GRILLED LEMONS

I do love lemons and anything lemony wins me over. So I'll introduce you to my new lemon obsession: grilled lemons! As the lemons are grilled they caramelise, and that gives them an added sweetness. Sweet and tart combined.  Irresistible flavour! Put them on the grill, let them caramelise, and use them in salads or with grilled foods such as meat, fish or vegetables. They are so, so, good. 

Here's how I make grilled lemons:

Ingredients: 

lemons, as many as you like

sugar

fresh thyme leaves

salt and pepper

olive oil

Directions:

• Cut the lemons in half and score the surface of each half with an x pattern. Slice off the pointy ends of the lemons so that they can be placed on a plate and not tip over. Gently pick off as many of the pits as you can.
• Place the lemon halves in a bowl and coat them with olive oil, salt and pepper, thyme leaves and a little sugar. Give them a good stir so that they are well covered with all the ingredients.
• Place them on a hot grill and let them cook until they caramelise. 

WHITE BEAN DIP WITH FETA CHEESE AND OLIVES

This is a great tasting dip, folks!  Its taste is amplified because it contains roasted a roasted shallot, some roasted garlic, plus the juice of a grilled lemon. 

Pulse a few beans in the food processor along with a host of flavorful Mediterranean ingredients and you get an extremely tasty, creamy and healthy dip! 

• Healthy because the dip is low in fat compared to most other dips out there. 
• Healthy because it's high in protein, calcium and fibre.  
• Tasty!!!  
• Spread the dip on toasted pita slices and you have an irresistible treat!  A really, really delicious and healthy treat!

This recipe is fast to make.  It took me about 20 minutes, and that included cleanup. Who doesn't love the dishwasher??? 

***Here is a tip about feta cheese and olives: 

As these are salty ingredients we Greeks always rinse some of the brine from them.

For the feta cheese: just place the cheese into a bowl and pour water over it. Change the water once or twice, drain, and you're done. The feta will be significantly less salty. If for dietary reasons you want to remove lots of salt from the feta cheese, you can let it soak in water. Experiment with how much time is appropriate for your taste and dietary needs. 

For the olives: they usually also need a good rinsing. Once the job is done, place them into a container and pour a combination of canola and olive oil over them. (Olive oil congeals in the refrigerator, so it must be mixed with another type of oil to keep it from solidifying). The oil should come almost but not quite halfway up the container. Cover, shake gently to coat all the olives and store in the refrigerator. This can be done with just about any type of olives except the sun-dried variety. Those don't get rinsed because they will absorb water and will no longer be sundried.

How to make white bean dip with feta cheese and olives:

Ingredients:

2 (15-ounce) cans white beans such as Great Northern  

5 cloves of garlic, roasted and mashed

1 shallot, roasted and chopped

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

black pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley 

3 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, save a few for garnish

the juice of one grilled lemon

1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives

8 ounces feta cheese

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

• Cut the lemon in half, brush each half with olive oil and grill. This can be done on the stovetop. 
• Drain and rinse the beans. Place them into the food processor and add the juice from the grilled lemon.   
• Add the roasted garlic, the roasted shallot, olive oil, feta cheese, rosemary, oregano, parsley and black pepper—no need to add salt because the feta cheese and olives contain enough of it.
• Blend in the food processor until all the ingredients are smooth and creamy.
• Add the olives and walnuts. Pulse a few times until they're coarsely chopped. Small pieces of each should be visible in the dip.
• Place into a bowl and refrigerate for 4 to 5 hours. The dip is better if it gets a chance to rest. And really, aren't we all better when we get a chance to rest? 

Take the dip out of the refrigerator and place it into a serving bowl. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on top of the dip. Decorate with a few rosemary leaves, and serve with your favourite crackers.  

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

PAVLOVA WITH CHANTILLY CREAM AND BUTTER TOASTED ALMONDS

                I will go on record and say that this is a great recipe for pavlova. The best.  It has a meringue with a delicate, crunchy crust and a soft marshmallow-like centre. The cream topping is a flavourful Chantilly cream that goes great with the fruit, especially the strawberries. The almonds? Well, they are buttered and then toasted. That gives them an incredible flavour. The dessert melted in our mouths. Literally. It was sweet, creamy, fruity, smooth, soft, heavenly. And it's a great dessert for holiday time! 


