Feasting on Art

Although I am not a huge fan of meringue I had to make this dessert solely for aesthetic reasons. The lovely yellow lemon curd dotted with blueberries was so striking when I first spotted it on the Gourmet website that I could not stop thinking about it. I am sure my palate for citrus food has become apparent enough over the last few posts where it has shown up in risotto, ice cream, and even a cordial so it should not be surprising that my favorite part of this recipe was the lemon curd. I don’t have an appetite for overly sweet food so the sour of the curd really balances the sugary meringue. If you substitute the blueberries for slices of kiwi it would make a perfect Australia day dessert!

Nora Heysen, Eggs, 1927
oil on canvas, 36.6 x 52.5 cm, New England Regional Art Museum

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With the 4th of July just around the corner I wanted to be sure to post a couple of recipes in time for the festivities.  In the 1850′s, strawberry shortcake parties were a popular way to celebrate the arrival of summer (2). This sweet dessert is traditionally made with baking soda to produce a crumbly biscuit often referred to as a scone in the UK. For a lower calorie version of the dessert, angel food cake is used to replace the shortcake (my version includes a variant of this cake). In Japan a sponge cake is used to instead of shortcake and is commonly served at Christmas and at birthdays (3). The oldest printed reference is from Michigan from the 1840′s (4) and because I am a native Michigander it is only appropriate that I choose this dessert to celebrate the 4th!

Bryant Chapin, Still Life of Overturned Basket of Strawberries, 1922,
Oil on canvas, 33 x 43 cm, Private Collection

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