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SHF#9: Lemon Curd Tartlets

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Summer afternoon, summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the English language. -Henry James (1843 - 1916)

Ah, the enduring allure of a garden party! Growing up, it's what I imagined went on regularly in England- with not a moment's thought for the season or the weather, of course. Even as an adult, after living in England for the past three years and having come to the realization that the majority of people here do not have garden parties, it's the idea, the photo in my head if you will, that persists.

In the end, as so often happens with this sort of thing, what I held so dear had nothing much to do with reality anyway; it was an amalgam of 'memories' culled from childhood books, movies watched on Sunday afternoons, and the pages of an aunt's 'Town & Country' magazines. The fact is, I don't even like tea, and the type of delicate finger foods and desserts that would be appropriate have never been favourites either. I like cookouts, and lemonade and ice cream (quintessentially American through and through), and I've even been known to bring an electric fan outside on an extension cord on occasion. Not really garden party material, I'm afraid.

Fortunately, this month's installment of Sugar High Fridays came my rescue.  SHF#9: Tantalizing, Titillating, Tempting Tarts, hosted by A Life In Flow (the brains behind Food Porn Watch), gave me permission to see my garden party made real, if only for my camera. The photo you see above is the personification of what I've always seen in my mind's eye- blowsy roses, bone china, antique linens, and old-fashioned place cards; the addition of lemon tartlets, which I adore, make it perfection in my book.

I made lemon curd for the first time last summer, in anticipation of winning 1st place in our local village fair (a debacle to be recounted in another post), and fell in love with it immediately. I find it strangely addictive, almost sickeningly so, and try not to make it with any frequency. I'm not even sure if I can describe it properly, except to say that it's the only thing other than fudge sauce that can make me stand at the fridge, bowl in hand, and eat it spoonful after glorious spoonful. Used properly, as a filling for miniature tarts, or even spread on shortbread or toast, it really is out of this world. The fact that it comes together in a flash, with hardly any effort, doesn't hurt either.

So, I had my garden party, of sorts, after all. Just outside the frame, I had two sets of sticky, dirty hands waiting not-so-patiently for their own little tartlet (promised at the outset), and a dog who was waiting not-so-patiently for any leftover crumbs, but inside my viewfinder it was a different story. One that could always be recreated at a later date, sans little fingers. Anyone care for a cuppa?

LEMON CURD
by Elinor Klivans (Fine Cooking magazine)

3 oz. (6 tablespoons) UNSALTED BUTTER, softened at room temperature
1 cup SUGAR
2 large EGGS
2 large EGG YOLKS
2/3 cup fresh LEMON JUICE
1 teaspoon grated LEMON ZEST

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about two minutes. Slowly add the eggs and the yolks, and beat for one minute. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth (the curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts). Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about fifteen minutes. It should leave a path on the back of a spoon, and will read 170 degrees Fahrenheit on a thermometer. Don't let the mixture boil.

Remove the curd from the heat; stir in the lemon zest. Transfer the curd to a bowl, and press plastic wrap on the surface of the curd to keep a skin from forming. Chill the curd in the refrigerator; it will thicken as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks, and in the freezer for two months.

Variation:
For lime curd, substitute fresh lime juice and zest for lemon.

PASTRY
by Tessa Kiros (Falling Cloudberries)

2 1/2 ounces (70g) BUTTER, slightly softened
1 ounce (30g) SUGAR
2 1/2 ounces (70g) ALL-PURPOSE (PLAIN) FLOUR
1 ounce (25g) GROUND ALMONDS

Cream together the butter and the sugar with a wooden spoon. Add the flour, ground almonds, and a pinch of salt and mix well, using your hands when it becomes a little stiff, until the pastry comes together. Flatten slightly, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least half an hour before using (you can also freeze the pastry at this stage).

Roll out the pastry thinly on a lightly floured work surface and cut out circles of pastry to line about 12 shallow tartlet tins. Line with baking paper, fill with baking beans or weights and blind bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the visible pastry is golden and cooked. Remove the paper and cook for another couple of minutes to dry the bases. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before gently removing from the tartlet tins.

When completely cooled, fill with lemon curd.

SHF#6: Caramel Corn with Peanuts

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The Pros and Cons of Homemade Caramel Corn

Pros
1. Tastes good. Salty + sweet + crunchy = goooooood.

Cons
1. Tastes good. Then, about 3 cups later, tastes bad...really bad.
2. Corn syrup.
3. The cleanup is nothing short of horrendous. Do not use a pan that is a favourite.
4. Fairly hazardous to dental work.
5. Did I mention the cleanup?

