A Year In Redwood

A couple of weeks ago as I sat here working away at the computer, something caught my eye…. a tweet from the folks at Cico asking for people to review a book.  Now most of the time, these things flash up in front of me and I ignore.   Why did I not ignore this tweet?

I am not sure!  Perhaps what I was working on was just boring me!  Anyway I checked out the link and instantly loved the idea of recipes working through the seasonality of the year.  I immediately signed up and was delighted to receive my copy a couple of days later.

Farm Fresh Recipes by Heather Cameron

And what a book…. I love the recipes and the photographs are just totally amazing!  A really beautiful book.

The book starts with the story of how Heather is now a farmer.  Her story is so similar to ours.  Her husband, her Mum and herself bought a house they liked which just happened to be in the midst of a 40 acre farm outside Vancouver.  While we don’t have 40 acres… we bought this house not knowing what we would do with the 5 acres around it!

Heather, the house you bought must have had the same interior decorator as ours!  Paisley borders, blue nylon carpet, swaggy and lacy curtains!  All so so familiar!

Heather’s farm is called ‘Missing Goat Farm’…. there has to be a story there… and I want to hear that 🙂

But onto the recipes.  There is a wonderful collection of recipes to suit each season.  I cannot wait for my rhubarb to come on so I can try out the rhubarb and rosemary jam – doesn’t that sound such a delicious combination.

Another thing I loved about this book…. the ingredients are listed in both US and European measurements.

The first recipe I decided to try were the little merignue tarts.  Heather makes her lemon curd using Meyer lemons.  I’ve never seen them available here, so I used our regular lemons and followed Darina Allen’s directions for the lemon curd.

Meringue Tarts

Lemon Meringue Tartlet

These are so delicious – you could eat an awful lot of them!  You have been warned.

For the Meringue:

• 4 egg whites
• 200 g (1 cup) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Crumb Crust:

• 125 g (1 1/4 cups) digestive biscuit crumbs
• 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 60 g (1/4 cup) butter melted.

Preheat oven to 180 deg. C/Gas 4.

Beat the egg whites until they begin to firm up.  Slowly start to add the sugar.  You may need to stop and scrape down the sides.  Keep beating for about 15 minutes until the egg whites are firm and can stand up on their own and the sugar has dissolved completely.  Fold in the vanilla extract.

Mix the crumb crust ingredients together in a bowl.  Press the mixture firmly into individual, lined muffin pans.

Bake the crust in the preheated oven for c. 10 minutes.  Let the shells cool completely and then spoon in your lemon curd filling.

Pile the meringue high as you can on top of lemon curd.

Bake the tarts in the oven for another 10 minutes, but keep your eye on them, so the meringue doesn’t over brown.

Let cool and then enjoy!

Look at all that lovely lemony gooeyness

Farm-fresh Recipes by Heather Cameron can be bought right here.  Trust me you will enjoy it.

Thank you to Cico books for sending me this beautiful book.