Persian Lime Tart with Butter-Crumb Crust

Persian limes tend to play second fiddle to Key limes.  However, the juice of Persian limes offers a beautiful lime flavor.  Furthermore, these limes yield loads of juice and are readily available in California.  Often times these large limes are referred to as Bearss limes or Tahitian limes but most supermarkets carry them and refer to them simply as "limes".  Regardless of what you call them, they're a flavor-home-run when used in recipes requiring lime juice.

The tart pictured is exceedingly easy to prepare.  It's components are mostly pantry staples and ingredients typically on hand.  Since I used a crumb crust, there was no chilling and rolling of pie crust.  Also, the filling components are merely whisked together and poured directly in to the par-baked crumb crust.  A quick 20 minute bake later and your tart is ready to cool and chill.

The crisp, buttery, crumb crust used in this recipe is the perfect foil for the tart, creamy, citrus filling.  Lightly sweetened fresh whipped cream serves to add richness and bring all the elements together.  I hope you try this recipe and add see fit to add it to your repertoire.

Crumb Crust

Ingredients

1 cup fine graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted melted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350.  Pulse all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor or mix together well in a bowl.  Press the mixture evenly in to and up the sides of a 9" tart or pie pan.  Use a secondary pie pan of the same size pressed on top to ensure evenness or use a flat bottomed glass to press the crumbs evenly and firmly in to the pan.  Blind bake the crust in the center of the oven for 15 minutes until fragrant and lightly browned.  Remove from oven and decrease the oven temperature to 325.

Lime Filling

Ingredients


1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
Zest from one lime
A pinch of salt

Whisk all of the ingredients together thoroughly.  Pour in to the warm crumb crust.  Bake in a 325 degree  oven for 15-20 minutes or until the outer edges are firmly set but the center quivers slightly.  Remove and cool to room temperature.  Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.  

Top with lightly sweetened fresh whipped cream

Makes 10 generous servings

- Rachel     

Meyer Lemon Curd Trifle With Chantilly Cream & Fresh Berries

Spring is just around the corner. The onset of our local berry season is imminent. Lemons are in abundance right now in zone 9 and as it happens, I am fortunate to have access to a very prolific Meyer lemon tree. So when the planets line up in such a way, I am compelled to heed their cosmic pull. For your Spring time enjoyment, I offer the following recipe.

Meyer Lemon Curd Trifle With Chantilly Cream & Fresh Berries

For The Pound Cake
Makes 2 cakes

• 1 pound (3 1/4 cups) plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt
• 3 sticks softened unsalted butter, plus more for pans
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 9 large, room-temperature eggs
• 2 tablespoons sanding sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter two 5-by-9-inch loaf pans. Combine 3 1/4 cups flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Cream butter, sour cream, and sugar with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, for 8 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Reduce speed to medium, and add vanilla extract.
3. Lightly beat eggs, and add to mixer bowl in 4 additions, mixing thoroughly after each and scraping down sides. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in 4 additions, mixing until just incorporated. Divide batter between pans. Tap on counter to distribute; smooth tops.
4. Before baking, sprinkle sanding sugar over each cake. Bake until a tester inserted into center of each cake comes out clean, about 65 minutes. Let cool in pans on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire rack.

Meyer Lemon Curd

Makes 2 cups

1 cup freshly-squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
4 large eggs
a pinch of salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed

Directions
1. Place a mesh strainer over a bowl, and set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the lemon juice, sugar, egg yolks, eggs, and salt.

3. Add the butter cubes and set the pan over low heat, whisking constantly until the butter is melted.

4. Increase the heat and cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and just begins to become jelly-like. It's done when you lift the whisk and the mixture holds its shape when it falls back into the saucepan from the whisk.

5. Immediately press the curd through the strainer. Once strained, store the lemon curd in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to one week.

Chantilly Cream

2 cups heavy whipping cream, chilled
1/3 cup cugar
2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract

Directions

1. In the bowl of a mixer, whip cold cream to light peaks. Add sugar and vanilla and mix until well incorporated.

Fresh Berries
2 pints of fresh berries such as strawberries, black berries, raspberries and or blueberries.