There are, admittedly, hundreds if not thousands of recipes for desserts that incorporate caramel. The lovely and talented Debbie, over at Words to Eat By, knew this was the case when she chose caramel as the theme for SHF#6: Stuck On You. Cakes, cookies, biscuits, ice creams, custards...the possibilities are endless, and there are probably going to be about a gazillion participants (woo hoo!).

Out of all of those, I chose caramel corn with caramel nuts, whose mystery is exceeded only by its power. Wait, that's the 'continuum transfunctioner' in Dude, Where's My Car?, one of my favourite silly movies. What I should have said is, "its sweetness is exceeded only by its stickiness". Hmmm, that's not really funny, so I'll just say "I'm not ever going to make this stuff again as long as I live".

I'm actually in the middle of making another entry right now, one that I'm hoping will be a more enjoyable experience that this one. Come to think of it, lobotomizing myself with a salad fork would be a more enjoyable experience than making caramel corn again, so there's really nowhere to go but up, right?

Caramel Corn and Caramel Nuts
from James Beard's American Cookery by James Beard

3 quarts lightly salted POPPED CORN or 2 quarts POPPED CORN and 3 cups TOASTED NUTMEATS
2 1/2 cups firmly packed BROWN SUGAR
1/2 cup LIGHT or DARK CORN SYRUP
1/2 cup WATER
1/4 to 1/2 cup BUTTER
2 teaspoons VANILLA

How I used to love various forms of caramel corn, and sometimes I still dip into a can just for nostalgia's sake. This came into national popularity during the 1920s, when seldom anything but the caramel syrup coated the corn. Now there are many fancy names for a mixture of caramelized popcorn and nut meats. The nut meats should be toasted lightly before being covered with the syrup. Place them in a baking pan in a single layer and heat in the oven at 300 degrees for 8 to 15 minutes, depending upon the type and size of the nut meat.

Put the popped corn or the corn and nuts in an oiled or buttered mixing bowl and place in an oven heated to about 120 degrees. Oil a large piece of aluminum foil. Measure the sugar, corn syrup, and water into a 3-quart saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil, and wash down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to remove sugar granules. Add the butter and cook to the very hard ball stage (264 to 270 degrees). Stir in the vanilla. Immediately pour into the popped corn and stir well to coat evenly. While the mixture is still very hot, turn out onto the oiled foil, and with two forks pull it apart to make bite-size or slightly larger pieces. Let cool thoroughly, and store in airtight containers or freezer bags.

SHF5: Vanilla Ice Cream with Pomegranate Molasses & Puff Pastry Hearts

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I'd debated with myself endlessly over the past few weeks about what I would enter into Sugar High Fridays 5, kindly hosted by Clement over at a la cuisine!. Initially I was excited about the challenge, and since I hadn't made puff pastry dough in years, I even felt energized at the thought of rolling my sleeves up and tying on my apron.

Fast forward two weeks and two batches of dough later. While things actually went pretty well, I wasn't particularly enamored of the process and not overly thrilled with the results. I decided that ready-made puff pastry would fit the bill nicely, allowing me to concentrate on the rest of the ingredients. I should have known that once I got easy with the dough, I wanted easy with the rest, too.

Pomegranates have been pretty high up there on my favourite new ingredients list lately, and I thought they might feature nicely in a Valentine's Day-themed dessert. It's just the thing to finish a special meal- make ahead components, quick and easy assembly, and colourful presentation. The vanilla ice cream, from Falling Cloudberries, is dead easy to make (no machine required) and very, very rich. The pomegranate molasses was made by reducing the juice with a bit of sugar for the briefest amount of time, and the puff pastry hearts, well... I rolled the dough out, cut the shapes, sprinkled them with a bit of caster sugar, and popped them in the oven for 4 minutes. You could do them in advance as well.

The presentation? Pick one romantic, flower-strewn plate, swirl a spoonful or two of pomegrante molasses in the center, deposit one largish blob of ice cream, garnish with pom pips and chopped pistachios (or other nuts or even chocolate curls, if you'd prefer), place the puffed hearts along the edge (together, of course), and grab two spoons. If you are so inclined, you could make a pseudo-sci fi flower pod from pips and camelia leaves as I did, but experience tells me that you might be robbed of your "gosh, this is all so easy" vibe. It did have a strange beauty to it at the time, though.

I am glad that Clement chose puff pastry as the star ingredient this month; I probably wouldn't ever have revisited puff pastry otherwise. But, I have also been reintroduced to frozen dough, and I'll definitely use that again....thanks Clement!