- Homemade limoncello, vinaigrette and avgolemono (lemon-egg sauce).
- Meat casserole with lemon sauce, lemon pie, freshly squeezed lemon on boiled collard greens.
- Lemon cake.
- Broccoli and lemon salad, lemon pickles, lemon marmalade.
- Lemon liqueur and ice cubes for your drinks.
- Sugared lemon.
- Oil scented with lemon peels, raw fish marinade (ceviche), lemon soufflé and lemon curd.
- Lemon sorbet and ice cream.
- Lemonies instead of…brownies!
- Lemon icing on cupcakes and a slice of lemon in your tea. Lemonade.
- Lemon squeezed on oysters and cockles to see if they…react!
Lemon zest e-ve-ry-where!!!
And this is only the tip of the massive iceberg that’s called… ‘Lemons: its uses and recipes’.
Lemons from the Peloponnese, from Crete, Arta, Attica and our beautiful islands (with their own special houses built around them to protect them from the fierce island winds, fertilised by donkey manure for extra…sourness, as our dearly departed Vaggeelaras used to tell us). Greece produces about 20.000 tonnes of lemons per year and exports a very small amount. It even imports about a tonne during the summer!
Biannual or triannual lemon trees, depending on how many times a year they bear fruit.
Lemon trees by the side of the road, in courtyards and gardens, in fields and local markets. In the back of a 4X4 on the national road.
Waxed lemons and, therefore, useless for our recipes. Be wary of lemons if they’re waxed or don’t have a certificate showing their place of origin. Be even more careful of ‘perfect’ darker lemons.
The best lemons are pale in colour and small in size. With a little green stalk.
You’re bound to find a lemon tree near you. And a recipe to your liking.
LEMON ICING FOR CAKES
In a bowl, mix 2 teaspoons lemon juice with 2 Tablespoons fresh cream and 1 cup of icing sugar.
Let it set for 30 minutes and spread over completely cooled down cakes, muffins and cupcakes with a spatula, in circular movements from the outer edges towards the centre.
Yoghurt with lemons and digestive biscuits
Add the zest, juice from 1-2 lemons (depending on how sour you like it) and 1 tin of sweetened condensed milk to one kilo/35.27 oz. strained yoghurt. Mix well.
Smash half a small packet of digestive biscuits (about 8) in the mixture.
Fold gently.
Let it set in the fridge for at least an hour.
When set, it resembles a deconstructed cheesecake.It’s probably the easiest winter dessert you can make!Make it as sour as you can handle it…
JAMIE OLIVER’S LEMON PICKLES READY IN 10 SECONDS!
• 1 lemon cut in eighths, deseeded and finely sliced
• 2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
• 1 level teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 of fresh red chilli, finely sliced
• 1 small dried chilli, finely sliced
Over a medium to high heat, pour a little olive oil in a pan and roast the mustard seeds, turmeric and chillies. Add the lemon slices, shake the pan for 10 secs, then remove from the heat. Add to rice or curries.
N.B. Never throw away lemon peels because you can use them to clean plastic and wooden chopping board surfaces and, this way, remove odours and stains naturally.
