EASY LEMON TART – Serves 6

Pastry:

125g. plain flour
100g. melted butter
3 tbsps. icing sugar, sieved

Lemon Filling:

150mls. whipping or double cream, not single
50g. caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 large lemons, juiced and the rind of 1

Mix the flour and sieved icing sugar in a bowl. Melt the butter and press the dough into the base and sides of a 7 inch / 18cm. diameter pie tin (I used a sponge tin with a loose base). Bake blind for 20 minutes at 190 degrees. Cool. Reduce oven temperature to 150.
Whisk all the filling ingredients together and pour into the pastry lined tin. Bake for another 35 – 40 minutes until set. Allow to cool before slicing. This would be lovely served with some raspberries / blueberries and some coulis. It does not require more cream in my opinion.

TIPS

Baking blind stops you getting a soggy bottom. I have special baking (ceramic beans) but you can use rice or any dried beans. Just line the tin with baking parchment so that the base is weighed down.

I didn’t refrigerate my tart and it lasted for 3 days. Keeping it out of the fridge stopped the pastry going soggy. It was beautifully crisp the first day, not quite so crisp the following day but still very good.

Pour the filling into the tin whilst it is in the oven and on a baking tray then you won’t have to carry it across the kitchen – use a jug for the purpose.

SLOW COOKED SHOULDER OF LAMB WITH ROSEMARY AND ONION SAUCE – Serves 4 – 6

6 garlic cloves
5 sprigs of fresh rosemary
10 bay leaves
2 – 2.2kg. shoulder of lamb
salt & pepper
250mls. red wine

For the rosemary and onion sauce

50g. butter
1 onion (about 200g. finely sliced)
2 tbsps. plain flour
500mls. milk
2 tbsps. cream or creme fraiche
1 tbsp. finely chopped rosemary

Preheat the oven to 160/ gas mark 2-3. Place the unpeeled garlic in the bottom of a large roasting tin with the rosemary and bay leaves. Sit the lamb on top and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 2 hours, then pour in the wine and roast for a further hour.

To make the sauce, melt the butter over a low heat, add the onion and saute until soft. Stir in the flour and then add the milk gradually, stirring all the time. Cook on a low heat for 5 minutes, add the cream and rosemary and cook for another 5 minutes, again stirring all the time. The sauce should not be too thick so add the little more milk if necessary. Season with salt and pepper.

Take the lamb out of the oven and transfer to a warm plate. Cover in foil whilst you make the gravy. Discard the rosemary, bay leaves and garlic and spoon off all the fat. Put the tin over a medium heat and add a little water (or vegetable water) and bring to the boil, stirring to make a gravy. Arrange the lamb meat in chunks on a serving plate, pour over the gravy and serve with the rosemary and onion sauce.