While we were in Santa Fe over the weekend with Carlo’s family, his brother Les gave us a couple of Meyer lemons grown in his garden in Tucson. We brought them back to Vegas and didn’t really know what to do with them until I was flipping through Jamie Oliver’s cookbook Happy Days with the Naked Chef to find a recipe for dinner. I stumbled upon this recipe for Lemon Curdy Pudding for which I already had all the ingredients that I needed in the pantry and fridge.

The Meyer lemon is kind of a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange, so its juice and rind are a bit sweeter than a regular lemon. This recipe was delicious, easy to make, and basically cost pennies per serving since I already had everything in stock and the lemon was a gift.

I served it with some heavy whipping cream on top, just to make it that extra bit English. It was just like a dessert from my childhood!

This recipe makes 4 large servings at a cost of 18 cents per serving.

Les’s homegrown Meyer lemon

The first time I’ve ever been able to properly whisk egg whites to stiff white peaks! It must be living in the desert and having no humidity in the air.

I cooked the pudding for around 45 minutes like the recipe stated, but I wish I had started checking on it around 37 minutes so the bottom part of the dessert could have been a bit more gooey.

Yum, topped with heavy whipping cream to finish it off.