To Assemble The Trifle

1. Cut one pound cake loaf in to one inch cubes. Add 1/3 of the pound cake cubes to the bottom of your trifle dish. Next, layer with 1/2 cup of cooled Meyer lemon curd. Arrange 1/3 of the berries decoratively along the perimeter of the trifle dish, covering the layer of lemon curd. Add 1/2 cup of the chilled Chantilly cream over the berries. Repeat these layer two more times ending with a layer of Chantilly cream on top. Allow the trifle to rest, covered and chilled, for three hours before serving Garnish with fresh berries and a mint sprig.

Serves 10 -12 generously

Agnolotti Uovo Con Tartufi

Agnolotti uovo is just a fancy pants way of saying, "egg ravioli" with truffle.  I just think it sounds much sexier when said in Italian.  Beyond its' alluring name which rolls off the tongue, this pasta dish is delicious, simple and very, very sexy.  I found myself inventing the culinary strategy while driving in stop and go traffic the other day.  My mind took a little detour as I envisioned the flavors.  I began to taste the slightly nutty browned butter, sweet caramelized shallots and earthy white truffle oil pooling with the warm, rich egg yolks.  I imagined the resulting sauce to be extraordinarily rich and complex.  I am strongly attracted to ingredient emphasized applications such this.  The success of this dish is largely owed to the quality of the basic staples from which it's comprised. Yes, I know, there's white truffle oil in it.  Rest assured, this is the single exotic ingredient on a very short list.  Otherwise, we're talking eggs, butter, shallots, flour... basics.

Once through the traffic, I hurried home and opened a carton of free range eggs given to me by a friend.  They were all lovely shades of cream and brown.  I began to crack them in earnest, separating the yolks carefully so as not to lose one.  One by one, my family wandered in to the kitchen and began to ask what I was up to.  I was in a haze of concentration, only able to mumble single word answers.  As usual my children were particularly insistent and would not vacate until I told them what was on the menu.  Without looking up, I quickly uttered the words, "agnolotti uovo con tartufi".  They both stared at me.  My youngest son proclaimed with hands on hips, "Well, I'm not eating that tartufi-whatever!"  I dismissed him with a wave of my hand.  As with every new dish I introduce, my children are more than happy to baptize me by fire.  Over time they have proven to be my toughest critics.  Needless to say, I made the cut.  I'm happy to report that I survived to compete a second day in what I now consider to be my own private "Kitchen Stadium".  Please find my recipe below.  I hope you enjoy!

Agnolotti Uovo Con Tartufi

For The Pasta
2 Cups Flour
3 large, fresh eggs

For the Filling
12 large, fresh egg yolks

For the Sauce
1 stick (80z.) good quality salted butter
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallots 
1 teaspoon white truffle oil
sea salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Roll the pasta sheets up to the 7th setting on your pasta machine or as thin as possible by hand with a rolling pin.  Place a large pot of heavily salted water on to boil.  Carefully place a the whole egg yolks in the center of the sheet allowing for at least 1" of space around each .  Wet the edges around each egg yolk with water and lay a second sheet on top.  Seal the edges of each ravioli thoroughly and cut in to individual raviolis.  Place finished raviolis on a dry, clean towel or parchment paper.  Once all the raviolis are finished, in a large saute pan, heat the butter and sliced shallots over medium heat.  Begin to boil the raviolis for 1.5-2 minutes total.  Flip them to cook on both sides.  Remove each drained ravioli to a large serving bowl.  Allow the butter in the saute pan to bubble until just barely golden.  The shallots should be translucent and just beginning to caramelize.  Remove the pan from the heat and add the truffle oil.  Mix to combine.  Pour the sauce over the warm raviolis and add fresh cracked pepper and sea salt to taste.  Serve hot.

Serves 4              

Hand Cured Apple & Almond Wood Smoked Bacon

I'm in a love affair with cured and or smoked meats and sausages.  Of these culinary delights, I am especially smitten with cured smoked bacon.  As a Matter of fact, I love it so much that I've decided to never purchase it again.  I will never buy it again because I've learned how to make my own.  

Perhaps the biggest challenge I ran up against in my attempts to make bacon was finding a reliable source for fresh, free range pork belly.  You can use any pork belly but free range pork has such amazing flavor.  Luckily I found a little market a stone's throw from where I live which sells whole pigs.  This means that they also sell every part of said pig.  The shop employs masterful butchers who deftly break down the whole beast to extract whichever part you're interested in.  