Ingredients:

4 large egg whites at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons cornstarch

sliced fresh fruit of your choice for topping
some butter cut up in small pieces

whole blanched almonds for topping, notes on preparation bellow

Chantilly cream for topping, recipe below

Directions:

It's important to cook the pavlova at a low temperature for a long time. This and beating the egg whites extraordinarily well insures success.

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a pencil, draw an 8-inch diameter circle on the paper. Turn the paper over so that the pencil marking rests on the baking sheet side. The circle will still be visible.
• Add the granulated sugar into the bowl of a food processor.  Beat it until the granules become superfine and somewhat powder-like: this is superfine or caster sugar. If you can buy it ready-made, go ahead and get it, but this is an easy, convenient way to make your own. Caster sugar is best for meringues because its fine granules dissolve quickly.
• Preheat the oven to 225° F.
• Make sure that the bowl of your mixer is dry and very clean. Place the egg whites into it. They should be free of any presence of yolk.
• Begin beating on medium.  When the egg whites start to get frothy and form soft peaks, turn the speed up to high and add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. After all the sugar has been added, continue to beat until the egg whites are very stiff and shiny. If you think the meringue is done, beat it some more. I took a short, refreshing nap while the mixer was beating my egg whites. Recommended!  
• The meringue should be smooth, and the sugar should be fully dissolved so that the meringue doesn't feel gritty to the touch but is instead smooth and stiff; it should look shiny.
• At this point add the vanilla and beat to mix. 
• Remove the bowl from the mixer, add the lemon juice and fold well.  
• Sift the cornstarch over the meringue and fold that in as well. 
• Place the meringue on the prepared tray and smooth it into a round shape using the pencilled circle as a guide. An offset spatula will help with this job. 
• Form a small indentation in the middle for placing the cream into once the meringue finishes baking. 
• Place the meringue in the oven and bake it for one and a half to two hours, until the top of the meringue feels dry and somewhat hard.  
• Turn off the oven and let the pavlova shell stay in there until it has cooled. 
• Take out the shell. It will probably have one or two cracks, and that's fine.  The outside will feel firm, but looking through the cracks you will be able to see the marshmallow-like interior. 
• The shell can be stored on its parchment in a cool dry place until ready to use.  You can make the shell one day ahead of time.

To decorate:

Gently remove the parchment paper while sliding the shell onto a serving platter.  Place the Chantilly cream on top and gently spread it all over.  Top with the almonds and fruit, creating a decorative pattern.

TO PREPARE THE ALMONDS:

Spread whole blanched almonds on a baking sheet and top them with pieces of butter.  Stir them around with your hands so that the butter covers most of the surface of the almonds. Toast them in the oven until they begin to get golden.  Keep a close watch because once they start to get golden they are on their way to getting burned, so it's important that they are removed from the oven before that happens. Butter gives the almonds a wonderful and totally different flavour than plain toasted almonds. It also makes them appear shiny.

CHANTILLY CREAM:

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy whipping cream, really cold

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon Grand Marnier

2 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

• The best-whipped cream is made with very cold ingredients.
• Refrigerate the bowl and the whisk attachment of your mixer until they are cold. Bring them out and reassemble the mixer.
• Add the cream and Grand Mariner. 
• Add the vanilla. Vanilla is the bacon of the baking world. It makes just about any baked good taste that much better. This is an analogy, no substituting bacon for vanilla ... unless ... If you've tried it, let me know of your experience, okay?  
• Beat on medium until frothy.
• Add the sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat on medium-high until soft peaks form, about 3 to 4 minutes.  
• Do not overbeat; you will know when it is done because it will look nice and thick. If you continue beating, the mixture will start to get grainy, and you will start to develop butter. Or so I have been told, and I should really try it one of these days just in case it's true. 
• This cream is absolutely delicious and it will remain thick; chantilly cream doesn't tend to get watery like regular whipped cream because it contains sugar.

