Cravings are funny things. Lemons are one of my favourite things in the whole world, and until recently, you couldn't get lemons for love nor money in Costa Rica. Don’t get me wrong, limes are a lovely thing (remember Amy and the pickled limes, in Little Women?). The big, fat juicy Mecino limes that we get in Costa Rica are delicious. And cheap. And available, year round. But they’re not the same.
Whenever I went north, lemons would always be the first thing I would pick up at the grocery store. I would have a celebratory vodka & tonic with lemon and savour every drop of it. I have saved the seeds from these lemons, over the years, and planted them here in Costa Rica; so far, I’ve had a couple of completely sterile trees, with nary a sign of a lemon. I have (gasp!) smuggled in a lemon or two in the toes of my shoes when returning from foreign parts, and I’ve even asked friends to commit the same crime. But now, thanks to the wonders of Free Trade, lemons have appeared in the grocery store in Coco. And I’m free to indulge in all those lovely, lemony things that I’ve been craving for years.
So today, I give you Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake*. With no poppy seeds. Thankfully, I tasted them before I dumped the called-for three tablespoons of seeds into the batter, because they looked a little dodgy, and sure enough, they were rancid. I have a friend coming to visit me from Canada in a few weeks. Looks like she’s going to be smuggling in poppy seeds.
*The recipe is from The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum. You're supposed to wait 24 hours before cutting into it, to let the lemon syrup soak in, but the craving was too strong.
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