Birthday lemon cakes are my favorite!!!

Here we are, Christmas is passed and new year not yet there, and it’s exactly the time for my birthday.

Almost as a tradition, A. went horse riding with me, which is a big challenge for him who feels a little uncomfortable on the back of a horse. And then he baked me a cake!

It’s the seasonal for citrus fruits and I love citrus cakes, and for a few months we have patiently and lovingly followed the growth of a single lemon on our tree. Our lemon tree, planted 5 years ago is struggling to adjust and we have very very little fruits if none, so one, wasn’t so bad. And on my birthday we picked it for a lemon cake recipe. As we have explored over the years many recipes with lemons for my birthday, it was hard to decide which recipe to choose (A. agrees to cook if there is a solid recipe to follow by the letter). With our rosemaries growing wildly and needing a trim, I decided that it would be rosemary and lemon cake, and we opted for a cupcake base. A long time ago my mother in law offered me a book about cupcakes and it’s been years I didn’t opened it, but I immediately thought about it to find a recipe for A..

I used the poppy and ginger recipe, replaced the ginger by lemon zest and poppy by rosemary, I also added a pinch of baking powder in the dough when A. was not looking, I was worried that the baking soda wouldn’t give fluff enough…

The result was damn good! I must admit that if I were to do the recipe I would have used a little less butter, but A. followed the recipe and it was great!! So here is our recipe. Oh… we didn’t do any glazing but lemon glazing could have worked well too.

Lemon and rosemary cupcakes (makes 6)

100g of flour
100g of sugar
100g of butter
2 eggs
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/4 tsp of salt
a pinch of baking powder
1 lemon (zest only, unless you do the glazing, for which you will want the juice)
1 branch of rosemary

Preheat the oven to 180deg.

In one bowl mix the flour, the salt, the baking soda and the baking powder. Add the lemon zest and chop the rosemary leaves. Stir well.

In another bowl mix together the butter and the sugar (using your hands is the best tool). Add one egg and stir well with a whisk, add the second egg and stir again to obtain a creamy mixture. Add in the flour mix through a sifter, little by little while stirring. The lemon zest and rosemary may get stuck, so don’t forget them in the sifter!!! Add them too to the mix and stir.

Prepare 6 medium size muffin or cupcake papers and fill to 2/3 with the mix. We added a little branch of rosemary and a tiny pieces of lemon on top but that is optional.

Bake in the oven until perfectly cooked (clean pick comes out when picked). It took 25min for us.

If you want to glaze them prepare a mix of lemon juice and icing sugar. Otherwise enjoy just as they are. I served them with hot lemon using up the rest of the lemon.

December 30, 2022

I hope you love lemons!!!

As much as I do!!! I’ve always loved lemons, and lemon juice. In France and in Italy when every one goes to the cafe to have an expresso, I would either have a freshly squeezed lemon, when it’s cold in winter, with some hot water in it. That’s really something I love about cafes, and that, with freshly squeezed orange, is probably the only fresh thing you can have.

Our lemon tree this year had a lot of flowers but none went to maturity so we’ll have no fruits. So when my secretary sent me a giant box filled with giant lemons from her garden, I can only be thankful, and super happy. Who doesn’t love no chemical at all grown vegetables or fruits???

It took me a bit of time to think about what to cook… I love lemon tarts, lemon cakes, lemon squares… but I wanted to try something else… so while sipping hot lemon, I browsed the net for some recipes and found a lemon brownie recipe. Buttery and sweet, that would be a hit with A. No doubt!

Except that the recipe I found was a little odd: they didn’t say when to put the sugar, the proportion of butter was just too much and all sounded a bit awkward, so while using a classic chocolate recipe I came up with my own lemon brownie recipe, and it was great (lucky I cut the butter by a fourth, it is already very buttery!!!)

Enjoy! It is really super easy!!!

