seville oranges

since we moved from london to the country 10 years ago, there has been a gradual shift in my cooking. we are blessed with an amazing greengrocers nearby, (along with 2 butchers, a farmers market, a fab deli and fishmongers and a branch of hobbs house bakery - not bad for a tiny town , more of a big village!!!!). Anyway the shift has been towards a more seasonal type of cooking, I have stopped eating asparagus all through the year and instead gorge myself on it in may and june, the same for strawberries. It wasn't a conscious ethical thing, its more of a seduction by the greengrocer!! when the display outside is loaded with squeeky bright puple red cabbages, and stacks of local leeks, and scented piles of seville oranges I just can't bring myself not to cook them. my mother in law makes the most fabulous seville orange marmalade, I always buy loads of seville oranges in january and february, but never seem to get around to making marmalade! well this week i bought some, got the marmalade recipe, and then used them to make a version of a lemon tart!!! I have to say it was a great success - as the picture shows -there was only this sliver left the following morning - and that was only because it was wrestled from Miss B's grip on sunday night (I suggested that a third portion would render her with a bum the size of mine!!!)
recipe below

pastry
150g plain flour
150g softened butter
75g cornflour
75g icing sugar
zest 1/2 seville orange

blitz all this in a processor till it makes a soft shortbread  type dough, chill then roll out between 2 sheets of cling film (a great tip!!) line a tart tin with it (chill again it allegedly stops it shrinking - pastry is not my strong suit and i never get it right!) prick the base, put greaseproof and baking beans over the pastry and bake blind for 8-12mins, remove greaseproof and beans and put back in oven for 3mins.

filling
zest of 1 1/2 seville oranges
juice of 2 seville oranges and 1 lemon
3 eggs
180ml double cream
160g golden caster sugar
1 teasp vanilla extract

whisk all of the filling ingredients together in a jug, put the tart tin on a baking sheet in the oven and pour in the filling (this stops it spilling everywhere when you are trying to manoeuvre a full tin from the worktop to the oven!!) and bake for 20-25mins till softly set with a little wobble. cool, dust with icing sugar and scoff!!

perhaps i will try marmalade later this week.............