemons to use this winter, this is a great, easy recipe (no more than 30 minutes start to finish) that will start the day with a ray of sunshine. Perfect with a cup of tea.

Lemon Buttermilk Muffins

--adapted from The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham

Makes about 12 muffins

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 TBS honey

2 eggs

1-1/4 cups buttermilk

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

Grated zest of one lemon

Lemon Syrup:

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar

3 TBS water

Preheat oven to 375F. Butter muffin tins.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a large bowl and whisk well to evenly distribute ingredients. In a glass or plastic liquid measuring cup measure buttermilk and add honey, eggs, melted butter and lemon zest and beat well with a fork. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix gently with the fork until just combined (will be a little lumpy).

Fill the muffin tins with the batter. Bake at 375F for 15 minutes or until the top begin to turn golden and a toothpick or wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

While the muffins are baking, put the sugar, lemon juice, and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for just a minute and then remove from the heat and set aside.

When the muffins are done and you have pulled them out of the oven poke them gently a few times with the tines of a fork. Line your countertop with a piece of parchment or waxed paper (this just make clean up a little easier). Set the muffin tins on top of the parchment and spoon the the syrup over the muffins.

The syrup will sink into the holes made with the fork (and will roll off the muffins onto the pan and the parchment). Let the muffins cool for a minute or two in the pans and then turn the muffins out and eat!

These are best eaten warm, but I don't think you'll have a problem with leftovers. Happy Weekend!!

Filed under // baking lemons vegetarian weekender

Comments [3]

February 13, 2010

Lemon Crab Risotto

Friday nights have become my favorite night of the week. Whenever we can, a group of us get together for a Friday play date. That means pizza party for the kids and low-key supper and end-of-week wind down for the adults.

Last night, the cupboards were pretty bare, but I still had the crab, lemons from our tree, and some risotto in the pantry. Enough for a casual meal that would warm our tummies.

Lemon Crab Risotto

(Enough to comfortably feed 5 adults)

5 cups chicken stock

2 cups risotto

4 TBS butter

3 TBS diced shallots

1/2 diced red pepper

white wine

Zest of 2 meyer lemons

Juice of 2 meyer lemons

2 cups crab

3 TBS chopped parsley

Salt

Freshly ground pepper

Bring stock to a boil, then turn it down to the lowest setting and cover.

Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add shallots and red pepper and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add risotto and lemon zest and sauté, stirring, for a couple more minutes. Add enough white wine to come just to the top of the rice without covering it. Stir constantly until the wine is absorbed. Add about a cup of warm stock and stir until it is absorbed. Add salt to taste. Continue adding stock, about 1/2 cup at a time until rice is cooked. This will take between 20 and 30 minutes (start tasting for doneness at about 15 minutes). When the risotto is done, remove it from the heat, add the crab and parsley. Squeeze the juice of two lemons over everything. Grind some fresh pepper over it as well. Violà! Dinner.

You could very easily make this without the crab and it would still be delicious.

Filed under // can be vegetarian crab lemons risotto

Comments [1]

February 12, 2010

Easy-Peasy: Crab & Sour Orange Spaghetti

My pal Stephanie just set me up with a wealth of crab. I spent the better part of Wednesday evening cracking it all and was left with 2-1/2 lbs of beautiful lump crab meat.

I searched and searched through recipes trying to decide what to make with this marvelous bounty. Mostly, I was uninspired. There were two recipes I ran across that completely challenged my culinary imagination: Mushroom and Crab Chowder from the San Francisco Chronicle and Crab Cakes with Wasabi-Caper Sauce from the new Gourmet Today. I will probably have to make both of these, but right then I couldn't be bothered trying something crazy that I couldn't even get my brain around. I wanted to make a dish that was easy, quick, and tasty.

I thought about what I had on hand. At first I considered crab and lemon risotto and I probably would have made it if I had had the time. But alas, no time to stand over a pot for 45 minutes that night. I decided to fall back on our quick dinner mainstay: pasta. I was thinking a lemon, garlic butter, crab thing would be good. Then I had a flash of inspiration. What about those sour Seville oranges hanging out in the pantry? Oh, yes. Oh. Yes.

This recipe needs a little bit of spice to pull the flavors together, so even if you don't like the hot stuff, drop in just a pinch. It takes all of about 15 minutes to make.

Crab & Sour Orange Spaghetti

(feeds 2 big people and 2 little people)

1 lb spaghetti

6 TBS butter

5 cloves garlic, chopped

Zest of 2 Seville (sour) oranges (*substitute lemons if you can't get sour oranges)

Juice of 1 Seville orange

1-1/3 cups lump crab meat

Salt

Crushed Red Pepper to taste

Bring buttered, salted water to a boil. When the water is ready add the pasta.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic and sauté a couple of minutes. Add orange zest. (Butter will foam up.) Sauté for a couple of minutes more. Keep warm over low heat.

Before draining pasta reserve 2 cups pasta water.

Drain pasta and put in a large bowl. Pour garlic orange butter over the noodles. Add crab. Squeeze the juice of one Seville orange over the pasta and slowly add pasta water until the noodles are moist and ever-so-slightly saucy. Mix well. Salt to taste and add crushed red pepper.

I just finished off the leftovers from last night and the unique flavor of the orange with the spice is terrific. mmmm.

Filed under // Seville oranges crab easy peasy lemons pasta

Comments [1]

February 8, 2010

Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake

I'm still on a lemon kick--as I am every year at this time. During one of my recent web wanderings, I came across this recipe for Lemon Olive Oil Cake. It is very nearly a soufflé--but don't let that intimidate you. This is one of the easiest cakes you'll ever make.

