Crows in the Kitchen » lemon

When Spring gives you Lemons…make lemony things?

emily — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:27:40 +0000

Its spring time here! Woohoo! My spirits were very much effected by the lack of sun for the last several months, more so than I realized, until today when I was able to have a glorious adventure in the sun. As many of the people who have visited me in Oakland know, my house is on the edge of a vast expanse of a globalized industrial wasteland AKA. the port of Oakland. In the middle of this hundreds of acres sprawl exists an oasis of nature, undergoing a huge restoration and preservation project called the Middle Shoreline Park. To commemorate the arrival of springtime Billy & I (along with a one michael gensington) packed a lemon-inspired picnic and biked to this park.

When I went to the produce market on the way home from work Saturday I was shocked to see such a stocked sale rack. (this particular place bags up the older, broken, or almost rotten goods and sells them so cheap!) I got a 5 lbs bag of broken zucchini halves for $1 and about 30 lemons for $2. Life is good When I got home I began forming my plan of attack. At the picnic we ate : lemon poppy seed muffins, lemon-zucchini bread, lemonade(although it was store-bought), and a quick-sort-of tabbouleh.

The muffins didn’t come out as moist or as lemony as I would have liked, so I’ll hold off on the recipe until I’ve mastered it, but the pseudo tabbouleh & zucchini bread were stellar!

Zucchini Bread w/lemon

2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1 T baking powder
2 t garam masala blend*

aprox 3 cups grated zucchini
2/3 c oil
1 egg (or apple sauce)
1 t lemon zest
1/2- 3/4 cup raisins
2 t cider vinegar

1/2 c lemon juice

Method: Pre-heat oven to 350. Sift the flour, spice, & baking powder. Mix with sugar. In a clean bowl grate the zucchini, and add all the wet ingredients except the lemon juice. Mix the wet + dry, slowly add the lemon juice. Mix as little as possible. Pour into a greased baking vessel (I used a 4 X 9 loaf pan, but I’m sure anything will do). Bake for about an hour, until a stick comes out clean.

*although you could use any number of spices, any 1 of the garam spices would still be yummy!

Tabbouleh-ish

So traditional tabbouleh is a nice blend of mint, parsley, tomatoes, onions, cucumber, cracked wheat, and lemon juice. But, what I love most about it is the texture, the combination of herbs, with citrus & the Bulgar. I had cilantro, so that is what I used.

Method: soak the Bulgar overnight (or if you want it now pour some boiling water over it an let it sit for a bit) Finely chop the cilantro, red onion, cucumber (preferably Persian cukes- so yummy!) Mix everything together & add fresh lemon juice, s & p, and perhaps a little garlic. Enjoy!

Tyler Florence Yummyness

Vbar — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:25:17 +0000

Tyler Florence is one of my fav. foodnetwork celebrities. My mom bought me his cookbook for Christmas last year and I’ve made a few things out of it, but every time I passed the page with his recipie for “Arichokes with Sausage, Sage and Lemon” my mouth would start watering. My normal vegetarianism prevented me from ever making it, but the other day I finally broke down and did it. And it was delicous- truly amazing. I replaced the pork sausage with sweet italian chicken sausage from Trader Joes (always yummy). The link to Tyler’s recipe is here. I highly recommend trying it out.

My attempt at Tyler's recipe

Deconstructed Chicken Soup

Holly — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:48:30 +0000

All of these chicken soup recipes are putting my salivary glands into over-drive! I was feeling a little congested yesterday so decided to follow suit and conjure up my own chicken soup as my medicine. I was really craving some carbs so decided to put a spin on the normal soup recipe. I kept the same classic chicken soup flavors and deconstructed it into something more hearty and filling.

Mirepoix Risotto with Lemon Roasted Chicken

Mirepoix Risotto: Mirepoix sounds fancy but it is just the french word for the trinity of celery, onions and carrots- the foundation for chicken soup. I sauteed these vegetables plus some garlic and bay leaf to make a basic risotto. At the end rather than stirring in grated cheese I used lemon zest to give it a nice bite; a great suggestion I borrowed from emily’s recipe. I also stirred in some peas to compensate for the vibrant green that got cooked out of the celery.
Lemon Roasted Chicken: It would have been great to roast a whole chicken, but since I was only cooking for two I decided to go for Chicken Tender strips they sell at Harvest (best deal around $3.50 a pound). I tossed them with olive oil, salt pepper and dried oregano then layered some lemon slices over the top. Baked in a 425 degree oven for 25 minutes, then let them sit on the stove top covered for another 10 minutes the let the juices redistribute. Garnish with a little fresh parsley or chopped celery leaves and dinner is served.