A very lemon-y meal

We recently bought some lemon-infused olive oil, as well as some white balsamic vinegar, so we've been on the look out for lemony recipes. (This post describes a meal by Pamela and a dessert by James; Pam writes first.)

I chose Lemon Chicken with Garlic-Chile Oil from the New York Times Cooking Page for last night's dinner. The recipe is clear that the garlic oil be cooked slow so as not to burn, and then removed from heat, but I admit to simply adding my chicken breasts to the cooked oil, and then keeping the heat low. This did mean that the chicken took longer to cook, but the garlic never burned and the chicken was tender and flavorful in the end. As a side dish I prepared Greek Lemon Potatoes (made with the lemon olive oil) and topped it off with some of the Lemon Bundt Cake James made for Easter dinner.

James continues (writing a few days later) ...

I did indeed prepare the lemon Bundt cake, based on the New York Times recipe Pam mentions above. But I took the lemon-ness to a higher level -- incorporating all of Yossy Arefi's excellent ideas and adding some of my own. In fact, my intentions for this cake were what had gotten us to the oil-and-vinegar store the week prior. (It does not take a lot to convince us to go to these stores, and in fact we have two, in Marion and in Fredrick.)

Photo: Yossy Arefi

I must first recognize Arefi's most important contribution. Step 4 of her recipe looks complicated at first, but it is an elegant way to make sure that every lemony part of the lemons ends up in the cake, with the pithy white part between the rind and the fruit removed. Standing the lemons on end as she suggests makes this easy.

The recipe calls for 3/4 of a stick of butter, plus 1/4 cup of neutral oil, by which I assume she intends canola or the like. I substituted the lemon-infused olive oil that Pam mentions above, raising the lemon quotient just a bit.

The real difference is in the glaze. I remembered the glaze that helped us win an award from Marley Coffee for my mocha cake, and simply lemonized that concept. I substituted lemon-infused white balsamic vinegar for some of the juice in the glaze. I might never make a glaze without balsamic again!