lemon – Nannie RaRa

Cashew nut roast

9th Nov 2024 Nannie RaRa

My daughter has reverted to being a vegetarian and has asked for a nut roast for Christmas dinner. I’ve been experimenting and this cashew nut roast seems promising.

Ingredients

Main roast

150 g cashew nuts
small onion
125 g chestnut mushrooms
bunch fresh thyme
4 oz breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 oz butter

Stuffing

3 oz breadcrumbs
lemon
bunch fresh parsley
1 egg

Method

Prepare the stuffing first. Make the breadcrumbs using fresh brown bread and place in a bowl.

I used white bread for both in this version, but in future I’ll use brown bread for the stuffing and white for the main roast to produce a contrast.

Chop the parsley finely – I prefer curly leafed parsley – and add to the breadcrumbs. Grate the rind from the lemon and add this, plus the juice to the breadcrumbs. Mix well then bind together using a beaten egg. Stand to one side.

Make the breadcrumbs for the main roast and place in a bowl. Crush the cashew nuts, either in a blender or use a rolling pin on a board. Mix the cashews with the breadcrumbs.

Chop both the onion and the mushrooms finely. In a cooking pan melt 1 oz butter. Add the the onion, mushrooms and the thyme leaves. Cook over a gentle heat for a couple of minutes.

Put the onion and mushroom mix into the breadcrumbs and nuts. Mix well and bind together with a beaten egg. It will be a bit crumbly, not completely solid.

Put a sheet of baking parchment into a loaf tin. Put half the main roast mix in the bottom of the tin. Spoon the stuffing on to this and then finally the last part of the main roast.

Cover with tinfoil and bake at 180 C for an hour, taking the tinfoil off for the last ten minutes to crisp the top.

Take out and either eat it hot with gravy or a sauce. It can also be eaten cold. I enjoyed a slice as it was – it would be good in a lunch box.

Enjoy!

Recipe

Fresh lemon buns

13th Feb 2021 Nannie RaRa

I’ve recently been baking these lemon buns which are so tangy and refreshing. My 95 year-old father has been making them as well and the grandchildren have been eating them all!

Ingredients

2 eggs
4 oz butter
4 oz caster sugar
4 oz self-raising flour
Juice and zest of lemon
2 oz caster sugar for topping

Switch on oven to 180 C

You can either use the weights above or weigh two (or three) eggs, in their shells, and use their equivalent weight in butter, sugar and flour.

Put paper bun cases into muffin or cake tins. I prefer muffin tins as this gives a higher bun. The two-egg recipe makes approximately 12 buns.

Weigh the flour and add the zest of the lemon to it. Leave to one side.

Weigh the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and cream them together until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each egg.

Add the flour and lemon zest beating well again. Some recipes say to fold in the flour but I find beating it in produces a finer cake.

Put a large teaspoon of the mix into each bun case. Divide any remaining mix between the buns.

Put the tray of buns into the oven for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch.

While the buns are cooking, weigh out 2 oz caster sugar and add the juice from the lemon to it. Stir well until the mix becomes syrupy.

When the buns are cooked, remove from the oven and place on a rack. Either using a teaspoon or a brush put all the lemon syrup over the tops of the buns while they are still warm. Some of the syrup might run over the edge but don’t worry.

The lemon syrup gives an extra tang to the buns and makes them moist.

Enjoy!

Recipe

Jean’s lemon freezer cake

23rd Dec 2020 Nannie RaRa

My neighbour, Jean, gave me this easy-to-make lemon dessert recipe that is simply delicious. It can be made and kept in the freezer, taking it out and cutting a slice to eat whenever you want.

Ingredients

4 oz (114 g) icing sugar
Zest and juice of lemon
300 ml double cream
2 oz (57 g) meringue nests
half a 300 g jar lemon curd
2 lb loaf tin (or similar) lined with clingfilm

Put the icing sugar plus the juice and zest of the lemon in a large bowl. Mix together until the icing sugar has dissolved.

Mixing lemon zest and juice with icing sugar

Add the double cream and whisk all together until it forms soft peaks.

Roughly crumble the meringue nests into the mix, add teaspoonfuls of lemon curd as well.

Using a metal spoon gently fold the meringues and lemon curd into the cream. This does not need thorough mixing, finding areas of lemon curd when eating is good.

Spoon the mix into the lined tin. Cover with clingfilm and place in the freezer for a few hours.

Spoon the mixture into the tin and cover with clingfilm

The cake is now ready to eat.

Take the cake from the freezer and remove from the tin.

Turn it out onto a plate and remove clingfilm. You now have the lemon dessert. Single slices can be cut from the cake as you want them with the remainder returned to the freezer just wrapped in the clingfilm. It will keep for up to three months.

Jean's lemon freezer cake — Jean’s lemon freezer cake

Enjoy!