Lemon brownie (makes a large pie dish for at least 6 pieces)

180g of flour
150g of sugar
150g of butter
4 eggs
The zest of one large lemon or two small
The juice of one large juicy lemon or two smaller or less juicy
A pinch of sal
A pinch of baking soda

Melt the butter. In a large bowl mix the flour, the salt, the baking soda and the lemon zest, add the butter and stir.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, the sugar and the lemon juice. Add to the previous bowl and stir. Set in a buttered and floured pie dish to have about 1.5cm thickness.

Bake 30min at 180degrees. That’s it!!!

November 29, 2021

Fresh ginger

Just after myoga, fresh ginger season is starting. Both plants may look very similar, but in ginger we eat the root mainly. Unfortunately we don’t have ginger growing in our garden yet, so I usually buy fresh ginger at the farmers market. I’m big fan of candied ginger, and prepared some sometimes, but so far I didn’t get time. Work has been really busy, and everyday is full from morning to evening, if not with work, with surfing, gardening and trying to get familiar with Pistache. Progresses in any of the above are really slow: I’m getting better at spinning but it’s not quite yet very nice… the new garden soil is slowly shaping up, very slowly… and the cat… hum she’s around a lot but it is still too early to get anywhere close…

All that to say that I didn’t make candied ginger, but instead used the fragrant roots for honey drinks, and for a delicious brioche. The drinks are easy, I just peel and slice thinly the root. Add a tablespoon of honey and top with hot water. For the brioche, the recipe is below.

Ginger and lemon brioche

400g of flour
3 eggs
100g of butter
50g of brown sugar
100g of fresh sourdough
1 root of fresh ginger grated with its juice too or ginger powder
The zest and juice of one lemon or lemon extract

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and knead until smooth and soft. Leave for as much as it needs to grow. That will depends on the room temperature. Once the sourdough has clearly worked, flatten the dough, wait 15min and shape (I used a cake dish). Leave for another 1h or 2 before baking at 200deg for 40min or until golden.

Breakfast with the ginger and lemon brioche

November 14, 2021

Lemon squares for my birthday

It’s a kind of rule at home that A. cooks only when I am too sick to cook, which happens every 5-10 years or so, and for my birthday tea-time. I would select a cake and he would make it, usually with a little help of my mother when we are together at this time, or with mine when that’s the only help he can get. My favorite birthday cakes involve usually fruits: apples 🍎 or lemons 🍋. This year our lemon tree gave only one lemon, which we preciously watched growing and yellowing until we could harvest it just for my birthday. A recipe that would use the whole fruit was my target, and I have seen many but never tried lemon squares so I opted for it. Difficulty minimum, preparation quick enough for A. to get through it. The basic idea of the recipe comes from this french website, with a few adjustments made on the spot as we were not satisfied with it. So here is my version of it. For those who have never had lemon squares (like me until yesterday, as it hasn’t really made its way to Japan) or seen any (they are everywhere so I hardly can believe it!!!), they consist on a sweet sable dough topped with a kind on custard made with the whole eggs. So it’s kind of close to a lemon tart but a lot easier to make… maybe it could be called lazy lemon tart.

Lemon squares (9 large squares, 16 medium)

1 lemon
100g of brown sugar
150g+40g of flour
125g of butter at room temperature is easier
2 eggs
40g of icing sugar plus a bit to sprinkle for finishing

First task is to prepare the sable dough. Pre-heat the oven at 180 degrees. In a bowl put 150g of flour, the icing sugar and the butter and knead to obtain an homogeneous mix. It maybe rather sticky. Try making a bowl of it and move to a sheet of cooking paper 30cmx30cm. Gently squeeze flat and lay another similar sheet of cooking paper on top. Roll to a 25x25cm square and set on oven proof receptacle of that size (mine is Pyrex). If you don’t have a square oven dish of that size you can use a rectangle one. The sharper the edges the nicer the cuts will be. Bake in the oven until it starts to slightly become golden. It should take 15-20min.

While the first layer is baking prepare the second one. Take the zest of the lemon, the juice. In a bowl beat the eggs and the sugar, add the lemon zest (keep just a bit for decor )and juice, the 40g of flour and stir well. As soon as the first layer is baked, take out the oven, add the second layer evenly and bake for 18min or so. If you overcook it’s going to be dry, undercooked it will be hard to have clean cuts.

