Meyer Lemon Butter & Almond Green Beans; Meyer Lemon Round-up I

Welcome to a week full of fun recipes featuring a seasonal cutie called the ‘Meyer Lemon’. But first, a little education: The Meyer Lemon is originally from China (discovered by Frank N. Meyer, who was on assignment from the USDA as an agricultural explorer) and is a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. The fruit has a thin skin with a bright yellow rind that darkens to orange-yellow as it ripens and is much sweeter than a conventional lemon. It is favored for its mild, sweet, juicy flesh and, although still too tart to eat out-of-hand, they are useful for flavoring both savory and sweet dishes alike. On fish, poultry, vegetables and desserts, use the juice as a low calorie seasoning and even as a delicious, fresh alternative to high fat salad dressings and sauces.

TIP: For those of you that can not find the lemons, simply combine fresh lemon juice and fresh orange juice at a 3:1 ratio and you will do pretty good job in the flavor department. So go ahead and create some dishes with that formula.

Let’s start with an easy way to add flavors to dishes. For all you moms & dads that want to way to brighten things up, make a simply compound butter with freshly squeezed meyer lemon juice and some rind. Make this butter just before bed so you have once step is all done when you start supper the next day.

Meyer Lemon Butter & Almond Green Beans
2 tablespoons butter at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon meyer lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon meyer lemon rind, minced
Mix well, spread into log form on wax paper, roll and let sit in fridge until ready to use. When ready, begin below.

12 oz. green beans
¼ cup toasted sliced almonds (I toast them myself)
Simply steam the beans, top with a few thin slices of the butter, mix well and top with the almonds.

Now onto the Round-Up Part I!

Lovely Natasha of 5 Star Foodie Culinary Adventures, submitted two of her delicious recipes for me to share (she shares so well doesn’t she?). The first dish is a savory creation: Buckwheat Crusted Flounder with Meyer Lemon Beurre Blanc.

and the second, a sweet creation of Crepes with Meyer Lemon and Sweet Strawberry Coulis.

Wow, I need to go get some more lemons and try these out!

Feel free to continue to submit to me all week.

One last thing: here are the other recipes I plan on sharing this week: meyer lemon dressing, meyer lemon-blueberry muffins, meyer lemon quinoa with peas and asparagus, meyer lemon meringues, meyer lemon tartar sauce with shrimp cakes and meyer lemon red snapper. Do you think that is enough? So does my family.