Lemon Curd and Citrus Cupcakes

Good friends are wonderful to have in your life - but good friends with lemon trees in their backyard are priceless.

I was lucky enough to recently be invited to dinner at the home of the lovely Ruth to enjoy an incredible meal featuring the lemons from her own tree...and I walked away with an armful of juicy, yellow fruit.  (It should be noted that the champagne and homemade guacamole were also highlights.  And I am still dreaming of the chicken with one hundred cloves of garlic.)

So, as a woman in possession of a bowl of lemons, I pondered what on earth to do with them, other than to admire how pretty they looked on my bench.

Some of you will recall my gluten-free lemon curd cheesecake, which was made with lemon curd bought on a trip to Beechworth last year. It was certainly very tasty, but didn't have a patch on the homemade lemon curd the Divine Ms CR (aka Baking Queen) brought round to my house not long ago and drizzled on some meringues. Now, the recipe the Baking Queen recommended was from Stephanie Alexander's Cook's Companion. Voila! This was how I was going to spend my Sunday morning.

Stephanie's recipe is very straightforward - just the way a good recipe should be.  She notes that, because of the citrus juice and sugar in the recipe, there's absolutely no need to worry about curdling, so don't bother fussing with double boilers.  If my lemon curd was anything to go by, she is absolutely right.  It was so simple, in fact, that I am planning on experimenting with other citrus flavours, just to mix it up a bit in future.

The one thing I would note is that the quantities of lemon curd produced by following the below recipe weren't huge - barely enough to fill a very small jar - so if you were planning on making enough to frost-and-fill the cupcake recipe I have included, then you should make double (or even triple, if you love lemon curd) the quantity outlined below.  I had to restrain myself from sitting down with the jar and a very large spoon, so I doubt any leftovers will go to waste!

Finally, once you have a jar (or two) of lemon curd in the fridge - where they'll keep for a couple of weeks - the next question is what to serve it with.  You can certainly use it like jam, smearing it over toast for a sweet morning treat.  Another classic is to make (or buy) shortcrust tart cases, whip some cream and serve them filled with a spoonful of curd, a dab of cream and a strawberry on top.

Once I have my lemon curd ready to go, I decided some cupcakes were in order for the office morning tea.  They're always a hit, require no slicing up, are easy for colleagues to eat at the desk and require zero washing up of plates and knives.

The inspiration for the cupcakes came from Ryan Bakes, my new favourite food blog.  (The link is over there on the left...)  As Ryan did in one of her cupcake recipes, I used lemon zest and juice for the vanilla extract for flavouring, but unlike her recipe, I used duck eggs (thank you, Kylie!) and self-raising flour for convenience.   Don't worry - large chicken eggs will work just as well!

To serve, I hollowed out a small well in the centre of the cupcake and filled it with curd, using the overflow like frosting on top.  The curd's sweet-sourness cuts through the crumbly sweetness of the cake beautifully.  In the pictures in the blog, I have drizzled a tablespoon of cream over the top for presentation, but the ones I took to work just used the curd and they were absolutely a hit.

Lemon Curd

Ingredients
-  4 egg yolks
-  2/3 cup caster sugar (I used raw sugar which gave the curd a darker colour)
-  100ml lemon juice
-  60g unsalted butter
-  2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (I might have added the zest of an entire lemon...sorry Stephanie)

Beat the sugar and eggs together - they don't have to be creamy, just combined.  Put into a saucepan, throw in your cubed butter, lemon juice and zest.  Put on a medium-high heat and stir constantly until it starts to bubble (around 5 mins).  Take of the heat at that point - it should have begun to thicken - and allow to cool.

Transfer to sterilised jar/s (I threw mine into some boiling water while I made the curd) and pop in the fridge for up to two weeks.  See?  Incredibly simple!

Citrus Cupcakes

Ingredients
-  1 cup softened butter (feel free and use salted if you like, as I omit salt in the recipe)
-  2 cups white sugar
-  4 eggs (I used duck, or you can use large chicken eggs)
-  3 cups self raising flour
-  1 cup milk (I'd love to try this recipe with buttermilk instead... next time)
-  1/4 cup lemon juice
-  2 teaspoons lemon zest

First off, preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius and line two muffin tins with your pretty cupcake papers (recipe makes 24, so you'll need two trays of 12).

Next cream the butter and sugar until it fluffs up - I use my stand mixer, but a hand held electric beater will do the trick too.  Add your eggs one at a time, and make sure they're all combined before you add the next one in.

Now add the flour in three lots, alternating with half the milk between each.  Don't set the beater too high or spend too long mixing it or else it will end up pretty tough, and not at all the light-and-fluffy we are going for.  Add in your juice and zest and mix just until combined.

Fill your patty cases - the best ones were those I filled to the half-way point.  Now, bake in the over for around 15-20 minutes and make sure they're cooked by inserting a skewer or toothpick.

