Lemon Twist?

As promised, I am finally writing my post on Meyer Lemons. I must admit upfront that the credit for a good portion of this blog will have to go to my husband and partner in life, who puts his heart and soul into making our yearly supply of Limoncello (see recipe below). Now, if you have not had the opportunity to try a Meyer lemon, you need to stop reading and get to your local grocer to pick some up. I say this because this is the best time of the year to find them in the stores. You may have to pay three times the amount of regular lemons, but trust me when I tell you, they are well worth it!

These little lemons are a step above the usual. In the stores, they seem to usually be smaller in size and thinner skinned then their cousins (but on our tree, they are as big as navel oranges - everything's bigger in TX, right!), with a milder, sweeter taste, gives way to a whole new citrus experience. I love to go into my backyard with my old baskets and pick them while imagining I'm in an Italian village getting ready to take them back to my villa and create lovely, scented delicacies. (Really I do!)

On December 31 each year, my sweet husband picks about 100 of the best lemons on the tree to use for his Limoncello. Making it on New Year's Eve has become a family tradition and the batches seem to get bigger each year. We then look forward to bottling and tasting it at our annual SXSW (South by Southwest) party in March, the first chance to sip the year's batch of icy cold, sweet lemon elixir with family and friends as we sit on the patio or around the fire pit.

Can I just say that being able to walk out and pick a Meyer Lemon as needed is wonderful! I like to squeeze them in my water every morning for a burst of "C" and then throw them down the disposal for a lovely lemon scent in my kitchen. I love that I can make a full compliment of lemon-based treats. Even more fun is trying new recipes. This year, I added a Lemon Olive Oil Cake - a new one for me - to my list of baked goods.

Finally, after all the Limoncello is made and the lemons have been baked into pies and cakes and preserved in jars with salt, then it's time to juice the rest and fill my freezer with enough juice to last the rest of the year. A glass of icy cold lemonade after gardening under our hot Texas sun hits the spot. Or enjoying it during warm evenings on the patio, eating tapas and drinking sweet lemon-drop martinis with friends. Well, all I can say is "Ahhhh!!" because it's those times that I get to relish once again in this "winter" treat. So whether your putting a twist on a new recipe or a twist in your martini, make it a Meyer - I'm jus' sayin'!



Limoncello

1.5 Cup Lemon Zest (25-35 lemons, depending on size)
1 Liter Vodka (80 Proof)
500 ml Everclear (190 Proof)
1 Liter Simple Syrup (Ratio: 1 cup water/.75 cup sugar)

Thoroughly wash lemons with cold water and dry/


With a microplane, zest lemons.


Put zest in sterile, sealable jar.


Add vodka and Everclear, seal, and let sit in a cool, dry, dark place for 30-45 days. Add simple syrup, seal and let sit 14 more days. Strain and filter (cheesecloth and coffee filters do the trick) and place in freezer overnight. Filter again for clarity. *NOTE: It should go without saying, but Everclear is EXTREMELY flammable. Please take appropriate precautions when handling


If 190 proof Everclear is not available in your area, substitute with 151 proof Everclear and use 750 ml Simple Syrup instead of 1 liter.

This will result in almost 2.5 liters of ~70 proof Limoncello




Lemon Olive Oil Cake

Using Meyer lemons from my back yard, I used the following recipe from Epicurious.com with these changes: Meyers (of course) instead of regular lemons and I sprinkled vanilla sugar on top of the cake to give it a hint of vanilla flavor. For garnish I placed a few candied Meyer slices on top. This was a spongy, beautiful cake suitable for tea or with your coffee in the morning. Oh, I almost forgot! The olive oil flavor is strong when it first comes out of the oven. However, if you wait a day, it seems to mellow the flavor and the lemon becomes more prominent.



Good old fashioned Lemon bars - Adapted from Betty Crocker

2 C. flour
1 C. butter (2 sticks)
1/2 Cup powdered sugar


Preheat oven to 350
Mix the above and pat into a 13x9 in. pan lined with parchment paper.
Bake 20 minutes until lightly brown.

While the crust is baking mix the following in a mixer on high speed until light and fluffy.
2 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
2 tbsp of finely grated Meyer lemon peel
5 tbsp of fresh Meyer lemon juice
1 and 1/4 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 large eggs

Pour over the hot crust. Place back in the oven for approx. 25-35 minutes until it's golden on top and no indentation remains when you touch lightly in the center.

Cool on a wire rack dust with powder sugar, cut into squares. Size only matters on you and how much lemon your craving.



