August 2021 Entries

As Melbourne, Australia was entering its 6th lockdown in August 2021, I received an abundance of lemons and eggs from family and neighbours. When life gives you I made Nigella’s Lemon Polenta drizzle cake, lemon scented homemade pasta and gnocchi, and a boatload of Lemon Curd using my mums perfect 1970s recipe. This cookalong came along at a perfect time, providing a much needed project, a bit of hope, warmth and a little sunshine in the Melbourne winter. The panic buyers had other ideas though, clearing the shelves of digestive biscuits, lemons, cream cheese and butter. Not one to give in easily I substituted cream cheese for Neufchâtel (which I had to dig out of the bottom of the cheese counter, finding myself waist deep in the display case), digestive biscuits for Granita, a super short wheat biscuit that turns into sand almost instantly, and regular unsalted butter was exchanged for French sea salt crusted butter. The Granita base is fragile, with a slight salty hit that contrasts perfectly to the ultra-satiny Neufchâtel and lemon curd mixture and the sweet and sour new season Victorian and Queensland berries. This tart was the perfect project to begin our second week of lockdown.