The picture above shows a pork belly which I portioned, cured and smoked.  It has not been cut yet in to the traditional strips of bacon which Americans have come to know and love.  I have my own in house butcher for that.  Below, please find my recipe for and instructions for making your own bacon which will trump any you can find at the market.

5 pounds of pork belly, skin on

The cure

2 ounces (50 grams) of kosher salt (about ¼ cup)

2 teaspoons (12 grams) pink salt

¼ cup (50 grams) maple sugar or packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup (60 milliliters) maple syrup

Mix the dry cure ingredients together, then add syrup. Rub the mixture over the meat and put it skin side down in a plastic bag slightly bigger than the meat and put it in the refrigerator for a week. Turn it over every day. Remove the meat from the bag and rinse clean, then pat dry. Put it back into the refrigerator on a rack over a baking sheet and let it dry for 12 to 24 hours. Smoke until it reaches an internal temperature of 150 degrees. Remove the skin while the meat is hot. (Discard skin, or cut into pieces and save for other uses.) Let the bacon cool, then wrap in plastic and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

 

  

Lavender Blossom Ice Cream

I wanted to challenge myself by making tasty ice cream flavored with an ingredient from my garden.  I stood peering in to the garden, still dripping from the recent winter rain.  I glanced at the rosemary, thyme, oregano and lemon verbena.  My gaze lingered on a lime and clementine tree.  Finally I grabbed a large handful of lavender leaves from a nearby bush.  I crushed it in my hand and inhaled.  The fragrance was mixture of heady pine with delicate floral nuances in the background.  I pinched off and crushed a few bright purple blossoms.  The fragrance was decidedly more delicate and floral with the aroma of pine taking a back seat.  I began to pinch off the blossoms one at a time.  Once I had a large handful, I headed back in to the kitchen.  The ice cream I made was truly eye popping.  It had none of the resinous flavor that lavender can sometimes represent.  It was delicate and redolent with floral complexity.  Please find my recipe below.  I hope you enjoy!


Rachel's Lavender Blossom Ice Cream

2 Cups light cream
1 Cup Whole milk
6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lavender blossoms, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. sea salt

Heat the cream, milk and lavender blossoms in a sauce pot over medium-low heat.  Allow the mixture to become very hot but stop short of simmering.  Maintain the heat and allow the mixture to steep for five minutes.  Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and salt until light yellow and fluffy.  Slowly add 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolks, whisking continuously.  Add the tempered egg yolk mixture to the sauce pot of hot cream.  Do not allow the pot to simmer or boil.  This will cook the eggs.  Continuously stir the mixture until it thickens slightly and coats the back of a wooden spoon, approximately five minutes.  Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer in to a container and allow to chill in the freezer or fridge until ice cold.  Continue by following your ice cream maker's instructions.           

Rachel's Weeknight Braised Pork Shoulder en Crock Pot:

 There's more rain in store for us.  The skies will cloud in a few days and this brief respite of sunshine will seem like a distant memory.  To combat the drear of storms to come, I offer you this honest comfort food straight from my heart.  It's delicious, easy, nutritious and almost a meal in itself.  Actually, it is a meal in itself if a little crusty bread is served to sop up the juices.  This pot roast makes fantastic shredded pork sandwiches or pork tacos if there are any leftovers.  I hope you enjoy!


Rachel's Weeknight Braised Pork Shoulder en Crock pot:

