Lemon Sago Dessert with a Sour Cream and Lemon Curd Topping

This edition of Lemon Sago dessert was the best I have ever made, and I've made it often, and I'm sure that's because the flavour of our home grown lemons shone through. I used fully ripened and golden organic lemons from our backyard lemon tree. The lemons on our tree often don't make it to this stage of ripening, poor things, as when I need a lemon, I pluck it from the tree and use it. 

These lemons were allowed to fully ripen because we were away for much of February, and there was also a lot of rain, so the tree enjoyed ideal conditions. I use lemons almost everyday one way or another. However, Lemon Sago can be made with any variety of lemon you have access to.

We're really not sure if our lemon tree is a Meyer, Eureka or a Lisbon lemon, as it is a very large fruit, golden when fully ripened and very juicy with a some seeds you can see in the photos. I suspect it is a very healthy Meyer lemon, because of the beautiful flavour and low acidity. It's growing in a pot in a sunny position in the garden, and we know that the roots have now worked their way through the base of the pot into the garden, so the tree whilst still not that large is spreading out. It's growing in good soil. This dessert was made out of the last crop of lemons which we picked only a couple of weeks ago and already the tree has new buds on it. I should take a photo of the tree for you, but it's raining, so not ideal conditions. Perhaps I'll post a photo on my next edition of IMK.

Lemon sago can be served on it's own in a dessert bowl, but can also be dressed up beautifully with a sour cream or creme fraiche and lemon curd topping in individual decorative glass dishes.  Mr. HRK just adores Lemon Sago, and after he ate this pudding and it's sour cream topping, he declared that it was restaurant quality. High praise indeed from him. He would be very happy though just eating it served with custard, as he and I both did when growing up. We both still love eating it now.

Ingredients for Lemon Sago dessert:

1/2 cup sago (100 gr.)
3/4 cup Castor Sugar
Grated zest of 3 lemons
3 cups of water
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of golden syrup

Ingredients for Sour Cream or Creme Fraiche topping:

200 g Sour Cream or Creme Fraiche

4-5 tablespoons Lemon Curd (depending on your taste and the curd), preferably homemade for better flavour

3 tablespoons toasted shredded coconut or coconut flakes

Finely grated lime zest from 1-2 limes for extra colour

1 tablespoon thinly sliced mint (optional)

Serves 4-6 depending on the size of your serving glasses

Let's Cook:

1. Wash sago; soak for 2 hours in 300ml of water.  (Don't omit this step, or you will be stirring the mixture for what seems like hours.)
2. Rinse sago.
3. Combine sago, sugar, lemon zest, and water in a saucepan.
4. Bring to a gentle simmer. Stir regularly over a low to medium heat for 20 mins. or until sago is translucent, soft and thick with a jelly like consistency.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice and golden syrup and cool for 30 minutes.

Sour Cream or Creme Fraiche topping:

1. Gently mix the Lemon Curd into the sour cream in a small bowl. Taste to ensure you can taste the Lemon Curd.
2. Add spoonfuls of the sour cream to the surface of each lemon pudding.
3. Top with some freshly shredded mint. Scatter with the toasted coconut flakes and grated lime zest and serve. (I didn't have any mint this time, but it's nice to use if you have it.)

When writing my recipes, I am always trying to give you the most cost effective options available for ingredients, without sacrificing the flavour or quality. Creme Fraiche is a lovely ingredient to use but is more expensive to buy in Australia than Sour Cream. Sour Cream can generally be substituted for Creme Fraiche. This is a very economical dessert to make and so refreshing in Summer, however we have enjoyed it as much in Winter.

Or, your Lemon Sago can just be served with custard or whipped cream to your family. The KISS principle works well sometimes, ha, ha.

My preferred method of making Lemon Curd is in the microwave. (Please click on highlighted link for the recipe.) It's quick and simple and produces a wonderful result.

However if you wish to make your Lemon Curd, or Lemon Butter as we called it many moons ago, here is the link to my recipe for doing so. This is a more time consuming way but equally delicious. I often make more Lemon Curd than I need, and freeze the excess in bottles for later. The lovely Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella, first published the recipe for microwave Lemon Curd.

Since making this batch of Lemon Sago, I have zested and juiced the remaining lemons. The zest is in a small freezer bag, and the juice is in ice cube trays in the freezer for later.

If you know about lemons and can tell from the photos what type of lemon tree ours is, I would love to hear from you.

I have republished this post, as Lemon Sago was one of the first recipes I ever wrote up when I first started blogging over 10 years ago. I've updated the photos, and changed the way I served it. It is such a versatile dessert.

Thanks for dropping by,

Pauline