Lemon Herb Aioli

Lemon Herb Slaw

1 cup mayonnaise
zest of two lemons
juice of three lemons
2 Tablespoons grainy mustard
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 cup chopped dill
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Whisk together.

Crab Cakes Take Two

• Crab cakes
• Roasted sweet corn and cherry tomato salad
• Pickled watermelon radish
• Lemon herb aioli
• Microgreens

Lemon Herb Slaw

Lemon Herb Slaw
1 large green cabbage, thinly sliced
1 medium red cabbage, thinly sliced
1 cup mayonnaise
zest of two lemons
juice of three lemons
2 Tablespoons grainy mustard
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 cup chopped dill
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Toss together the two cabbages. Then whisk together the remaining dressing ingredients. Toss the cabbage in the dressing. Can be served immediately or allowed to marinate and blend flavors to soften the cabbage. Great with fish and chips!

Lemon Herb Crusted Bass

Lemon Herb Crusted Bass
thin striped bass fillets
freshly squeezed lemon juice
chopped parsley
panko bread crumbs
lemon pepper

Place the bass fillets on a baking tray and drizzle the top side with lemon juice.
Place the parsley, bread crumbs, and lemon pepper in a food processor and pulse until well combined, and mixture is light green, but still dry and not moist.
Sprinkle crumbs liberally over the fish, pressing it to stick to the fish.
Bake at 425◦F for about ten minutes until cooked thoroughly.

This is a really easy recipe to bake any kind of white fish. It adds a great punch of flavor and some texture; and is quick, easy, and convenient to do!

Lobster Ravioli Catch

• Ravioli - fresh, hand-rolled, homemade pasta dough 
• Lobster Filling - local lobster, goat cheese, lemon, tarragon
• Chanterelle Cream Sauce - butter sauteed local wild chanterelles, redued cream
• Wilted Spinach - spinach, garlic, shallots, white wine
• Lobster Cheese Toasts - lobster, cream cheese, herbs, cracked black pepper

Lemon Curd

Lemon Curd
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice 
1/3 cup granulated (white) sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cubed

In a small saucepan, heat the lemon juice and sugar together until it comes to a boil and the sugar dissolves.
In a small bowl beat together the eggs.
Temper the eggs by slowly streaming in the hot lemon juice, whisking constantly. Pour back into the pot.
Return the pot to the stove and constantly whisk over low heat until the mixture has thickened.
Continue to whisk pretty constantly over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened. 
Stir in the butter until melted. 


This is a really easy lemon curd recipe to make - it doesn't take long at all and requires only four ingredients. It can be used in a variety of applications, and has a strong citrusy flavor.

Citrus Pound Cake

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Citrus Pound Cake with a citrus syrup, lightly spiced whipped cream, and lemon curd. 
Citrus Pound Cake = flavored with lemon, lime, and orange
Citrus Syrup = reduction of orange juice and lime juice with sugar
Lightly Spiced Whipped Cream = flavored with ginger and nutmeg
Lemon Curd
Lime Twist
Fresh Mint Leaf

Strawberry Chocolate Cheesecake Trifle

Here is a dessert special I did the other day for work just using leftovers we had around. It is basically a miniature trifle in a mason jar. On the bottom I put some small pieces of coconut cake. I topped that with a fresh local strawberry compote, followed by chocolate cheesecake cream, then a lemon cookie crumble and a fresh strawberry. This made for layers of contrasting flavors and textures. 

Chocolate Cheesecake Cream
Beat some cream cheese until smooth. Beat in some cocoa powder and sugar. Then gradually pour in some cream and keep whipping until the mixture is stiff. 
I don't have amounts for this recipe - but I would say it's about equal amounts cream cheese and whipping cream. Then add enough cocoa powder and sugar to flavor.

Vegan Lemon Pastry Cream

You don't need cream or any dairy or eggs at all to make a nice, smooth, tasty pastry cream.

Vegan Lemon Pastry Cream
1⁄4 cup all-purpose (plain) flour
1 cup non-dairy milk
3 Tablespoons granulated (white) sugar
1 pinch salt
juice of 2 large lemons
1⁄4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, whisk together the flour with 1/4 cup of the milk. Whisk in the remaining milk, sugar, and salt. Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, for 5-6 minutes or until very thick. Add juice and vanilla, then cook again until mixture becomes thickened again. Pour into a bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface to avoid a skin from forming. Cool and chill.