Wait for them to cool (I turn mine out on wire racks), then hollow out a small hole in the centre with a teaspoon, fill with lemon curd and smear another teaspoon of lemon curd on top like frosting.  These are good to go just like this, or if you want to schmancy them up, drizzle a teaspoon of cream over the top.

Lemon Curd Cheesecake (Gluten Free!)

Is there anything more richly, absurdly, deliciously heart-stoppingly, stroke-causingly, happiness-inducingly good as a baked cheesecake?  I was late coming to the cheesecake party, enjoying my first baked cheesecake (mars bar cheesecake from Babar's Cafe in Woden, to be exact) circa 2003.  I have subsequently made up for the lack of cheesecake in my early life, though always with a hint of caution, knowing just how much cream cheese, sour cream and sugar goes into a terrific baked cheesecake.  For me, it's always a "special occasion" dish - I even ordered the aforementioned mars bar cheesecake for my 23rd birthday cake, I seem to remember - largely because the amount of dairy in the average cheesecake seems to make my tummy a little "delicate" if I eat too much, too often... but a little bit of cheesecake is okay, right?  It's wafer thin...

So, what better cake to produce for a fabulous, if gluten intolerant (don't worry Matt-in-the-Hat, I don't hold that against you), friend on his 31st birthday?  I did my research, quizzing my other best friend with the Coeliac husband on the best gluten-free base (gluten-free coconut biscuits), then spending extra time experimenting with the crushed-biscuit-to-melted-butter ratio.  Finally, the end result was actually better than my "usual" arrowroot biscuit base for baked cheesecake.  The gluten-free biscuits made a far stronger, more durable base (with a hint of coconut to add undertone to the flavour) and used significantly less butter than the normal base... although when you're adding about a litre of cream to the recipe, what's 50 grams of butter between friends?

I initially thought I would do a plain baked New York cheesecake, but then I discovered a jar of lemon curd in my cupboard just begging to be eaten.  I added a couple of tablespoons of sour cream to make it slightly more pourable, spread it over the top of the cake and served it up, dripping over the edges, to much acclaim (there were a number of birthday candles involved).

The acidity in the lemon curd cuts through the creaminess of the cake perfectly, and the colours tone in well.  The curd also covers up all the cracks in the top caused by refrigerating the cake before it was fully cooled.  I don't know about you, but who has time to wait around a couple of hours while a cheesecake cools in the oven?  If you are on the same page, stress less, refrigerate, then douse in lemon curd at the end.  It tastes better anyway.

Incidentally, I love the Women's Weekly "Cheesecake Cookbook"... I have shamelessly used their recipe as my base recipe, but have amended it to make it gluten-free and added far more lemon zest than they have dictated, and then added the lemon curd.  Buy this book, if you are keen on cheesecakes.

Lemon Curd Cheesecake

Ingredients

Base
-  500 grams gluten-free "coconut" biscuits
-  75 grams melted butter
Filling
-  750 grams cream cheese (full fat, I like Philadelphia... but I like labels - and don't forget to soften it!)
-  1 tablespoon lemon zest
-  1 cup caster sugar (I prefer raw caster sugar, it gives it a caramelly flavour)
-  3 eggs
-  3/4 cup sour cream (full cream)
-  1/4 cup lemon juice (I love using lemon's from my Mum's tree - no pesticides = no nasty additions)
Sour cream topping
-  1 cup sour cream
-  1 teaspoon lemon zest
-  2 tablespoons caster suger (again, I will repeat, raw caster sugar)
-  2 teaspoons lemon juice
Lemon curd topping-for-the-topping
-  1 cup lemon curd (store bought is fine, but I will include a homemade recipe soon!)
-  2 tablespoons sour cream

First heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius (160 degrees if it's on a fan forced).  Next get yourself a 24 cm springform cake tin.  Don't bother with greasing the tin, but I recommend adding a small amount of baking paper to the bottom.

Next, crush your biscuits in a food processor until it's nothing but crumbs.  Pour in the melted butter and pulse briefly.  Spread over the bottom of the tin, pressing into the base with a small glass, then press the remaining crumbs into the sides of the tin with your fingers.  Now pop this lined tin in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, to firm up.

For the next step, I used a benchtop mixer (I love my Kitchenaid), but you can also use a hand-held beater.  Beat the cream cheese, then add in the lemon zest and combine, allowing the cream cheese to soften and whip.  Add the sugar and, when well mixed, the eggs - but only add them one at a time and make sure each is well mixed through before you add the next one.  Now add the sour cream and the lemon juice.  Again, mix until combined, but not much more than that.  Too much air in the mix and you'll increase the chance of cracking during the baking phase.

Next, pour the filling into the now-cold base, then put into the oven and bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Keep an eye on it, it should be starting to brown on top and be firming up, but it's okay if the middle is still a little liquid - it will continue to cook as it goes.  Now take it out of the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes on the bench.