Wait until it has cooled down to move to a cutting board, sprinkle with icing sugar and a few zests, and cut to squares the size you like. Enjoy!!!

December 30, 2020

Yama udo

One of the wild spring green I like to cook is udo or rather yama udo ヤマウドウ. It is a kind of long stick that likes to grow on steep road sides and is very easy to prepare, with a distinctive taste but not strong such that of fukinoto. One preparation that is really easy is with miso in miso ae. Usually I would blanched it to soften it a bit and remove its bitterness or tartness, but I realized while doing a bit of reading, that vinegar water would work as well, which for the lemon-miso ae I wanted to make was more than perfect. Indeed, while I am waiting for my lemon tree to bear fruits (I lost all last year in early strong winds and heavy rains), I found some delicious lemons at the local market. Hence, recently there has been a lot of lemon in my recipe, the lemon cake, lemon pancakes, lemon pasta… The vinegar miso ae is taken to a new level of rich flavors with the addition of the lemon. It works the same way as yuzu miso. That said my recipe today is really super simple, and if you can’t go to pick yama udo yourself or find some, you can try with regular udo. Its taste is much milder but that works very nicely too. And if there is no udo where you live, try with wild asparagus or green asparagus, that will work fine as well.

Yama udo with lemon miso ae (2 servings as side)

1 udo
2tsp of miso (I used my homemade miso)
3tsp of vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
1tsp of sugar
a little bit of lemon zest
a little of lemon juice (about 1tsp)

Peel the udo and cut in 3cm long pieces. Then slice vertically with about 2-3mm thick, then make sticks. Set in a bowl with water and 2tbs of vinegar for 15min.

In the meantime, in a bowl, mix the miso, 1tbs of vinegar and the rest of the ingredients. Stir well.

Drain well the udo and add to the miso mix. Stir well and serve. That’s it, really simple isn’t it?

I served it with grilled sawara (Japanese Spanish mackerel) and plain white rice.

May 10, 2020

Lemon curd

When I find beautiful, naturally grown local lemons I want to make many different things with them. The first lemons I harvested in our garden on are newly planted lemon tree were a little small. But when I can find large and juicy, one thing I love is lemon curd, and lemon tarts. Using up all the juice and the zest, lemon curd is quite easy to make. When it comes to British recipes I like to use the BBC website as they always have good recipes for the British basics. I started with this recipe and slightly changed it to adjust to my habit of not using half of an ingredient, in particular an egg, and because I didn’t to make meringues to top the tarts.

So here is my recipe of lemon curd. I love how the lemon flavor is not overly compensated by the sweetness and the perfect creamy texture it has.

Lemon curd (makes about 500g, good for 2 medium size tarts)

– 4 lemons, untreated, nor waxed or whatsoever

– 100g of salted butter

– 3 eggs

– 200g of brown natural cane sugar

Take the zests and juice of the lemon. Put in a pan with the sugar and butter and heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the fire and add the eggs. Stir well and put back on a very low fire and stir regularly. Keep cooking and steering once in a while for 15-20min, until very creamy. That’s it.

You can now use directly in your tarts, in cakes or put in glass jars and use as jam…

If you to make a tart, prepare a sablé dough, bake it and then add the lemon curd. Keep refrigerated.

Lemon curd keeps a few days if not jarred. But in both cases in the fridge.

March 13, 2019

When I fail… 🚮

Once in a while I make a cooking failure… recently it hasn’t happened much because I master better my kitchen and the products I cook, and I have gained in skills a lot. But when it happens it is always very sad… and last night was one of this saddening moment when you have to face that what you have made with patience and love should end in the trash and nowhere else…

As often of Sunday evening I wanted to bake a quiche. Something I master but it was without counting on one ingredient… I had spinach and kabocha and wanted to use both. I thought that with this cold outside, a warming chestnut flour pie crust would be perfect. So I reached for the bin in the fridge in which I store chestnut flour. I keep most of my flours in the fridge and more particularly this fragile flour that is sensitive to pest infestation and that I cannot find easily in Japan. I usually get my chestnut flour from my parents when they travel to Corsica, or to the country house in the Cevennes.

