Lemon polenta cake

Polenta is one of the nicest grains for a cake, in that it provides a light yet firm crumb. Popular in Italian cuisine, polenta comes from corn.  

4 eggs, separated

250g caster sugar

80ml olive oil

120g polenta

200g plain flour/ground almonds

zest of two lemons

apricots, diced

icing sugar

juice of two lemons

Preheat the oven to 220C, and line the base of a cake tin with baking parchment.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks are formed, then add the caster sugar whilst continuing to whisk.

Fold in the polenta, ground almonds and lemon zest.

Pour in the olive oil, whilst continuing to fold.

Put into the oven, and after 20 minutes turn the temperature down to 190C.

The cake should take around 40 minutes in total to cook, but depending on your oven, it is ready when the top is hard, and crumbs come out when a fork is put into the cake.

When the cake comes out of the oven, it is time to make the syrup topping.

In a small saucepan, heat the apricots until they start to soften. 

Add the lemon juice and the icing sugar, gently stirring to dissolve it.

When all the liquid has combined, pierce the top of the cake with a fork.

Drizzle the syrup over the cake - the pierced top means that the syrup is fully absorbed into the sponge.

Serve warm with soured cream.

Kippers

Imagine forests next to beaches next to mountains, and you're in the autonomous region of Catalunya (Catalan spelling). At the moment it is quite hot here - especially considering it's about 5C cooler in the mountains!
Kippers
Turn on the grill.
Put the kippers on a foiled baking tray
Halve tomatoes, put them on the kippers, and then season with pepper and salt.
Cook for five minutes, and serve with lemon and bread. We had poppyseeded pain de campagne.

Hollandaise sauce

Egg and hollandaise sauce



Egg and hollandaise sauce

Normally, hollandaise sauce is made with raw egg yolk, lemon juice, vinegar and (salted) butter, but I didn't have half of those ingredients, so I decided to improvise...

Serves 1

2 egg yolks
pepper, salt, herbs
50g butter,
2/3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Beat the yolks with their seasoning, until they start to increase in size.
In a small saucepan, heat teh vinegar on a medium heat until it starts to bubble. As it soon as it starts to reduce, pour it into the egg mixture, beating whilst adding.
In the same pan used for the vinegar, melt the butter until it starts to foam, and add into the egg/vinegar mixture, once again whisking at the same time. Never add the egg mixture to the pan as the direct heat will cause the mixture to curdle, resulting in scrambled eggs.

Serve with eggs (poached or dry fried), smoked salmon, and tomatoes softened for 5 minutes in the pan.



When using the traditional hollandaise sauce recipe, you can substitute with lime to add more sharpness.

Tarte au citron Meyer

Tarte au citron is a classic French tart filled with a tangy lemon custard. I used Meyer lemons which are a cross between a lemon and a mandarin. They are quite sweet in comparison to other lemons, yet still quite tangy.

A nice even bake :-)

175g 00 flour (this flour is very fine, so makes the pastry more crumbly, it's fine to use normal plain flour though too)
140g unsalted butter, diced
30g soft brown sugar
25g icing sugar
zest of one lemon

5 eggs
160ml double cream
the zest and juice of 3 Meyer lemons
100g caster sugar

Sieve the sugar and flour, and mix with the zest of one lemon.
Add the cold butter and rub until you achieve a crumble mixture. As there is a lot of butter in this pastry, it shouldn't need any liquid. If you do add liquid, the consequence is that the pastry will not be as crumbly when cooked.
Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 15 minutes to harden up.

Preheat the oven to 200C and butter a tart case.
Roll the pastry to less than a 1 centimetre thickness, and roll over the tart case.
prick the pastry case and blind bake it in the oven for 20 minutes. Instead of using baking beans, you can use baking paper with a similar sized cake tin on top.
Whilst the cake is cooking, whisk the eggs until they increase in size by about one and a half.
Add the sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice to the eggs, but continue whisking.
When thoroughly combined, pour in the double cream, and whisk again. You can add milk if you want a thinner mixture.
Pour into the tart case and bake for about half an hour, or until the filling is a little wobbly.

Serve cold with a spoonful of clotted cream.


You could

• decorate with candied lemons
• spread the base with lemon curd or melted dark chocolate, and cover with the filling mixture
• use tangerines instead of lemons