The recipe for the meringue is adapted from "The Joy of Baking.com" 

STUFFED GRAPE LEAVES (with ground lamb and ground beef)

Ouch!  I hurt my back doing yard work. That made it hard to get ready for Easter. By the time our guests arrived on Easter Sunday, I was thoroughly exhausted. I had been cooking for two days, plus planting flowers, plus setting tables, plus washing pots and pans, plus praying the Tylenol I was taking for my backache would work a little faster. Even though I was tired, all the preparations were so worth it! Once the company arrived, I felt brand new. Well, almost brand new. 

One of our visitors was an adorable two-year-old named Gracie, who (almost) possesses the vocabulary of a high school graduate. Actually, Gracie is something of a scholar, because, at the tender age of two she attends preschool. She saw a band-aid I had on my finger and asked me if I had a boo-boo. "Yes, I have a bad boo-boo," I replied. "Bad boo-boo?" She kissed my band-aid. How can one not fall in love with Gracie?  

Among the dishes we served were these grape leaves stuffed with ground beef and rice. Gracie, of course, wanted nothing to do with them. She stuck to lamb, potatoes and salad. Everyone else enjoyed them. Usually, but not always, grape leaves stuffed with meat have avgolemono sauce poured over them (avgolemono is a Greek egg and lemon sauce). I chose not to make it, but instead to add extra lemon juice to the cooking liquid. Why no avgolemono? Mostly for dietary reasons - some of our guests do not eat eggs. Even without the avgolemono, the ground lamb-stuffed grape leaves were very good!

Ingredients:

1 jar (16 ounces)  grapevine leaves
about 3/4 of a cup of olive oil

 2 onions, chopped

 4 cloves garlic, chopped

 1 bunch scallions, chopped, use as much of the green part as you can        

 3  tbsp fresh chopped parsley

 2 tablespoons fresh chopped dill
 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves

 1 teaspoon fresh chopped mint

 1 lb. lean ground beef 
 1 lb. ground lamb (if not available, use pork)

 1 cup raw long-grain rice

 optional: 1 cup fresh diced tomatoes (not canned)                      

 1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese 

  the juice of two lemons

  salt and pepper to taste 

  2 tablespoons butter

  3 14-ounce cans low sodium chicken broth, plus water as needed

 

Directions:

• Remove the grape leaves from the jar and discard the briny liquid they are packed in. Soak them in water for at least four to five hours,  changing the water a few times in order to remove the saltiness of the brine. When you have desalinated the grape leaves, boil them in water for no more than 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the water and set the leaves aside until they have cooled. Keep them covered so they don't dry out as they are cooling.    
• Save all the stems and leaves from the herbs and scallions that you would otherwise discard. Make sure they are rinsed well.
• Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté the onions, until they begin to soften. Add the scallions and garlic and cook for one minute while stirring. Turn off the heat, add the herbs and set the mixture aside until it cools.
• When the mixture has cooled, add the ground meat, rice, tomatoes if using, Pecorino Romano cheese, pepper, a touch of salt, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. 
• Line the bottom of a medium-sized heavy Dutch oven with the leaves and stems of the herbs you have saved. If there are any really tough grape leaves, instead of discarding them, arrange them in the Dutch oven. 
• Cut off the stems from the grape leaves and discard them; they'll be too tough to eat. Now comes the time to start filling them: set the shiny side of the leaf down, and place the filling on the duller-looking side where the veins are thicker. 
• Fill each grape leaf with about 1 tablespoon of the mixture. 
• Roll up the grape leaf once, fold in the sides of the leaf and continue rolling. As you are rolling, don't make the grape leaf bundle too loose, however, keep in mind that there is rice in the filling and it will expand during cooking. Therefore, don't roll the grape leaf bundle too tightly, either. 

I had lots of grape leaves to stuff, so I moved the show to our breakfast area, where we have a television set. I spread a few kitchen towels on the breakfast table. On top of the towels, I placed the Dutch oven, a bowl full of filling, and a plate of grape leaves. I sat at the table and turned on the TV. I watched some TV, I stuffed some grape leaves, and that was the easy way to go about it because stuffing those leaves is a tedious undertaking! On with the rest of the recipe:

• Fit the stuffed grape leaves, seam side down, on top of the herb stems in the Dutch oven. Pack them in tightly. Place a second layer on top, keeping the same pattern of layering. Keep the same pattern so that the cooking liquid can penetrate all layers.