I was a bit startled by the smell when I opened the bin, but I was just thinking it’s been a while I haven’t smelled chestnut flour and it smells strong… while preparing the dough with olive oil and love things were doing good, the dough was smooth and easy to roll, perfect! I prepared the vegetables and put everything in the oven… and then only I really understood what I feared… the flour was rancid… I didn’t know it could happen but there was no doubt and a quick check on the internet confirmed my diagnosis. I waited until the whole quiche was baked to taste the pie crust. No doubt. The rancid flavor stay in the mouth long, almost disgusting. A. was also trying and same conclusion. Now what… would we die eating rancid baked chestnut flour? Probably not… would we get sick? Maybe… for sure taste wise it was bad. I first decided to save the vegetables and remove the pie crust but the task was tedious, and the result not conclusive. So I had to take this horrible decision to trash the whole thing. I was sad after. All these nice products, the effort to prepare it, and the expected pleasure of eating it once back to Tokyo… and instead we had a very quickly fixed dinner made of whole-wheat spaghetti with grilled swordfish and lemon zest and olive oil dressing. Hopefully there are still a few lemons in the garden and I harvested some before going and I had bought some nice local swordfish Saturday…

I simply grilled the fish in a frypan without any fat, then added the zest of 1/2 lemon topped with olive oil. Boiled the whole wheat spaghetti and served the whole together.

January 28, 2019

Lemon cake

For my birthday for the past 6 or 7 years, when possible, A. bakes me a birthday cake of my choice. The season is such that it involves often lemon or apple. This year the tradition went on and he prepared on my request a lemon cake. With the lemon just harvested in the garden. These lemons I have seen slowly growing and are totally free of pesticides, wax and other things that make you think twice before using the zest. The cake he made was super delicious, on of the best I have had! I wonder why he doesn’t bake more often!! And because he used the recipe he found online and didn’t want to halve the quantities, we obtained 2 cakes of perfect size for tea and breakfast for two. I slightly ask him to modify the recipe to be less buttery, so here is the actual recipe he used:

Lemon cake

– 200g of flour

– 120g of brown sugar

– 80g of butter

– 4eggs

– 1tbs of baking powder

– 1 lemon (free of chemical)

Melt the butter. Wash the lemon and extract both the zests and the juice.

In a bowl, mix the flour, the baking powder, the sugar, add the eggs, the butter and end with the lemon juice and the zest. Pour in a cake dish (one 30cm or two 20 or less).

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180deg for 35min to 45min

When ready eat right away or once is has cooled down.

Have a beautiful end of 2018!!

December 31, 2018

Miso-lemon dressing

Recently it has been quite difficult to find gnocchi in our usual grocery stores, and gnocchi were our staples for late Friday dinners when we arrived in the country. So I have had to find a replacement. Today I tried soba (buckwheat noodles) that I prepared with plenty of greens and I decided to serve them not with some regular sauce made from soya sauce such as tsuyu, but rather a white miso base. And since I had some fresh lemon I also used it. The redult was even better than I expected. The sweet white miso and the lemon are a super match. The lemon taste is very present, cancelling the sweetness of the miso and the miso softening the bitterness of the lemon. So here is my recipe for 2 people.

– 200g of soba noodles, I use 100% buckwheat flour noodles

– 4 tsp of white miso

– 1/4 of lemon

– 1 tsp of soya sauce

– brocoli, brocoli sprouts, green beans, baby spinach… asparagus, green peas, horse beans… are all good too

Boil a large amount of water to cook the soba. In the meantime in a heated pan slightly oiled cook the washed vegetables. The much remsin crispy, so don’t over cook them. In a bowl mix together the miso, the lemon juice, the soya sauce. Serve ghe noodles in a large bowl, add the miso dressing and stir well, add the vegetables. Eat right away and have a beautiful weekend. Isumi is under the rain, and work for the museum exhibition is what I have to do today!

May 13, 2017