Separately, in a small bowl, add the sour cream, the remaining lemon zest, lemon juice and caster sugar.  Mix well and then pour over the top of the cooled cheesecake.  Return to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes.  Finally, cool as long as you possibly can with the oven turned off and the oven door ajar.  It's okay if you don't have time to wait while the cheesecake cools completely - you're not perfect, so why expect a cake to be too.   Now move to the fridge and allow to cool completely, for at least 3 hours.

Right before serving, mix the lemon curd and sour cream in a small bowl, which should make it liquid enough to pour.  Pour over the top of the cheesecake, and serve.  We had defrosted frozen berries on the side.

Slow pot-roast veal with leeks and white wine

One of the best parts of my chosen career is the way that old friends keep arriving back in Canberra and adding to my circle of friends, enhancing the flavour of the local social stock like herbs thrown into a bubbling soup pot.  The latest arrivals to add zest to the Canberra scene are the Duckworths, who are rejoining the group after three years in Cambodia.   In honour of their return, I decided to have a welcome back dinner - something warming and delicious given the newly-chilly autumnal weather.

I had a deboned, rolled shoulder of veal in the freezer, care of my wonderful mother, and decided a slow pot roast was the way to go.  It's a fabulous cut of veal and is traditionally slow roasted in wine by Italian families the world over.  This was a bit of a last minute decision, so it was lucky that in my travels to the Farmers' Market that morning I had purchased a bunch of small leeks, fresh herbs and button mushrooms, all of which complemented the veal and ended up as the base of the pot roast.

We were also very lucky to have the delightful Ms C at dinner, who whipped up a delicious dessert of meringue nests, whipped cream and blueberries, all drizzled with home-made lemon curd (incidentally, she also gave me the "goddess of hunting" spice mix used in the pot roast from her recent trip to Melbourne).  It was a lovely night, with the food complementing the excellent company.


Slow pot-roast veal with leeks and white wine

Ingredients

- 1 kg deboned & rolled veal shoulder
- 6 button mushrooms (Swiss Brown mushrooms would also be excellent)
- 4 medium-sized leeks, finely sliced
- 1 garlic clove, crushed with the back of a knife and then diced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves
- 1 teaspoon chopped rosemary leaves
- 1 bottle full-bodied dry white wine (750 ml)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup stock (vegetable, veal, beef or chicken, I am not fussy)
- 1 tablespoon "goddess of hunting" spice mix*
- 1 tablespoon porcini powder*

* These ingredients can be exchanged for the following:
-  1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-  1/2 teaspoon ground juniper berries
-  1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
-  1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
-  5 dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted in 2 cups boiling water (use the water - strained - instead of the stock as well)

Heat your olive oil in a cast iron casserole pot over a medium-high heat, then brown the veal shoulder on all sides.   Remove and set aside.  Add the butter and, when melted, soften your leeks (with a pinch of salt), but do not let brown.  Add the garlic, chopped sage and rosemary, porcini powder and spice mix (or equivalent ground spices if these ingredients are not available).  Stir until combined and aromatic.  Add in the button mushrooms (and the reconstituted porcinis, if you are not able to find porcini powder).

Pour in 1 cup of white wine, stir and scrape off the yummy brown bits at the bottom of the casserole dish left from the browning of the meat.  This process is called deglazing and your wine should bubble and sizzle.  Pop the browned veal on top when the sizzling ceases, then add the rest of the wine and around 1 cup stock.  This shouldn't completely cover the veal, but should come up to the 2/3 high mark.  When the liquid has heated up, reduce the heat so the broth is at a slow simmer.  Place the lid back on the casserole dish and leave for approximately 2 hours, checking every half hour or so, and turning the meat in the pot so the veal stays moist as it cooks.

At the 2 hour mark, remove the veal from the pot and rest in another dish, covered in foil.  Meanwhile, increase the heat in the pot so that the remaining liquid reduces down by half - this should take about 5-10 minutes.  Finally, add in salt to taste and the thickened cream.  Stir, taste, and add in more salt and porcini powder if it's tasting a little bland.  I also added a small amount of truffle mash, which you can get for a bit of an outrageous sum from the Essential Ingredient.  Well worth it, if you ask me, but the sauce will still taste amazing, even without it.

Now, carve your veal into slices.  The veal was so amazingly tender that it almost shredded apart as I cut it.  I placed the pieces on a large serving dish and then ladled the sauce over the top.  I served it with mashed Dutch Cream potatoes and steamed butter beans fresh from the market.  It was truly one of the most delicious meals I have ever cooked (even if I do say so myself).  Not only that, it was super duper easy, and I was able to sit back and have a drink with my friends, rather than phaffing about in the kitchen.

One rolled shoulder of veal.  One bottle of wine.  Leeks and onions braised in butter, garlic and herbs.  Two hours.  An excellent investment.