Rhubarb Mille Feuille

Mille Feuille means "a thousand leaves" and refers to the layers of flaky pastry. A mille feuille generally has some kind of filling such as a pastry cream and fruit.

Rhubarb Mille Feuille = 
one piece of puff pastry (my homemade puff pastry squares, freshly baked)
+ vegan lemon pastry cream
+ poached spiced rhubarb pieces
+ rhubarb coulis
+ one piece of puff pastry, dusted with icing sugar and caramelized under the broiler
+ dusting of icing sugar
+ more rhubarb coulis

Recipes for the individual components will follow in the coming days.

DAD Cake

I'm a day late for Father's Day, which is what happens when you work in the industry, but today I made a Father's Day cake. I used yesterday's lemon cake recipe and cut one round in half to form two 'D's' and the other I cut into an 'A' shape. Then I placed them on a baking sheet. Rather than frosting around them all in in between all the little crevices, I opted for a 'polka-dot/star' pattern. I used my signature cream cheese frosting (goes really well on a lemon cake). I kept some white, added a little cocoa powder to some to make it chocolate, and tinted the rest in a few different shades of blue, my father's favorite color. Then I used star tips to pipe randomly onto the cake. I thought it was a fun, simple, and pretty way of frosting it!

Lemon Cake

Lemon Cake
2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1/3 cup oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated (white) sugar

Preheat oven to 350◦F. Grease and flour two eight inch round cake pans.
In a large bowl, stir together the first five dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together milk, vinegar, lemon, oil, and vanilla. Whisk in the sugar. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cakes tests clean.

This cake turned out light, moist, and almost spongey in texture.
It can easily be made vegan by substituting a non dairy milk.

Stay tuned tomorrow to see what this lemon cake becomes!!!

Citrus Crema

Citrus Crema
1 kg sour cream, strained of excess liquid if necessary
juice and zest of 4 oranges
juice and zest of 6 lemons
juice and zest of 6 limes
1 bunch chives, finely cut

Fold all ingredients together - season to taste with some salt if necessary. This crema is a good consistency to smear, pipe, or spread.
Pairs well with salty, fatty items such as fish cakes.

Trio Of Desserts

Shellfish festival gala dinner dessert plate. That's three desserts per plate times 450 people equals 1350 mini desserts by three amazing pastry chefs.

Top: Lemon macaroon with lemon cream filling
Right: raspberry swirled cheesecake on graham crust with raspberry buttercream and fresh raspberry
Left: blueberry tartlet with white chocolate ganache, chantilly cream, and chocolate garnish
Salted caramel sauce.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

The key to really nice, really yellow lemon muffins? Lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon extract, and lemon bits. What are lemon  bits you ask? Small pieces of lemon that are candied and dehydrated. When stirred and baked into the muffin batter, they rehydrate and become little sweet lemon chips. A trick to get lemon muffins more yellow without adding artificial food coloring is to stir in a little dry turmeric in the batter. A little turmeric goes a long way so you won't add enough to taste is but just enough to color it.

Mom's Lemon Birthday Cake

Because I was not sure whether I would make it home for Mom's birthday or not and didn't have a lot of time once I did arrive, Mom's birthday cake was made by my brother and his girlfriend this year. They made a lovely gluten-free lemon bundt cake with a lemon icing. They were however, happy to have me pipe on the cake. I had forgotten to take home any cake decorating tools as I wasn't sure how much cake decorating I would be doing, so I just used a plastic bag. But I managed to pipe 'Happy 50th Birthday Mom' and some flowers and a border. I used a little melted strawberry jam to color the icing a very light pink naturally.

Lemon Blueberry Jelly Roll

This is a not-too-sweet, not-too-difficult summer fresh cake to make. Cut the jelly roll in half width-wise immediately after baking to make two smaller jelly rolls.

Lemon Jelly Roll
4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated (white) sugar
1 cup all-purpose (plain) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
zest of one large lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375◦F. Line a 10x15 inch jelly roll with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually beat in the sugar until mixture is glossy and holds stiff peaks. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time. Fold in remaining ingredients.
Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake ten minutes. Cook five minutes.

