Books and cakes - 28

      Tarquin Winot pronounces on a variety of dishes as he travels south through France, though cakes as such aren't mentioned as far as I recall. He provides a recipe for Queen of Puddings, admits to an embarrassment of scones at Fortnum's, but otherwise leaves us craving some sweetness - in more ways than one!

He does recall a meal with his mother at La Coupole in Paris at which they shared a lemon tart - "and this is something for which I am not going to be bothered to give a recipe: simply purchase the relevant pudding from someone authoritative", he says.

To make this classic tart, which Tarquin includes in a menu as "intended to give a sense of warmth and sunlight ...", I've gone back to Jane Grigson's Fruit Book and the recipe I've used countless times.

Mrs. Grigson introduces it with a line or two which might have been Tarquin's own: "The best lemon tart I know. The recipe comes from our young doctor at Trôo, whose governess used to make it regularly. What a happy childhood! The three children devoted to each other, kindly if remote parents and a gastronomic governess. Never, it seems, did she give them prunes and rice pudding."

      Lacking time and being a couple of lemons short of the required number, I've made the simple, unadorned version. I expect Tarquin would approve.

Comments

[Claire (The Captive Reader)]

Not only do I now crave a lemon tart, I'm also craving both books!

[Dark Puss]

We (I mean J here) use the recipe in Anne Willan's French Regional Cooking. Comparing the two the pastry (sweet pie) and filling are very similar, but Willan asks you to bake blind whereas Grigson adopts a simpler approach. I think I'm with you and our friend Tarquin in leaving off the candied lemon slices. I'm pleased to see (smell) that these days we can get lemons with a proper scent rather than just a receptical of slightly sour juice.

I remember well the revelation, in Nice I think at about the age of 13, of my first Menton lemon. In those days (1970's) the typical "British" lemon (ours were bought in Edinburgh) bore no resemblance to the real thing except in colour. An aged, black-dressed, lady squeezed a quarter of one of her lemons into my hand in the July heat and I was transported to another world.

I see there is an annual Menton Festival of Lemons in February.

[Cornflower]

I did bake blind, as I prefer the result, but forgot to say so.
I love your Nice reminiscence (quite Tarquinesque, if I may say so!).

[Dark Puss]

I did say, in my brief review of the book, that Tarquin was uncomfortably close to some academics I know!