Lemon Curd

And with all those left over egg yolks, I had to find a recipe to use them up. I didn't feel like making hollandaise or aioli. After the hammering my arteries have taken from that Devil's Food White-Out Cake and all that junk food on Sunday, I thought I had best stay away from butter and oil. However, my daughter loves Lemon Curd (or Lemon Honey), especially on toast in the morning, so after a quick Google perusal, I found an easy recipe on the Australian Cuisine site.

I made this in about 10 minutes literally. It was very easy. The most time consuming part was making the lemon zest!! It only made one jar, but has a yummy tart flavour which I prefer to anything too sweet. Mmmmm, breakfast with homemade wholegrain bread, toasted just enough with lashings of melted butter and lemon curd.....Okay, okay, so maybe this isn't such a healthy choice after all!!

I settled for scones and lemon curd for afternoon tea. Used my new book "Ladies, A Plate please" which had an interesting variation of using cream instead of butter. Much easier than rubbing all that butter into the flour. Would definitely make both the scones and the lemon curd again.

Gluten free lunch: Friands & Quinoa Salad

I have a very good friend who is gluten free and she was popping out for lunch today. Now, I knew Dorie Greenspan's chocolate chunkers were probably a no-go for a gluten-free lunch ;-) so I decided to check out a few blogs for some inspiration. Since we are heading into spring, I wanted something light and fresh.... maybe with a hint of herbs and crisp spring flavours.

Heidi at 101 cookbooks always has yummy, and very healthy recipes so I headed there. Found 2 great recipes...Lemon-scented quinoa salad recipe and Delicious big bowl - quinoa recipe. Hmm, which one to choose as they both sounded yummy, so I did a quick ingredients check.....Ok didn't have the entire ingredients for either of them, so amalgamated both the recipes. I added in asparagus (my first asparagus of the season, I have been waiting for this), cherry tomatoes, red onion and toasted pinenuts to the cooked quinoa and finished it with a lemon and garlic dressing and lashings of coriander. By now, you must know I love this herb, much to the disgust of the kids who always mutter, Oh no, not that smelly green grass again Mum!!!!


Quinoa is a fascinating grain. I love the way it goes from a hard, little ball and metamorphoses (is that a word, even?) into an alien looking worm thing. It is an ancient grain with a high nutritional value. It is light and fluffy when cooked, not unlike couscous, and has a slight nutty flavour. It is a versatile grain and can be used in loads of different ways. I prefer it as a salad and the beauty is that you can add whatever you like to it to have as a side dish or as a complete meal.

To finish we had Lemon and Blueberry Friands with coffee. A friand is a small French cake made with almond meal, egg whites, sugar and butter. Often fruit, such as berries, peaches or apples are added as well. They are crunchy on the outside, but light and sweet and melt in your mouth on the inside. These got another "Wow" from the Quality Control Inspector, as he tried to sneak a couple more from the plate when I wasn't looking.

The recipe I used for these was one by Allyson Gofton called Lemon Poppy Seed Friands. I didn't have any poppy seeds so omitted them. And to jazz them up a bit I pushed in 3 blueberries to the top of each friand before they went into the oven. Once they were cooked, I poured a lemon syrup over them. Mmmmm.

L is for Lemons and Limes

Source: peterpics924

With dreary winter upon us in New Zealand, an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables is clearly lacking in my gardens. However, I can always rely on the citrus trees to produce a crop every year without fail, apart from the mandarin tree as the goats ate that, but that is another story! So what is a girl to do with all these lemons and limes?

Just by chance I happened to be flicking through a mag in my lunch break the other day and came across what appeared to be the perfect recipe. I remember the wonderful lemon loaf my mother used to make that was drenched in sweet, but tangy lemon syrup and this seemed very reminiscent of that. So as soon as I got home I got busy in the kitchen. And oh my, this was absolutely divine. It all disappeared that night and I was begged to make it again and again!

Lemon & Lime Loaf

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Zest and juice of 1 lime

75ml oil

2 eggs

95g caster sugar

1 tsp salt

250g self raising flour

225 plain yoghurt

50g caster sugar (for sugar)

60g vanilla sugar

For the syrup, heat the lemon and lime juice with 50g caster sugar in a small saucepan on a medium element until the sugar dissolves. Set aside.

Cream the butter and 195g of caster sugar for 3 minutes on high speed until the mixture becomes white and fluffy.

Add grated lemon zest and lime zest with oil and whole eggs, and whisk until thick and pale in colour.

Add salt and yoghurt, mix for 30 seconds until combined, then fold in the flour. Pour mixture into a well greased loaf tin, or use baking paper.

Bake in oven at 160 degs Celsius for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean. As soon as you remove the loaf from the oven, drown it with the lemon syrup, then sprinkle with vanilla sugar and allow to cool before removing from the tin.

Source: North & South magazine, August 2008