Lemon Pound Cake

Um, hi?

I recently made a batch of lemon myrtle financiers with macadamia nuts and berries. (You can find the basic Bourke Street Bakery recipe here - I just added a couple of teaspoons of powdered lemon myrtle to the batter, and added nuts along with the berries.)

To use up some of the left-over egg yolks, I made this cake. And I think it actually turned out better than the financiers. (Apologies for the instagram photo, I'm too lazy to upload another.)

Lemon Pound Cake

90g butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 180 C. Butter and flour a small loaf pan.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy.

Separately, beat the yolks until light and lighter coloured. Then work the yolks into the butter and sugar.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to the first mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat well.

Blend in the lemon zest and juice and the extract.

Spoon batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake about 45 to 50 minutes until golden and baked through.

Cool in pan on rack for about 45 minutes. Remove from pan and cool thoroughly. Pour lemon sauce on top.

Lemon sauce

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup granulated sugar
a dash salt
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 -3 tablespoons lemon juice

In a saucepan, combine cornstarch, sugar, and salt. Blend well.

Stir in the boiling water.

Keep on medium heat, stirring. Once it begins to boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat. Add the lemon zest and the fresh lemon juice.

From Italian Dessert Recipes

Mushrooms with Quinoa

This was my contribution to a Christmas dinner - and yes, I am quite late with these photos. Some of the other dishes:


Haaaaam


Lentil salad


Smoked salmon

And here's mine:



Mushrooms with quinoa and lemon

The original recipe called for pearl barley, for which I substituted white quinoa.

Mushrooms:
100g unsalted butter
15 sprigs thyme
6 large mushrooms (Portobello or other)
180ml dry white wine
250ml vegetable stock
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
salt and pepper

Quinoa:
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
750ml vegetable stock (or less)
110g white quinoa
1 quarter preserved lemon, flesh removed and skin finely chopped
50g fetta cheese, crumbled
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 tsp thyme leaves
2 tbsp basil leaves, shredded
1 tbsp


Start with the quinoa: heat the oil in a saucepan and saute garlic and onion until translucent. Add stock and bring to the boil. Stir in the quinoa, reduce heat, then stir on simmer until quinoa is cooked and liquid has been absorbed.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 180C. Grease a baking tray with 2/3 of the butter, scatter with sprigs of thyme, and place mushrooms on top with stem-side up. Dot each mushroom with butter and season with salt and pepper. Cover tray with foil and place in oven for 15-20 minutes until mushrooms are tender. Leave in their cooking juices until ready to serve.

Remove quinoa from heat and stir in the lemon, feta, parsley and thyme. Season to taste.

To serve, scoop quinoa on to mushroom and spoon some of the mushroom cooking juices over. Garnish with basil and olive oil.

From Ottolenghi: the cookbook