A little over two years ago, I got some dwarf citrus trees from my favourite online gardening store – Diggers – and I am so excited to be reaping the rewards of my citrus crops this winter! I am most proud to say I have mandarins, lemons, limes, oranges, cumquats and grapefruit on my trees – yay! I even have a Kaffir Lime tree with loads of fruit – if anybody have any suggestions what to do with these weird bumpy limes, please let me know here in the comments below or on The Food Werewolf Facebook page 🙂 We have tried a citrus tart with the kaffir lime juice but it was so bitter and sour it was almost inedible (mental note: taste juice before baking a whole tart with it!).
Now not only do the trees look so pretty with all this colourful fruit in the garden, they are super yummy and inspiring loads of cooking in the kitchen. Thanks to my fabulously talented Mum (my parents are visiting at the moment), we are churning through an array of citrus recipes at the moment, one of which is the always popular super citrus tart.
I have always wanted to make a citrus tart but never seemed to find the motivation until my Mum and Dad rocked up for a visit and are all inspired to make the most of every edible thing in my garden (I just love that drive to use every last drop of everything – the juice, the rind and of course when it comes to kaffir limes, the leaves too!)
So it turns out, citrus tart is not that hard to make and tastes rather yummy with homegrown fresh lemons 🙂 Our kids highly recommend it with a good serve of ice-cream and a dollop of thick fresh cream.
You can find the Super Citrus Tart recipe here.
But of course it hasn’t stopped there… Our kids requested one of their all time favourite treats – our tangy gluten free no bake mini cheesecakes. You will find this recipe in my eBook The Food Werewolf Guide: Going Gluten Free Permanently. Mum and I had to make a few variations since we were out of ginger biscuits and didn’t have the time or energy to make any, so instead, we used two packets of Orgran shortbread heart biscuits and added about 1 tbs of ground ginger, a bit of grated organic fresh ginger and then chopped up about 1/4 cup of organic crystallised ginger to give the biscuit base some bite and tang. It worked a treat!
My most prolific crop has been from the cute little cumquat tree, which had over 150 cumquats on it! Alongside Rosella jam, my childhood favourite jam is cumquat jam, so a batch of jam was definitely in order with all my cumquats. You can find a recipe for cumquat jam here.
Of course it’s not all about sweet recipes with citrus – there are some great savoury dishes highlighting that fresh citrusy flavour too! One of my favourites is to simply grate some orange rind into the crumb mixture before coating chicken pieces in gluten free crumbs. This little twist on crunchy chicken pieces makes for a fresh change and goes well with a fresh salad and some creamy warm mashed potato.
Finally, one favourite citrus savoury dish I particularly love is my Quick Lemon Thyme Chicken dish. A favourite not only because it’s super quick and easy, but also because it has a great balance of flavours and textures – the tangy lemon, mustard and vinegar jus with sweet currants, crunchy pistachios and creamy potatoes… it works a treat! You can find the recipe for this chicken dish here.
Do you have a favourite citrus recipe? If so, please share in the comments below, on The Food Werewolf Facebook or Instagram page!
Happy citrus baking!
Loren x
