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. 

In My Kitchen, September 2022

As I write this, the US Open Tennis tournament is on in New York, and Aussie tennis players Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis are playing doubles. They won the Australian Open Doubles title earlier this year in Melbourne, so here's hoping they do well in the US. We love our tennis, so during this wet weather we are having here in Cairns whilst on holiday, it's great to have the tennis as a backup entertainment plan, when I'm not cooking or reading or knitting (ha, ha), I'm not a great knitter. In an ideal world, we would travel to New York to watch the US Open live one day, never say never. It's on the bucket list anyway.

I haven't been doing much shopping for interesting items to showcase here in Cairns in the city centre, as every couple of days a new Cruise ship is arriving carrying over 2,000 passengers, so the city is alive with tourists, which I suppose in a sense is what I am. Exciting times for Cairn's businesses as they really suffered during the Covid pandemic, being a tourist city. Now all the restaurants and coffee shops in the city heart are bursting at the seams so that's great for the economy. So far I think they have all been P&O ships arriving in Cairns. These ships are massive cruise liners. We haven't been tempted yet to take a cruise, have you?

Pumpkins have been so delicious this Autumn, so I've bought two and made very good use of them. I've roasted pumpkin, steamed pumpkin, mashed pumpkin, and here's a couple of the recipes with pumpkin I've made recently. I find it so hard to resist buying a whole pumpkin from the farmer, how about you. I'll be making my Pumpkin and Apricot fruit cake soon as well as unsurprisingly I still have some pumpkin in the frig crisper.

Lots of Pumpkin peeling

A Kent (Jap) pumpkin purchased at the iconic Rusty's markets in Cairns was put to good use. I made a batch of our favourite Curried Pumpkin and Coconut soup, as the wet inclement weather continued.

 Ingredients:

1 kg Jap pumpkin (peeled and chopped into 3 cm pieces), also known as Kent pumpkin
2 cups of chicken stock, or 2 chicken stock cubes and 2 cups of water
2 large garlic cloves crushed
2 teaspoons curry powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 can of organic coconut milk (400 ml) or use Coconut Cream or ordinary cream, but only 200 ml, and top up with water if needed.

Method:

Place first five ingredients into a 2 litre  casserole dish. Cook on High for 15-20 minutes in your microwave oven until all pieces of pumpkin are well cooked. You might need to take out the dish carefully, give the pumpkin a stir to move the middle pieces to the outside, and pop it back in the oven for 5 another minutes. This depends on your pumpkin.

Remove dish when the pumpkin is cooked, allowing the pumpkin to cool slightly.

Puree pumpkin with a stick blender. Stir in coconut milk and add seasoning to your taste. I used a lot of pepper. (Cream can be substituted.)

Cook on high for another 4 minutes in the microwave.

Garnish with fresh garlic chives or coriander, finely chopped.

I bought this beautiful fresh produce at Rusty's market as well as the pumpkin. 

Then there was International Scone Week, and I made some delicious Pumpkin scones. Here's the link to those and a photo in case you missed it. I was so thrilled with those scones.

Link to Pumpkin Scones.

I'm taking this opportunity to put up my two Lemon Curd recipes, as a reader noticed that the link to my stovetop Lemon Curd recipe wasn't live. So here it is, and also the link to my Microwave Lemon Curd recipe which has been one of the most popular recipes on my blog. I've made a couple of batches of the microwave style Lemon Curd during this month's lemon season and it's always delicious.

Link to Stovetop Lemon Curd recipe

Link to Microwave Lemon Curd Recipe

Last week I cooked a Spring and Lamb and Vegetable Shepherds Pie, Yum.

This Cherry and Brandy Fruit cake was the perfect boiled fruit cake to make to bring away with us on holiday. We are working through the second one now. This recipe makes two 20 cm cakes.

This post is part of the International In My Kitchen monthly series hosted by the lovely Sherry at Sherry's Pickings. Here you can catch up on what food bloggers around the world are doing in their kitchens.

Warm wishes,

Pauline

Little Lemon Puddings

This lemon pudding dessert is the perfect finish to a delicious meal, tangy, lemony, citrussy, light and satisfying. My recipe celebrates the start of the lemon season for us from our backyard. 

In My Kitchen, August 2021

It's been a very good Winter for citrus this year, and we've been given bush lemons, limes and cumquats by friends which I've really appreciated, and which I've loved being able to cook with in various ways.

Lemon Delicious Pudding is a very popular self saucing pudding here, and I used a couple of the Bush Lemons I was given to make this during the week, however any lemons will be suitable. This recipe produces a luscious and creamy lemon sauce topped with a soft lemon flavoured sponge which is an absolute joy to eat. It is also a cinch to make. The recipe is straight out of the iconic Stephanie Alexander's cookbook, The Cook's Companion. Some Lemon Delicious Puddings don't create enough sauce for my taste, but this one does. It is also very easy to prepare quickly, and can be placed in the oven when the main course is resting. I love puddings that can be cooking while we are eating our main course, they are so easy to coordinate.

The Best Lemon Delicious Pudding recipe:

Ingredients:

Juice of 2 lemons and the zest of one

60 g butter

1 1/2 cups castor sugar

3 eggs, separated

3 tablespoons self-raising flour

1 1/2 cups milk

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 deg. C. and butter a 1 litre ovenproof basin or serving dish. 

Zest 1 lemon and juice both.

In a food processor, cream the butter with the zest and the sugar, then add the egg yolks.

Add the flour and milk alternately to make a smooth batter.

Scrape the mixture from the side of the processor bowl and blend in the lemon juice.

Tip all of this mixture into a bowl.

In a separate dry bowl whisk the egg whites until firm and creamy and fold them into the prepared basin.

Stand the basin in a baking dish and pour in hot water so that it comes halfway up the sides of the basin.

Transfer the basin and dish carefully to the oven and bake for 1 hour. Check it however after 45 minutes, and when the sponge is browned and firm to the touch, it is cooked.

Serve when it has cooled slightly.

It is delicious served with ice cream or pouring cream.

I posted the recipe for my microwave lemon curd recently and here is the link to that if you missed it. I've frozen a couple of bottles which should last 12 months in the freezer, and I made these lemon curd tartlets using some bought sweet pastry shells for convenience, and decorated  them with dehydrated slices of cumquat. They were fun to make and delicious to eat. Lime juice makes delicious curd as well.

Speaking of citrus, I also made some delicious cumquat marmalade last week and here's the link to the recipe if you missed it.  That's the end of my story about citrus.

Cumquat Marmalade

 We've been spending a lot of time in the garden, as its been a perfect month for gardening with lots of Winter sunshine, and this orchid flowered a few weeks ago which was a real surprise for me. It's still in flower which is the nice thing about orchids, they stay in flower for a long time. I bring it inside to the kitchen for a couple of days and then take it outside again for some extra light.

 

We have a nice selection of herbs growing in sunny spots in the garden. Parsley and basil are growing close to our back door in large pots. This basil plant is nearly finished but I have a few more sweet basil plants growing in the courtyard. Shallots are also growing well here.

Sweet basil, parsley, lemon thyme, oregano, and sage are growing in pots in our sunny courtyard. I use a selection of these most days in my cooking. They are very easy to grow in full sun as long as they are watered every couple of days.

Some cheery marigolds provide a burst of colour near the herbs.

My two Phaius tankervilleae or Swamp Orchid plants, have long spikes on them, the best yet, so I am hopeful they will flower beautifully this year. The bugs eating them have been a problem in the past.

Small pies are an economical way to use up leftovers and make great comfort food. I had made a batch of chill con carne mince, very tasty and not very spicy, and it made a delicious pie filling for some Sunday night pies. We bought a pie maker when we were on holidays in Cairns a few weeks ago, just a reasonably priced one from K Mart, and made 30 small beef stew pies the first time we used it up there. There were 6 people for dinner and they all disappeared, the pies that is. I don't feel guilty at all using this occasionally as the pies are delicious and I feel as if I am having a night off when I use it.  Pies always seem to be a treat.

Fill the pastry base, top it with a circle of pastry, wait about 8 minutes and these delicious pies are the result.

The Pie Maker

Given what is happening in the southern states at the moment with lockdown, and the virus showing no signs of slowing down there, I feel as if I have a lot to be thankful for. With almost 300 new covid cases a day in New South Wales, the lockdown will continue there for a while longer, and could continue into the regional areas. Melbourne is into their sixth lockdown, which has been so disruptive, and very difficult for school children with their end of year exams looming. Hopefully the lockdown in Brisbane finishes this weekend. We are well here, we can move around freely without wearing masks, we have our own lovely home to relax in, and a garden which we enjoy, and lovely friends to spend time with, and Locky, our Border Collie dog who brings a lot of joy to our lives. When we have our second Covid injection in a week's time,  I will feel a lot happier though, and more confident about taking a holiday within Queensland when lockdown finishes. If only it were easier to travel overseas to visit our son and grandchildren who we adore. Hopefully that will be achievable in 12 months time, however there are many other grandparents in the same situation. I just have to be strong. Meanwhile, we are enjoying a simple life, and also hope to start another beehive in a couple of weeks, which we are looking forward to. We finished our last bottle of our own honey last week, so now we are buying it from a local beekeeper, who was very supportive when we had our own bees and lost them to disease.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event.  If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens. 

