ArcaMax

33 Years of Lemon

I got the day off yesterday for the first time in 34 years.

34 years, you say...and no day off? What’s that all about?

Well, I am talking about just one day of the year; my husband’s birthday. Until yesterday, I had a streak of 33 years in which I made my husband a unique lemon dessert for his birthday celebration.

His favorite flavor, as you can guess, is lemon.

I was challenged, for sure, as the years went by. I baked lemon cheesecake, made lemon tarts, lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting and even lemon pudding. The list goes on and on.

But this year we are traveling in France on a long-planned vacation. We are in the wine country around Bordeaux.

I do have a little kitchen where we are staying but it made no sense to buy all the stuff I would need to make a lemon dessert. If I were to make a cake I’d need the flour, the leavening agent, eggs and more. Just too much stuff.

So when my husband came back to the place we are staying the other day and announced that he’d seen the cutest little lemon loaf cake in a window of a French pastry shop I hatched my plan.

I could buy that cake and just make a sauce to go with it. So voila! I made a raspberry coulis sauce and topped a little piece of the cake with that and some whipped cream. Bingo. Lemon dessert with just five minutes of work and one little saucepan to wash....

Read the full column at PlanZDiet.com

Raspberry Coulis

Raspberry coulis is often used by dessert chefs to decorate your dessert at a restaurant. They put a swirl of it on your plate or maybe drizzle it over the top of the dessert. You can be fancy or plain as you wish. Once you’re in ZReboot try it with a dessert like almond pound cake. It will also be great over vanilla ice cream.

Servings: This makes enough for several desserts depending on how much you want as a portion. I usually serve 1 – 2 Tbl as a portion. You can also easily double this recipe for a crowd. It keeps for about a week covered in a container in the fridge.

Ingredients:

1 pint of ripe raspberries
¼ cup of water
2 tsp of vanilla
1 – 2 tsp of stevia liquid sweetener. Or you can use granular. The amount you use just depends on how sweet you want your coulis. I try to use less if possible.

Instructions:

In a small saucepan add the water and the raspberries. Turn the heat to medium or medium-high. You want to get it bubbling. Break up the raspberries with a spoon so they break down into mush as it cooks. When it’s all hot, bubbly and mushy take it off the heat and add the flavorings. Stir. Taste to see if it’s sweet enough for you. Don’t burn your mouth. Just taste a bit on your finger. Adjust sweetness if necessary. Leaving it a bit tart doesn’t hurt either!

If you have a mesh strainer most folks will strain this to get the seeds out. Just pour it in a strainer in two batches. Press on the sides with the back of a spoon to force the strained liquid through the mesh and into a bowl. The seeds will be left in the strainer. Toss those.

This is not a necessary step. The sauce is perfectly fine with the seeds still in it. It’s just an extra step to make it totally smooth.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola