Meyer lemons: The little fruit that COULD!

Meyer lemons are almost orange in color

Darlings! Well, as you know, La Diva was ALL EXCITED about the blood oranges I found last week and then a few days ago I went again to my local grocery and found....Meyer Lemons! Yay! I've actually NEVER SEEN THEM or even used them but I've heard so many good things about their wonderfully unique flavor so of course I snatched them up straight away with visions of lemon curd and cocktails and lemon meringue pie in my head!

So, what EXACTLY makes a Meyer lemon so good? The flavor. And, I think the unique flavor is due to the fact that it's a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. While the typical Eureka lemons have that bright and light citrus taste, the Meyer lemon's flavors go a bit deeper, you can really taste the "orange" part of the lemon. The color of my lemons were certainly indicative of a cross breed, some of them were almost orange in their skin color. If you can, do a taste comparison yourself and you'll notice the difference.

After looking at myriad recipes, my original idea stood firm: a lovely Meyer lemon meringue pie was just the ticket! For the recipe, I went to my old stand-by: The Chicago Tribune Cookbook! Published in 1989, I've had this tome for years and it's chock full of wonderful classics as well as recipes of the time (Remember food from the late 80's? Sun-dried tomato and goat cheese, mesclun and anything Southwestern or Cajun?!)

I call the Meyer lemon "the little fruit that COULD" as I was able to glean SO MUCH out of one little fruit! For the pie, I ended up using the juice of 4.5 of the five lemons I bought. So as not to waste ANY PART of the lemon, I peeled the rind off of the lemons I had not grated for the pie and made a divine lemon sugar syrup for future use in cocktails and cakes. I then took the peels out of the syrup, cut into a julienne, added more white sugar and put into a jar for another time! Now, how many other fruits can you get THAT MUCH mileage out of?!

Did you know you can grow Meyer lemons in containers? Just make sure they are well-drained and in a sunny spot.

Oh, as a postscript note about Florida blood oranges: I met Margie of Bee Heaven Farms this past Sunday at the final farmer's market in Pinecrest (Miami) and asked her about Florida grown blood oranges. She said she doesn't know of anyone in Southern Florida that grows them, the oranges could very well be grown upstate. Also, she stated that there was a bit of a problem with a pest that contributed to the blood orange's rarity down here. If any of you dear readers are aware of any local growers, kindly let La Diva know!

See you back here soon for the recipe of the dee-lish Meyer lemon meringue pie!

Ciao darlings!cooking class, cocktails, parties, cocktail party, Miami, coral gables, events, bartending class, cocktail class, Laura Lafata, Miami Beach, miami cooking classes, bachelorette parties, bachelorette party