Sending love and hugs to you wherever you are,

Stay safe,

Pauline

Lemon and Ricotta Mini-Bundt Cakes

These cakes are a celebration of citrus fruits in season, a tangy theme running through my sweets baking this Winter. 

Fill these little lovelies with lemon or lime curd, dust with some sifted icing sugar, garnish with a slice of dehydrated cumquat, (optional of course) and sit back and enjoy with fresh cream or yoghurt, depending on the time of day. Lemons and limes have been abundant this Winter, and quite interchangeable when cooking sweets.

Bush Lemon Curd, microwave style, and letting the sunshine in.

 

Lemons are abundant here at present so if you have some growing where you live or are given some I urge you to try making this Lemon Curd. This is my latest batch of Lemon Curd using Bush Lemons made with Jill's very juicy fruit, however any kind of juicy lemon in season can be used.  

Making the best Lemon Curd from the Bush Lemon tree

 I just love citrus season, don't you? With all of these juicy lemons available, I decided to make some Lemon curd or Lemon butter as we used to call it. Bottles of the curd will keep in  your frig for a long time if well sealed in sterilised jars, and is refrigerated after opening. It is a precious commodity. I remember always being told during citrus season at home that the preferred lemon to make Lemon Butter from is the Bush Lemon, and my Mum was always on the hunt for a fruiting Bush Lemon tree, as each year she would make a batch of Lemon Butter. However two lemons  makes only two to three small jars with this recipe so it is good to collect a lot of Bush Lemons and small bottles if possible. The traditional lemons growing on most backyard trees or available in the supermarkets these days will still produce a nice Lemon curd which is probably what most people need to use.

The juicy Bush Lemon

The Bush lemon tree is a species with a very thick skin, and a true lemon flavour, however it doesn't fall into the Bush tucker category as it is not native to Australia.  The fruit are extremely juicy. Surprisingly, the roughness of the rind grates very well to provide a terrific zest so valuable in many dishes using lemon. I have been fortunate to be given some Bush Lemons this week, and have made Lemon Curd with some of them. It's nice to be able to give a bottle of  my Lemon curd back to my generous friend as a thank you for the lemons. Most larger Australian properties particularly in the subtropics, always had a Bush Lemon tree in the backyard in years gone by, and they still tend to self seed in the bush. However they are very prickly, so if you find one take care when picking the knobbly looking fruit.



Lemon butter is delicious on toast for breakfast, or on scones. It also transforms into a very quick and easy morning or afternoon tea when used to fill small tart shells, which are available already baked from the supermarkets. Or if you feel like doing some fiddly pastry baking, make your own. I can remember my Mum and my dear old Aunts using it to sandwich together sponge cakes for Church afternoon teas and fetes, and then just sprinkling icing sugar over the top layer. They were always delicious. Another idea with a sponge cake was to hollow out a recess in the top and fill it with lemon curd.  We are only limited by our imagination really and lemon curd is still a favourite across the generations.

However beware, there is a lot of stirring and meditation involved in making this recipe. So make yourself a cup of tea, put on some nice relaxing music and prepare to spend some time at the stove. There are no shortcuts with making Lemon curd as I found out with my second batch, when I thought I would increase the heat slightly. Whilst it didn't boil or  curdle, there were just a few faint white streaks through  the mixture, where the egg white had started to cook, so patience and lots of stirring on a low to moderate heat is the key.  However the streaks haven't affected the consistency or the flavour. I just won't win first prize in the cooking section at the Agricultural Show this year with that batch, Ha, ha.

Keep stirring slowly until the mixture starts to thicken, and with my first batch I wasn't sure if it was thick enough as it can be hard to tell from the mixture in a hot saucepan. To test the consistency I placed a small amount on a small saucer and it set beautifully straight away, so it was ready to ladle into hot, sterilised jars. I filled two average size jam jars from the first batch and three smaller jars from the second batch.

Lemon Curd recipe

Ingredients:

2 large lemons, or 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
100 g unsalted butter
175 g sugar
3 eggs, lightly whisked and strained

Finely grate the the zest and juice the lemons.
In a heavy-based saucepan, combine the butter, lemon juice, zest and sugar. Stir constantly over the heat until the sugar has dissolved.

Add the whisked and strained eggs to the saucepan off the heat and stir to mix well.

Cook the mixture over a gentle heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened.

Do not allow the mixture to boil or it will curdle.

This recipe is taken from Stephanie Alexander's book, "The cook's companion".

If you happen to make this recipe or really like lemon curd, or remember Bush Lemons growing in  your backyard, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks for visiting and have a lovely weekend.

Best wishes

Pauline