The Ultimate Lemon Tart

This is an amazingly indulgent tart and an absolute winner with my friends and family. It does take some time to make and uses an awful lot of eggs BUT it is so worth the effort.

With a little bit of extra work, you could always top with meringue and have it as a lemon meringue pie but definitely try it in its pure state of deliciousness, would won't regret it.

Lemon Tart

Pastry

250g Plain Flour

75g Icing Sugar

180g Butter

2 Egg Yolks

Filling

6 Lemons (6 x Zest, 4 x Juice)

200g Caster Sugar

200g Butter

4 Whole Eggs

9 Egg Yolks

• For the Filling, place zest, juice, sugar and butter into a heat proof bowl over simmering water.
• Whisk continuously until the butter has melted and well combined (do not let it boil).
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the whole eggs and the egg yolks and pour very slowly into the lemon mixture, stirring continuously so as not to scramble the eggs.
• Stir for about 15-20 minutes until the mixture is thick enough to cover the back of a spoon.
• Set aside to cool.
• For the pastry, preheat the oven to Gas 3/170C/325F
• Place the flour, icing sugar and butter into a food processor and pulse to a breadcrumb texture.
• Add the egg yolks and pulse again until a pastry ball is formed.
• Turn the pastry out onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead until smooth.
• Cover the pastry in clingfilm and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Roll out the pastry 2-3ml in thickness and place into a well greased 24 cm tart tin (I use a loose bottomed, fluted tart tin).
• Refrigerate the pastry again for 30 minutes
• Place a sheet of crumpled greaseproof paper into the tart tin and top with baking beans.
• Bake the pastry for 15 minutes
• Remove the baking beans and greaseproof paper and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until golden brown.
• Preheat the grill
• Sieve the curd filling into the tart shell and even out.
• Place the tart under the grill for a few minutes, turning every once in a while to allow the top to bubble and blister
• Remove and allow to cool. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

My Dorset Food Adventure - The Wild Garlic

My Dorset food adventure took me to some fabulous eateries including The amazing The Wild Garlic and Hix Oyster and Fish House (review to come).

The Wild Garlic was simply stunning. The food was outstanding, the staff very helpful and friendly, the atmosphere relaxing and before we knew it, 2 and 1/2 hours had flown by.

Little details all around the restaurant add to the magic of the place, like the pots of black peppermint sitting on each table (especially grown for the restaurant), the carved foody words and phrases around the edge of the tables, the lovely bread with olive oil and balsamic put on the table as you wait for your meal and the calming decor.

One of the stand out dishes of my whole week away, was my amazing starter.

It was pigeon breast with a pear puree, pickled quails eggs and black pudding crumble. Every mouthful was absolute pleasure and my only sadness was that it was over and finished so quickly.

This was followed by an amuse bouche of spring vegetable soup which was velvety smooth and delicious. Then the main course.......Dover Sole with brown butter. An amazing fish, cooked beautifully with every mouthful an absolute joy to eat.

Lastly, the most delectable chocolate fondant i've ever had (has anyone noticed the general theme of this review ;-) ). This was an amazing combination of a bitter chocolate fondant which was wonderfully oozy in the centre, with a creamy sweet banana ice cream.

On top of all of this wonderful food, I got to meet the main man himself, Mat Follas. He not only came out to present us (hubby and me) with our starters (which I think is a really lovely touch for his customers, and much appreciated), he also took time out of a busy lunch service to say hello before we left. I can't praise The Wild Garlic enough and it is definitely a restaurant i'll be going back to again and again.

My Dorset Foody Adventure Continued - well kinda

Ok, so I know this has absolutely nothing to do with being in Dorset and its wonderful produce, Hubby and I did celebrate Easter there and with, what else......CHOCOLATE.

I treated hubbyto a bountiful range of Chocolate Pizza,

a Chocolate Bacon Bar

and a Firecracker Egg (a chilli and chocolate combination combined with popping candy and toppedwith pink peppercorns), all of which are now eaten.

For me hubby treated me to a Chocolate Buttons egg (as a bit of a throw back to my childhood) and the absolutely astounding Hotel Chocolate Dark Chocolate Ostrich Egg!!!

This egg, together with its accompanying chocolates equate to almost 1 and a half kilos of pure chocolate heaven. The Egg part is the same size of my head and probably as thick...lol. Needless to say, I haven't got anywhere near starting the egg and still have the 3 bars of chocolate out of the separate choc box you get with it.

The top layer of the chocolate box. Alcohol flavoured truffles and 3 bars of choc

Bottom layer. Two of all the bigger chocs and 4 of the smaller ones. How much more chocolate can they cram in?