Thursday, February 18, 2016

Yum! Lemon Meringue Tart


This is a sauce to go with deep fried leeks. It’s crème fraiche with olive oil, crushed capers, onion, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

I have never really liked capers, but one thing I love about my passion for the recipes of Yotam Ottolenghi is that I try things that include flavours that normally don’t interest me — like capers. I absolutely love this tart, taste accent for the leeks.

Nota bene:  The olive oil you see in the photo above cost $45 (!) — and that is with the discount I got from the cooking school. I save it for treats like this sauce.

And then … it was on to the lemon Meringue Tart. As you can see in the photo below, the sun came out in the afternoon making baking even more delightful.


I love trying new recipes. I love taking (little) risks too, so I decided to try to make the tart from the recipe in Butter, the cookbook from the incredibly wonderful bakery nearby in Dunbar.


I blind-baked the crust and that went well. I followed the recipe for the lemon curd carefully and it worked perfectly … I think, judging by its texture, but it ain’t yellow. When I filled the crust, there was a bit of curd left over so I tasted it and it surprised me.

I am used to both eating and making tartes au citron but this lemon curd is vastly different from French tartes. It’s certainly lemony, but it has neither the lovely sharpness I really appreciate nor is it particularly sweet. The meringue is certainly going to sweeten it up, but I am not sure how I am going to like this tart compared to my regulars (my recipe comes from l’Ecole du tourism et hoteliere de Nice).

The challenge was the meringue. I was nervous! It's supposed to be browned lightly with a torch (and I'd never used one). And I decided to pipe the meringue even though I had no idea if it would work. I didn't know what the nib would do and if I could get the meringue to point, but here’s my tart:

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