Champagne and Geritol! Oh Yeah!!! I placed my trusty Dutch oven on the breakfast table. I sat down, turned on the TV and started stuffing the grape leaves. One by one, in they went into the pot. My mother was sitting next to me just so I could have a supervisor. She insisted the TV be set to PBS, and there was nothing wrong with her request ... or so I thought. But as it turned out, Lawrence Welk, her favourite musician, was on.  I'm referring to Mr Lawrence Welk, bandleader, the heartthrob of every octogenarian female!  I'd like to report that I survived the experience. Anyway, on with the cooking. ...  

• Sprinkle the rest of the olive oil over the grape leaves, then add the lemon juice, the butter, and enough chicken broth to cover. If during cooking you run out of chicken broth due to evaporation, just add water. 
• Take a plate that will fit into the cooking pot and wrap it in parchment paper.  Place it on top of the grape leaves. This will weigh them down to prevent them from floating around in the pot. Cover the Dutch oven with the lid.
• Cook in a preheated 350° F oven for two hours. Once in a while during cooking, check to make sure there is enough liquid in the pot. If the liquid level is too low, just add some more. The cooking time is long, but that's because the grape leaves have to soften and become as tender as the filling.
• Remove the stuffed grape leaves from the pot and place them on a serving dish. Don't let them sit in the cooking liquid. Any cooking liquid left can be discarded or used to make avgolemono sauce if needed. The recipe for the avgolemono sauce follows.
• The grape leaves can be served warm or at room temperature. I hope you make these and enjoy them in good health!

If you choose to serve them with avgolemono sauce (in which case they should be served warm), here's a recipe for avgolemono: 

1 egg

2 egg yolks

3 tablespoons cornflour

juice of one lemon

about 2 cups of the cooking liquid, cold or at room temperature; if less than two cups remain, substitute the missing amount with chicken broth.

2 tablespoons heavy cream
Black pepper to taste

In a saucepan, beat the eggs with the lemon juice. Very slowly so that the eggs won't curdle, add the cooking liquid. Over low heat and while mixing, slowly add the cornflour. Allow the mixture to thicken a little. Turn off the heat. Add the cream and mix. Season with freshly ground black pepper. Pour on top of the grape leaves and serve.   

LEMON - POPPY SEED COOKIES

Lemon-poppy seed cookies!!!

I love these cookies! Why? Because I have a hard time resisting the taste of lemons. I love lemon everything. I add lemon juice to soup, to salad, to water, to desserts ...  

Dear Lemon, You Have A   Heavenly Flavour! 

Case in point: here's a wonderful, luscious lemon-poppy seed cookie recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart. 

These cookies are LEMONY!!! 
And they're also crunchy and delicate, with just the right amount of sweetness. 

They're some of the best cookies I've tasted. And the lemon butter gives these guys an extra special taste.

Lyndsey's version of lemon poppy seed cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 3 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest (2 to 3 lemons)
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds, plus more for sprinkling

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375° F/190°C.
• Make lemon butter: bring the lemon juice to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook until reduced by half. Add 1 stick butter and stir until melted.
• Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Cream the remaining stick of butter with 1 cup of sugar on medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
• Add the egg and the lemon butter. Mix until pale, about 3 minutes.
• Add the vanilla and 2 teaspoons of the lemon zest, and mix.
• Add the flour mixture and the poppy seeds and mix, to finish making the cookie dough.
• Make a sugar mixture by stirring together the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and the rest of the lemon zest.
• Roll spoonfuls of cookie dough into 1 1/2-inch balls; roll them in the sugar mixture.  (This step will add a lot of sweetness to the cookies so you might want to give them just a light coating of sugar mixture. You should have some sugar mixture left when you are finished).
• Place the dough 2 inches apart on baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray. Press each piece of dough with the flat end of a glass dipped in the sugar mixture until they are all 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle the cookies with poppy seeds.
• Bake until just browned around the edges, 10 to 11 minutes. 
• Transfer to wire racks; let cool completely. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.
• Makes about 30 cookies. (Mine came out to 37, could have easily made 40).

Loved them, loved them, loved them!!!

 Irresistible!