Flip cake onto a clean tea towel lined with parchment paper that is sprinkled with sifted icing sugar. Sift more icing sugar on top. Tightly roll the cake with the paper and tea towel. Allow to cool completely. Gently unroll cake, spread with blueberry jam, and reroll cake. Chill until firm, then slice with a serrated knife.

Vegan Citrus Cheesecakes

Vegan Citrus Cheesecakes
1 1/4 cup raw cashews
1 lemon
1 lime
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup agave

Place the cashews in a small saucepan. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer gently until almost all water has evaporated. Drain, then transfer to a food processor or ideally a Vitamix blender. 
Slice the hard ends off the lemon and lime, then cut into pieces. Add to the cashews.
Process mixture until very smooth, then add vanilla and agave (more or less, to taste. Chill until firm, or serve immediately as a cheesecake dip, but it will be slightly warm and the texture and 'cheesecakeyness' will be much better once cold.

I put my batter into six muffin cups, lined with melted chocolate. You will be amazed at how much the texture is like cheesecake. The taste is similar too, maybe not as 'cheesy' but close. This is a good basic vegan cheesecake recipe, and can be flavored in a variety of ways - chocolate, cinnamon, berries, etc. 

Lemon Meringue Pie Fix

The other day a friend came to me with a lemon meringue pie that didn't set up quite properly. It was strange, because the crust was delicious and perfectly baked and the filling was firm and tasty. Then the meringue was spread on and torched. I think the issue either came with not letting the filling set and cool long enough before being put in the pie shell, or before the meringue was put on. Also the meringue was not cooked or baked - only the top was torched so it weeped.

This causes a very yummy lemon meringue, well soup. It was liquidy and didn't stay together but the flavor was there. I suggested transforming it into a mousse, parfait, or trifle-type dessert. But then the pie was left with me to fix and I decided to try fixing it into a pie again. 

Lemon pie, take #2

I scraped the meringue off the top and put it into a bowl to set aside.
I scraped all the lemon filling out and put it in a pot, added some cornstarch and boiled it to thicken. Then transferred it to a bowl and cooled it to set.
I popped the crust in the oven briefly to crisp up and not turn out soggy from the lemon filling.
Then the meringue. I knew I couldn't rewhip it to form a nice meringue, so I decided to do something completely different with it. I put it in a saucepan, added some brown sugar for flavor and some cornstarch to thicken. I cooked it, then cooled it. This formed a 'burnt' (toasted from the meringue) caramel sauce that didn't harden because the cooked egg whites kept it soft and not overly sweet. It also enriched it without the use of butter.

To assemble, I spread the thick lemon filling into the crust, then since I didn't have a lot of the caramel, I piped it around the pie. The result? A really good lemon caramel pie that held together, and you would never know it had been a failure. The lesson? Learn from your mistakes, don't throw anything (that isn't spoiled) out, and get creative to use up leftovers.

It may not be the prettiest, but it is tasty considering what it came from!

Lemon Coconut Cream Filling

Lemon Coconut Cream Filling
1 can (400ml) full-fat coconut milk
juice and zest of one large lemon
1-2 Tablespoons maple syrup
1 drop almond extract
1 drop vanilla extract

Place the can of coconut milk upside down in the refrigerator overnight. This will cause the fat to separate out - leaving a layer of semi-solid, creamy white coconut fat, and a layer of watery liquid. If you forget to do this or don't have time - you can speed up the process by placing the can in the freezer. Just don't leave it there for longer than a couple of hours or you will end up with a rock-solid block of fat. Sometimes you can get the layer of fat without chilling the can first, but this will yield much less fat.

 Open the can and scoop off the solid fat on top, leaving the liquid and reserving for another use. This can be used for flavorful smoothies, vegan mac and cheese sauces, baked goods, or any other application requiring non-dairy milk, but not non-dairy thick cream. If you place this liquid back in the fridge, it will even thicken a bit as well.

You will need around 1/2 cup of solid fat. Add the remaining ingredients; you can add more or less maple syrup and more or less lemon zest for desired flavor. Mixture will thin out slightly, but will thicken upon chilling. 

Pour into parfait glasses or small bowls, prepared crust, between cake layers, or in desired application. Chill until firm, or freeze to firm it up faster.