Preserved Lemons (used in salad dressings and Moroccan cuisine etc.)

Place a quartered, washed and dried Meyer Lemon in a clean mason jar. Pour kosher salt all over and in-between the lemon. Push with your fingers to squish it down to place another quartered lemon on top. Continue to pour more salt until the lemons are completely covered. Place the lid on tight and turn upside down. Now place in your fridge for a couple days. When the juice has rose to the top, open, drain off and pour a layer of olive oil over it. It should stay preserved in your fridge for months. When you are ready to use your lemons, make sure you rinse a lemon wedge really good to remove all the salt off of it. Then mince very fine to add to all your vinaigrettes, sauces, soups or salads.

When Life Gives You Citrus!

About 9 years ago, we moved from sunny California to the big state of Texas. This was a huge shock to our systems and not for the obvious reasons you may think. Take our backyard garden - when we were in California, we were spoiled by the soil and the weather. We could virtually throw seeds into the earth and up would spring a glorious garden or plentiful fruit trees. Of course, the first time we started our garden here in Austin, we had the same expectations. Unfortunately, the results were very different. My dear husband hit that hard Texas clay earth with the shovel and we started to realize maybe we don't have the magic green thumb after all. Still, we persevered and over the years we have managed to start a few gardens and harvest crops not nearly as abundant as we had grown accustomed too (humbling, absolutely!). A few pumpkins (grown from old jack-o'lanterns thrown in the compost pile), lots of peppers (naturally) and a surprising herb garden have been the highlights. Over the years, we have learned what we can and can't grow and what veggies we still need to learn more about as far as growing in this environment.

With all that said, we may not have the fresh and plentiful veggies growing in the backyard garden (there's always the local farmer's market!) but what we do have are 2 of the most prolific citrus trees around. Granted, they are transplants like us and we didn't listen to locals that said citrus wouldn't grow here. We have one Meyer Lemon that we brought in our moving truck from California and my Mom brought us our Moro Blood-Orange tree in her moving van when she moved from California to Austin a few years later. Both are now firmly rooted in our Texas backyard, just like us. Every year, the Meyer produces the most amazing lemons - which I will be writing about soon. This blog, however, is about our beautiful blood-orange tree. If you have never had the pleasure of drinking fresh blood-orange juice, then I suggest you put that on your must-do "foodie list". Having a tree with an abundant supply allows us to try many different recipes and still have plenty left over to bless friends and family.

We started our holidays off with blood-orange mimosas on Christmas morning, a glorious and sweet ruby-colored drink that makes regular mimosas blush in comparison. I have made blood-orange vinaigrette's for salads as well as candied orange peel. My daughter and I baked rich, golden loaves of cranberry-orange bread as gifts for neighbors. We infuse the zest into vodka and make lovely martini's. And this year, I attempted to make blood-orange marmalade. Tonight, we had blood-orange sorbet for dessert and Wow! so yummy! So with all the recipes and new ideas out there, one would think that if life gives you all this beautiful citrus, why just make juice? I'm jus' sayin'!

Blood Orange Marmalade - I found an orange marmalade recipe online from "The Barefoot Contessa" as a base and revised it to make blood-orange marmalade. If you would like to try her recipe with plain oranges you can find it here. I suggest you start the the night before, right before you get ready to go to bed.

In a large stainless steel pot, slice 8 medium size blood-oranges in half and take out seeds. Take each half and slice paper thin half-moons from them. (Ina Garten suggests using a mandolin for the slicing to make this chore quicker - good luck! I tried mine and ended up with a mess and the thought that bloody fingers instead of blood-oranges was enough for me to use just my knife) Transfer all the slices as well as any juice to the pot. Fill the pot with 8 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil stirring frequently. As soon as it comes to a boil, turn of heat and add 8 1/2 cups of sugar to the pot. Stir until dissolved. Put the lid on the pot and let this sit on the counter overnight. The next morning, bring the pot with all the oranges, sugar and water to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 2 hours. Bring the heat back up and boil gently for about 30 minutes. Skim any foam off the top. At this point, use a candy thermometer and watch for the marmalade to come to 220 degrees F. It should be a thick consistency with a dark, golden-red color. Pour the marmalade into clean mason jars and place in a hot water bath to seal the lids. After they have been canned, they should last in a cool pantry for up to a year - that is, if you have not opened it and put it on a toasted English muffin, in which case I promise that jar will go fast. Enjoy!

Blood Orange Sorbet - Absolutely simple! I followed David Lebovitz's recipe which was very precise and you can too! I find David's work to be clean and clear and it's always a joy to read his blog.