 
5-6 pound pork butt/shoulder/Boston bone in or out
1 medium-large onion, sliced thin
2 large carrots, diced
2 large tomatoes diced or 1 can diced tomatoes in juice
3" sprig of fresh rosemary
5 whole garlic cloves, smashed with the side of a knife
2 dried bay leaves
2 cups red wine
3 cups chicken stock or broth
2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Season the pork generously on every side with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and sear the pork on every surface until nicely, deeply browned - (don't cut corners here, properly searing the meat really makes the dish shine.) Remove the pork to a plate and pour off any excess oil from the pan leaving around a tablespoon of drippings. In the same pan, saute the onions, garlic and carrots over medium heat until the onions begin to turn color. Scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the wine, chicken stock, bay leaves, cooked onion vegetable mixture, tomatoes and rosemary to a crock pot and set on high. Add the pork roast to the crock pot, fatty side up. A portion of the pork butt will remain above the liquid. Set the crock pot to cook on high for 8-9 hours. (I do this in the morning before leaving to take the kids to school). The pork will be fork tender and falling off the bone after 8 hours. Serve over egg noodles, rice, mashed potatoes or simply use a loaf of crusty french bread to sop up the amazing juices.  Meal #2: shred the pork and add a little smoky B-B-Q sauce and you've got yourself some killer "pulled pork" sandwiches.  Meal #3:  Shred pork, toss with finely diced onions and cilantro and serve with salsa verde, cheese and all the fixings for over the top chili verde pork tacos.  

Ethereal Simplicity: Swiss Chocolate Meringues

Ethereal and lighter than air, home made meringues are an easy treat that will delight the senses.  Basic meringue has endless uses but one the most straight forward, is the meringue cookie.  The recipe below uses basic pantry staples and can be flavored in countless ways.  It can also be piped in to any design imaginable.  My son Michael age 9, actually piped the meringues in the picture using a pastry bag fitted with a star tip.  He was positively in orbit that he could make what he called "professional grade cookies" with a simple twist of his wrist.  However, if you do not have a pastry bag, please don't fret.  Meringue cookies can be made by simply plopping lofty dollops of batter on to a parchment lined baking sheet.  The only piece of equipment which I might argue is necessary to make these cookies, is a mixer.  That being said, if you have Julia Child's guns, you could probably get away without using one.  Please find my Swiss Chocolate Meringue recipe below.  And for Patti, Please know that you can substitute your sweetener in place of the sugar in the appropriate proportion.

Rachel's Swiss Chocolate Meringues

7 large egg whites at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup really good quality cocoa powder

pinch of cream of tartar (optional)

Preheat your oven to 225.  Whip the egg whites and a pinch of cream of tartar, using a mixer on medium high until medium peaks form.  While the mixer is running on low, slowly pour in the sugar and then the cocoa.  Mix on medium until glossy and fully incorporated.  Fill a pastry bag and pipe in desired shapes or simply dollop in small mounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment.  Bake for 1 1/2 hours until completely dry to the touch.  Allow to cool and store in a single layer.

Depending on the size of each cookie, this recipe makes around two dozen.

      

Kiwi Sorbet With Whole Fruit Lemon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Kiwi Sorbet: green, sweet, tart and a cinch to make.  As if that weren't enough, kiwis are packed so full of nutrition , I think it can be argued that they're a super food.  If you take them from a fresh state and freeze them with minimal processing, you can preserve this nutrition indefinitely.  My kids happen to crave sour fruits which would include kiwis so we keep them around at my house whenever they're in season.  We recently purchased a giant bag of the little fuzzy fruits during a trip to the market.  My seven year old Jason says they're his favorite, so we bought a zillion of them.  Unfortunately, they were not such a favorite that he could devour them all in a timely fashion.  Not wanting to let the softening fruit go to waste, I decided to make a kiwi sorbet out of them.  If you start off with hard kiwis the recipe below will be on the tart side.  When kiwis are picked, the brix level begin to elevate.  This recipe is ideal using semi-soft kiwis because they're at their sweetest but they will need to be used quickly or spoilage will quickly set in.   The olive oil and sweetener in the recipe are both optional.  I hope you enjoy!

Kiwi Sorbet With Whole Fruit Lemon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

6 cups fresh peeled, chopped ripe kiwis, semi-soft and very sweet
1/4 cup agave nectar, honey or sugar (optional)
1/4 cup Whole Fruit Lemon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (optional)

Put the peeled chopped kiwis in the freezer 1/2 hour before pureeing them.  Put the chilled kiwis in to a blender along with the sweetener of choice, if using.  Blend to a puree.  With the motor running, pour in the olive oil to somewhat emulsify and pour in to the ice cream machine.  If necessary, chill the bowl ahead of time.  My ice cream maker has a built in compressor so I typically skip this step.

Makes 6 1/2 cups of sorbet or approximately 12 servings.