Today is my birthday. In the midst of the preparations for our relocation to Victoria, we made time to celebrate with a lunch date.
GMan had a final eye specialist appointment so we chose a venue nearby. The Green Zebra was our choice and it did not disappoint.
I did not have cake but I did enjoy this spectacular dessert.
Prompts from several different sources inspired me to make a Lemon Delicious pudding yesterday.
First, a Facebook group post encouraged members to make a post recipes for a childhood favourite food.
Second, my brother, sister and brother-in-law were coming for dinner. What better, than to share a dessert from our common childhood memories?
Third, another Facebook group discusses how our grandparents lived, including cooking and preparing food.
I had not made Lemon Delicious since 2012 when I began eating a gluten-free diet, however, I was not going to let that stop me.
I have posted the recipe for Lemon Delicious on the blog previously. See here. Unfortunately the photos have disappeared from the old post and I am unable to retrieve them.
So, here it is again – with the addition of the gluten-free option.
LEMON DELICIOUS
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour (use gluten-free flour if required)
Juice and rind of 1 lemon
2 eggs
1 cup milk
Cream the butter and sugar. Add flour, juice and rind. Mix well. Separate the eggs, add yolks and milk to mixture. Place the whites in a separate bowl and beat until stiff. Fold the beaten egg white into the mixture. Pour into an ovenproof dish. Stand the dish in a tray of water (about 2-3cm deep) and place in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes or until the top is firm to touch and golden.
The finished product is like a lemon self-saucing pudding. This can be served warm or cold with ice-cream, cream or custard.
NOTES:
As a nod to past generations, I did not use my Kitchen Aid mixer to cream the butter and sugar. I used a bowl and tablespoon – hard but satisfying work. I also beat the egg whites using a hand-held rotary beater. The results were equally as good as any I have made previously using electric appliances.
The ‘sauce’ of the pudding was somewhat thicker than other efforts and I think this was probably due to using gluten-free flour which does tend to absorb more moisture. I would probably ad the juice of another half a lemon in order to rectify this. Despite this, the pudding was extremely well-received by the dinner guests and I will definitely be making it again before too long – especially as the lemon trees are absolutely laden with fruit.
Today is Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Day. It is the day before Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of penitential season of Lent. Pancakes were traditionally eaten to use up the rich foods such as milk, eggs and sugar. You can read more about the origins here.
Despite eating a gluten-free diet I still managed to have pancakes for dessert.
I made a half quantity of the following recipe which made 4 nicely sized pancakes/pikelets. We drizzled a little lemon juice on them and topped with a sprinkle of sugar. Yum!!
BUCKWHEAT PANCAKES – The recipe is my adaptation of one from The Healthy Chef – check it out here.
160 g milk ( rice, almond, dairy, seed)
50 g buckwheat flour
50 g ground almond meal
20 g ground flax seed (linseed)
Half teaspoon bicarb soda (baking soda)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Combine the milk, buckwheat flour, almond meal, flax seed, baking soda and vinegar to form a smooth batter.
Heat a non stick pan with a little organic cold pressed coconut oil or macadamia nut oil and drop in about 2 tablespoons of batter for each pancake. Turn the pancake over gently the cook for a further 2 minutes until the pancake is golden brown and cooked through.
Tonight I do not have a single story to tell but updates on several ongoing projects.
Dishcloths – I am knitting these from a pattern in Rhonda Hetzel’s book, “Down to Earth”. I have done 2 and a half so far. My plan is to use all the cotton I have which will probably make 6 cloths. Here is one that is finished and I just need to sew the ends in.
Dehydrating – the onion tops dehydrated beautifully and were then ground in the spice grinder and this is the result.
I made another batch of pumpkin soup but I have now finished the onions I grew last winter so I put a tablespoon of this into the mix instead and it worked perfectly.
We have been working on the itinerary for our USA trip. We now have return flights booked, accommodation organised in Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. We have found a suitable car hire company (thanks, Joanna) and have also booked our train tickets from Philadelphia to New York. We booked this first as it is a Sunday and seems to be selling out on some trips.
I am currently reviewing and revising our itinerary for the driving part of our holiday. I hope to finalise most of that this weekend.
Decluttering – The bags of clothes and hangers have gone to the op shop.
Now I need to go and reply to the comments from the last few days.
Also, just in case you are wondering where Friday Favourites went, it will be back tomorrow with a yummy dessert. I decided that I had to be true to the description and post only tried and true family favourites under this heading – not something I had made once, so this feature will only appear when I have something really worth sharing.
Today I want to share a recipe with you. It is for a dessert – Passionfruit Flummery. I decided to make it today since I bought a bag of 20 passionfruit for $2 at the market yesterday. That is 10c each – I could not believe my luck! They are large fruit, full of tasty pulp.
I hunted out my trusty recipe folder and found this recipe which has been passed down to me from my mother. I have made it several times over the years – usually for a special occasion dessert. I remember having this dessert as a treat when I was a child. What I did not realise was that it is frugal and relies on seasonal produce. What a perfect way to impress your guests and keep within a reasonable budget. Unfortunately, I do not have a dinner party coming up so it will be a dessert treat for The Duke and I which will last all week.
FRUIT FLUMMERY
INGREDIENTS
2 oranges
6 passionfruit
½ lemon
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 dessertspoon gelatine
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
METHOD
Squeeze the oranges and lemon, remove pulp from passionfruit. Place in a jug and set aside. Mix flour and gelatine with water in a saucepan, add citrus peel (chopped) and sugar. Bring to the boil and boil for 5 minutes. Strain through a colander to remove the peels, add juice and pulp and allow to cool. Beat until stiff and frothy – about 20 minutes. Place in a glass bowl in refrigerator to set.
I beat the mixture using my Kitchen Aid stand mixer – so much easier than my hand-held beaters and a better result. The mixture made almost half as much again as it previously has. I am really looking forward to it as the flummery will be so light and fluffy.
The total cost of this recipe was less than $1 and it has made at least 10 generous serves.
I planned to post photos to go with this post but I am unable to upload them at the moment. I will post them when everything is working properly.
organised castle 