Taste Treat

I hope you are not tired of the proliferation of posts on citrus. Those lemons just keep on comin’ and comin’. Like the Energizer bunny, our trees are unstoppable. And I am grateful for this. The flavor of these Meyer lemons is just incredible. Last night, as we sampled the most recent lemon recipe, I was mulling the taste over in my mouth, and it seemed like a fine wine. I could taste that the lemons were from my backyard. Not from a store, not from Mexico, but from nearby soil. They seem to have a distinctive flavor. Call me crazy….

As for the latest taste treat, we were compelled to find a recipe using the lemons that my father could enjoy. Having just spent over a month in the hospital battling esophageal cancer, he is now home and only slowly able to take foods orally, and they must be soft. So instead of his normal treat of lemon bars, we had to come up with something else. My daughter found a very simple recipe for lemon ice cream. Five minutes, pop it in the ice cream maker, then a few hours in the freezer, et voila!

The taste is smooth and creamy, no icy bits, with a strong but even taste of lemon. Served with a biscotti or Madeleine (or some of my treasured shortbread) and an espresso, and you have a wonderfully simple but elegant dessert.

Meyer Lemon Ice Cream

1 lemon, juiced and zested
1 lemon, juiced
2 cups white sugar
4 cups milk

In a medium bowl, stir together lemon juice and zest with sugar until smooth. Stir in milk. Pour into a 9x9 inch dish and place in freezer, stirring once when it begins to harden, until firm, 2 hours. Or pour into the freezer canister of an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers' directions.

Oh, and to see if we can truly tell our lemons apart from others, my daughter and I decided to conduct a blind test. We are going to make 3 lemon ice creams. One from our own Meyers, one from our own Eurekas, and one from store-bought Meyers. So you know what we will be doing this weekend.