This week I’m using lemon as my focus ingredient to create an iconic dessert and a really quick midweek dinner, using seasonal and cost-effective ingredients. There are staple ingredients in many kitchens. In my house, these include sea salt, olive oil, butter, black pepper and lemons. Part of the deal with being a chef nowadays involves “demoing” your wares to a public audience. It’s a daunting task for a species who are notoriously introverted and intense. It basically involves entertaining an audience for 30 or so minutes, that’s if they show up. While the technical cookery and taste of the dish are of utmost importance in the restaurant, they will never be tasted at a demo; the key here is to give the audience some simple takeaways that they can use at home.
One of my go-to lines involves the lemon: “The difference between good food and great food is the attention to detail at the very end; a small sprinkle of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice gives your cooking the X factor.” And it’s true: walk into most professional kitchens and the chefs will have a bottle of freshly squeezed lemon juice and a container of sea salt ready at the last checkpoint before the food hits the plate.
First up this week, I have a slightly more time-consuming recipe for a lemon tart. This is one of the true tests of the ambitious home cook, described by lauded chefs Albert Roux and Marco Pierre White as the perfect dessert. There are a few tips to make your life easier: heavily mixing the pastry dough and using strong flour is contrary to popular belief, but the doughier texture it provides allows you to roll it thinner without any fear of leaking liquid. When the pastry is thin and crisp, you won’t notice it’s slightly firmer in texture. Using a fine grater to file down the edges (like you might your nails) will give you that perfectly sharp edge.
Making the filling and allowing it time to rest will prevent air bubbles from forming, giving you a better mouthfeel. Lemon zest brings the flavour, if you can source unwaxed ones you’ll taste the difference. Got all that? After that it’s about patience and practice to nail one of the great dishes of the world. If you want to save some time and stress, you can buy a premade pastry case in the supermarket and fill it yourself. Once you nail this, you’ll be fit to master most desserts.
Next up is a handy midweek meal for the summer season. We’re talking minimal ingredients and maximum flavour. Shop-bought gnocchi are blanched before being glazed in a quick sauce involving onion, garlic and chicken stock. The sauce is thickened with some crème fraîche before frozen peas are added for sweetness. Once the gnocchi are coated, we season with some lemon zest and juice, sea salt, pecorino cheese and mint leaves. Pan to plate in about 10 minutes – how good does that look?
The lemon; versatile, powerful and one of the keys to quality home cooking.
