BEST COOKING RECIPES

Lemon trees laden with their winter crop
boughs drooping under the weight of many hued lemons: dark green
lighter green becoming suffused with yellow
vibrant yellow bursting with life
then as they go unpicked and overripe a flush of orange seeps into the knobbly fruit. Until I came to South Africa lemons came from a shop: smooth
uniform yellow skins all year round. Now I have learned to appreciate their seasonal bounty
struggling to use up all the fruit in winter
hoarding away the squeezed juice of the excess lemons in the freezer for summer
when the lemons must come from the shop again and are more expensive and less juicy.

This is the time to think up a hundred and one ways to use a lemon
to dig out all the recipes requiring a lot of lemons: Lemon Curd
Lemon Cake
Three Fruit Marmalade with grapefruit and lemons to balance the sweetness of the oranges. Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book has a wonderful sounding Lemon Tart recipe
that I can’t wait to try
it sounds like the sort of marvel you’d get from a good French patisserie.

Roast chicken can be kept moist and succulent as it roasts
with a lemon stuffed into its cavity. Pierce the lemon’s skin a few times to let the juice seep through
but put it in whole. A spritz of lemon juice on green vegetables such as broccoli and spinach
lifts the flavour and replaces some of the vitamin C lost in cooking too. I use up lots of lemons making jam in the strawberry season in spring and early summer. Lemon juice is an essential addition to the soft fruit
to add the pectin that makes it set. Most of my freezer stock of juice will go on that.

On hot summer’s days the lemon comes into its own. Refreshing
iced
home-made Lemonade garnished with mint to slake your thirst – much healthier than commercial fizzy drinks
despite the sugar. It is additive-free
with loads of Vitamin C and far more delicious than anything that comes in a can.

Recipe for Lemonade

3 large lemons
sugar
soda water

Remove the peel very thinly from the lemons
taking just the yellow zest and leaving all the white pith. A potato peeler works well for this. Put it all into a heavy bottomed pan and cover with 2cm/1” water. Cover with a lid and warm over a very low heat. Do not let the water quite boil or it will bring out the bitterness of the peel. Once the water is strongly flavoured
take off the heat and allow to cool. Strain it into a jug. Squeeze the juice from the lemons and add to the jug
then stir in sugar to taste. It should be sweet and strong flavoured
as you will dilute it to serve. Serve with soda water added
if you like a fizz
or plain iced water and garnish with some slices of lemon and sprigs of mint. The undiluted lemonade keeps for several days in the fridge.

Lemons are a great health boost in winter
adding essential Vitamin C to the diet
to help fight off colds and flu. They also help expel mucus
so are excellent for chesty colds and coughs. My son
who has a tendency to asthma
has a cup of hot honey and lemon every morning
which he luckily likes – 1 teaspoon of good raw honey and a tablespoon of lemon juice with hot water poured over – which helps keep his chest clear in winter.

I recently learned a housekeeping tip from Morocco: use a lemon to clean copper and brass. Just rub the cut edge over brass bedknobs or those wonderful Moroccan door plates to bring up a shine
then buff with a soft cloth. The kids thought that was a great idea and now keep running off with half squeezed lemons to polish the spare room bedknobs!

Copyright 2006 Kit Heathcock