I think the way this cake tastes depends very much on the quality and flavor of the olive oil you use. The headnote on the recipe says you can use either regular or extra virgin. I used a very mild extra virgin, but will try it next time with regular.

In future, since I was using Meyer Lemons rather than conventional lemons, I will increase the lemon juice to make it a bit more tangy.

The cake puffs up during cooking and the result is an oh, so light and zingy interior enclosed in a perfectly delicate crisp crust that looks like a slightly rumpled bed.

This cake is not overly sweet and would be an ideal finish to a heavier meal. It would dreamy with an herb infused lemon ice cream. But I think the way I will eat it tomorrow is with a little, minty berry salad and a cup of milky tea sometime around 4pm.

Filed under // baking cake lemons soufflé vegetarian

Comments [5]

February 1, 2010

Two Lemon Sorbets

In honor of Kim’s request to “Keep the lemon recipes coming,” I want to share two lemon sorbet recipes I made this past weekend.

Because I was making them for a dinner party in the evening, I got started early. I mixed up the ingredients in the morning and let them chill in the fridge for a couple of hours. When I returned to freeze the sorbets in the late afternoon, I hit a snag: my ice cream freezer was not cold enough for some reason (it is the kind that you freeze ahead of time). I could not get either of the sorbets beyond the slushy stage. Argh!

Luckily, I had several hours before dessert eating would commence, so I packaged up the slush and got it into the freezer. I decided to go old school (i.e. freeze and mix, freeze and mix, repeat, repeat, repeat). A couple of times before we left the house, I stirred the slush. When it was time to leave I dumped all the ice from the freezer into my little cooler, along with two frozen bricks of blue ice, and nestled in the sherbets. Then we puttered across town.

When we arrived at at our friends' home, I whisked the sorbets into the freezer and continued the freeze and mix regimen.

In the end, both sorbets firmed up enough to serve. Even though they weren’t perfectly frozen, they were still tasty. As it turned out, our host had--for some mysterious but fortuitous reason--purchased raspberries that day. They were the perfect finishing touch.

I will surely make both of these recipes again. Rob, who doesn’t much like fruity desserts, ate seconds and thirds. Both versions are bright and light and incredibly easy to make. Especially if you have a good, very cold ice cream freezer…but even if you don’t.

Meyer Lemon Sorbet

--adapted from Chez Panisse Desserts by Lindsey Shere

3-5 Meyer lemons

1 cup plus 3 TBS sugar

4 cups water

2 TBS white wine or Champagne (optional)

Zest one lemon. Juice the lemons until you have about ¾ cup lemon juice. Strain the juice into a bowl and add the peel.

Heat the sugar with 1 cup of water until the sugar dissolves. Add the remaining 3 cups of water. Pour the sugar-water into the bowl with the lemon peel and juice. Add wine or champagne if using (this keeps the sherbet from freezing rock hard). Chill completely in the refrigerator (at least 2 hours or overnight). Freeze according the instructions that came with your ice cream maker (or put in a loaf pan or relatively flat Tupperware and put in the freezer for several hours, stirring approximately every hour).

Meyer Lemon Buttermilk Sorbet

--adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

2 cups well-shaken buttermilk

¾ cup light corn syrup

Zest from 3 medium Meyer lemons

¼ cup lemon juice

¼ cup sugar

Stir all ingredients together making sure the sugar dissolves. Refrigerate the mixture until well chilled (at least 2 hours or overnight). Freeze according to the instructions that came with your ice cream maker (or put in a loaf pan or relatively flat Tupperware and put in the freezer for several hours, stirring approximately every hour).

Filed under // ice cream lemons sorbet vegetarian

Comments [3]

January 24, 2010

Lemon Curd

Our Meyer Lemon tree is back in business after a couple of skinny years due to a bit of suffering during our house renovation. It's a typical bumper crop this year and I'm in full production mode of all things lemon-y. I made preserved lemons a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, I made a batch of lemon curd, which has become one of our most popular family treats.

I have always made the Alice Water's recipe in The Art of Simple Food. I like that it has comparatively little sugar. Lemon curd is fairly simple and should only take about 20 minutes start-to-finish.

Lemon Curd

adapted from the The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters

3-4 lemons

2 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

a pinch of salt

1/3 cup sugar

2 TBS milk

6 TBS unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Finely grate the peel of one lemon. Set aside.

Juice the lemons until you have about 1/2 c. of lemon juice. Set aside.

(download)

Mix the eggs, yolks, salt, sugar, and milk together until just combined. Add the juice and the grated peel. Put the mixture into a small non-reactive saucepan and add the butter. Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it begins to get thick and cling to the back of the spoon, 7-10 minutes. As soon as the mixture gets thick remove it from the heat and keep stirring to cool it. Do not overheat the mixture or the eggs will cook and curdle (although if you get a little cooked egg in your curd, just strain the curd through a fine mesh sieve and it should be fine). The mixture will thicken a bit more as it cools. Put it into a glass bowl or jars. When it cools to room temperature, cover and store in the fridge.

If you can resist eating it straight out of the jar, you can spread lemon curd on toast, scones, pancakes, crepes, or muffins. You can mix it with whipped cream to make a lovely lemon mousse (or use it as a frosting), or use it to make a lemon tart.

I got out my cookbooks last night and found a couple of interesting variations. Mark Bittman, in How to Cook Everything, includes an option of adding a teaspoon of finely chopped ginger. I think I will try that next time I make it. Bittman uses a full cup of sugar; however, which is too much for me. The recipe in The Gourmet Cookbook uses even more sugar at 1-1/3 cups. Both the Bittman and the Gourmet recipes call for whole eggs (three and four, respectively) and don't require any separating, which would eliminate one step in the recipe above.

Filed under // lemons vegetarian

Comments [4]

Favorite Foodie Sites

Tags

lemons