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Lemon Meringue Pie

First off, every time I see Meringue written/typed I think of Merengue or more precisely Pintame or Sauvemente by Elvis Crespo and my feet start tapping. Ok now that I have that out of the way.

I have never actually had Lemon Meringue Pie before, sorry correction I have no recollections of eating it in the past but Mum says she made it a bit when I was a wee kid so I quite possibly have eaten it before. Nevertheless when I was pulling Bush Lemons off the tree on the side of the road, I knew that the the first thing I was going to make was Lemon Meringue Pie.

Like any good Australian, this recipe comes from The Australian Women’s Weekly Cooking Class Cookbook, our version is at least 29 years old as Mum’s maiden name is written in the front. This book though is a classic and many of our favourite recipes are from it.

I didn’t use the pastry recipe supplied but my last pastry disc from the Chocolate Mascarpone Tart and that pastry worked quite well.

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Lemon Meringue Pie
The Australian Women’s Weekly Cooking Class Cookbook

Filling
4TBSP plain flour
4TBSP corn flour
3/4C lemon juice
lemon zest from the juiced lemons
1C sugar
90g butter, in small cubes
4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1 1/4C water

Meringue
4 egg whites
2TBSP water
pinch salt
3/4C castor sugar

Line a 9″(23cm) pie plate with your preferred pastry. Decorate the edges with your finger, prick base with fork, line with a disc of baking paper and cover with rice, beans or baking weights. Cook in a 180°C oven for 10-15 minutes or until it is lightly browned. Leave to cool.

Dissolve the cornflour in a portion of the water so that it is smooth. In a saucepan combine the sifted flours, lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar and water. Stir till smooth over a moderate heat until the mixture boils and thickens, it must boil. Reduce the heat and stir for a further 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and egg yolks, keep stirring till the butter is melted. Leave to cool.

Spread the cooled filling into the pastry shell. Beat the egg whites, salt and water on high speed till soft peaks form. Keep beating at high speed and gradually pour in the sugar until the sugar has dissolved (you can tell this by dipping your finger in the mixture and rubbing it against your thumb, it should be smooth). Spoon on top of the pie, spreading it evenly on top. Peak or rib the meringue decoratively with a knife or a spatula.

Bake in a 160-180°C oven for 5-10 minutes or until the meringue has just lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool. It is easiest to slice this with a normal dinner knife dipped in hot water.

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C’side, Seaside

This takeaway shop on Gympie Rd has been a bit of an institution round the Chermside area for quite a while now. I have often walked past and seen local workers or tradies at the counter picking up a takeaway lunch or snack. It has also had a few ownership changes recently, which has seen the name change. As I was walking home from work on Saturday I couldn’t help but laugh at the new name for the shop. Abbreviating the suburb name C’side to make your fish and chip shop sound like it is right on the water front. I loved it.

C'Side Seafood

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Blue King Brown

Last post from the ABC birthday party and really about time. I discovered Blue King Brown at Woodford this year and since then their album Stand Up has had a lot play.
Whilst the ABC show was a different vibe to Woodford where it was a X000 wet people dancing in mud at midnight to 100odd people dancing in the winter sun at the Riverstage with X000 people sitting on the hill behind them, BKB delivered with the crowd listening to every word that sung from Natalie’s mouth. There were times when the crowd was jumping, clapping and singing a long with the songs and then there were times when the crowd stood there listening in awe as they listened to the words and thought about the meaning behind them. Head over to their myspace page and listen to some tracks if you haven’t before. Now the photos which is what you all come for 🙂

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Grandmum’s Cheesecake

Grandmum's cheesecake 1

As we were driving home from our Mackay trip, Mum noted a bush lemon tree by the side of the road laden with lemons. I promptly did a u-turn on the road and went back to the tree to pick a fewlemons. There is nothing quite like bush lemons and for the rest of the day I could smell the lemon oil on my fingers, our car too was perfumed with the delicate scent of lemons. It was quite a treat. Later on that day I picked up 5 limes and 5 meyer lemons for $1 at a farm gate stall on the Gympie-Tin Can Bay Rd. We have had quite a few lemon treats since we returned and this is the first one to be posted 🙂

This recipe is one my Grandmother used to make(hence the title) and was made by my mother with the photographs by me of course.

Grandmum’s Cheesecake
Grandmum's cheesecake 3

Ingredients
Crust
250g Arnott’s Scotch Fingers, crushed
45g Copha, melted
45g margarine/butter, melted

Filling
250g cream cheese
400g sweetened condensed milk
1/3c fresh lemon juice
1tbsp gelatine dissolved in 1/4c hot water

Make a crumb crust with the scotch fingers, copha marg/butter. Press into the base of a 7″x11″ Lamington tin and refrigerate.
Beat 250g cream cheese till soft, beat in the remaining ingredients. Pour into the prepared crust and chill till set..
Serve with strawberries, passion fruit or just chomp down on a piece as it is.

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The Bad Moon Company and Frankie Wants Out

Last Saturday night I went out with my brother and his mates to see Frankie Wants Out from Melbourne and a local band The Bad Moon Company that they are friends with. By their own accounts Frankie Wants Out play Gangster Swing and they were good and I enjoyed the music but it felt like they started to unravel towards the end of their set. I walked out with their EP The Melbourne Way which I have enjoyed listening to in the past week. The highlight of the night was of course The Bad Moon Company, are a Psychobilly/Rockabilly which went off. They were incredibly tight musically and definitely have perfected their stage act. I loved them. Pure and Simple.

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Regina Spektor and Only Son, The Tivoli, July 9.

Regina on Monday night was absolutely blooming marvellous as I outlined in the previous post, here though are the photos, which is what we all love to see.
There were so many things I loved about the concert. All the words and phrases were so very clear, which meant that we all knew exactly what she was singing about. There were times when she would be in the middle of a song and giggles would break out in the crowd as they “heard” what she was singing and she in turn would turn to face the audience and put this sort of shy, funny look on her face which was a crack-up.

Regina’s 2nd last song was Hotel Song with
Only Son who beat boxed the main beats with Regina adding the vocals and more beats over the top. Very cool indeed. You can watch a video of this performance at previous gigs here – Regina and Only Son, Hotel Song