After a morning exploring Grandma's garden.......
back home, Sadie helped me pick a basket of lemons.
What to do with so many lemons?
Squeeze the juice and freeze in ice-cube trays for summer drinks.....
Make lemon honey and
Preserve lemons in sea salt.....
and of course my favorite, lemon meringue pie.
Lemon Honey
4 lemons 2 cups sugar
125 g butter 4 eggs, beaten
Grate only the yellow part of the lemon. Squeeze the lemons and strain the juice. Melt the butter in the top of a double boiler. Stir in sugar and lemon juice until sugar is dissolved. Add eggs and lemon rind. Place over boiling water and cook, stirring all the time until mixture thickens. Pour into sterilized jars. Store in the refrigerator.
Makes about 4 x 250 ml jars.
Lemon Meringue Pie
Base
200 g sweet shortcrust pastry (I make my own but you could use pre-made pastry from the store)
Filling
1/4 cup cornflour 3/4 cup water
1 cup sugar 3 eggs, separated
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind 1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
Topping
1/4 cup caster sugar 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
On a lightly floured board roll out pastry to 6 mm thickness. Use to line a 20 cm flan ring. Trim off any excess pastry. Bake blind at 190 .C for 20 minutes. Remove baking blind material. Return pastry shell to oven for 1 minute to dry out pastry base. While pastry is cooking make the filling. Return to oven and bake at 190 .C for 10 minutes or until golden.
Serves 6
Filling
Blend cornflour, sugar, lemon rind and juice together until smooth. Add water. Cook over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in yolks and butter.
Topping
Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Beat in sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until very thick and glossy. Stir in vanilla.
It is time consuming with a lot of processes, but you can't beat homemade lemon meringue pie. Not to sweet and very tangy!
