Citrus Tart
Northern Rivers | NSW
Don’t know about your part of the world, but citrus has been going absolutely berserk here on the Northern Rivers of late. Oranges, lemons, mandarins, lemonades, grapefruit; cumquats. What else have I missed?
Maybe it’s the chilly weather we’ve been having; we’ve even had the odd frosty morning over the past couple of weeks. I’ll take the cold weather over the summer months any day, like the citrus I’m absolutely loving it.
As well as the orange and cumquat haul from the trees my own backyard, there’s also been the continuous stream of locals giving away their own backyard citrus including some of the largest, juiciest lemons I’ve ever seen. I’ve even managed to get my hands on a decent quantity of fresh lemonade fruits that I’m going to have a go at making marmalade with.
For the moment though I’ve played around making citrus tarts with the oranges, cumquats and lemons I’ve had plenty of.
Given that I’m not a trained chef and I’m also very human, I’ll be honest and tell you the first round of tart making was a monumental disaster. They were more like ‘deconstructed’ citrus tarts to be exact (don’t ask!), but the second round was a success after some tips from my mother (I don't think you’re ever too old to get help from your mum).
After first cooking mini orange tarts, it was decided that they were probably a little too sweet, especially with the meringue (everyone’s palate is different though). I had heaps of lemons, thanks to a local lady generously keeping me well stocked, so it was decided to move onto making a lemon tart. Instead of making my lemon tarts ‘mini’ like I did the orange, I decided to make one big tart, plenty of surface area then for a mound of berries and foliage.
The best part was playing around with the foliage and berries (thank heavens for glad wrap); the greenery was taken from the orange tree in the backyard (I’ve probably been living under a rock or even just a Brisbane high-rise for too long, but did you know the leaves have a faint citrus smell too?).
I candied the left over oranges and cumquats and they probably didn’t turn out exactly as I would have liked, but I think that was due mostly to the technique of the person preparing them versus the recipe itself, if you catch my drift. My cumquat tree is almost ready for its second harvest of the season though, and I seem to be getting the hang of things in the kitchen on the second time around, so I’ll give it another go.
Now for a coffee, a (large) slice of tart and a (equally as large) dollop of cream.
