Lemon Curd
Our Meyer Lemon tree is back in business after a couple of skinny years due to a bit of suffering during our house renovation. It's a typical bumper crop this year and I'm in full production mode of all things lemon-y. I made preserved lemons a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday, I made a batch of lemon curd, which has become one of our most popular family treats.
I have always made the Alice Water's recipe in The Art of Simple Food. I like that it has comparatively little sugar. Lemon curd is fairly simple and should only take about 20 minutes start-to-finish.
Lemon Curd
adapted from the The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters
3-4 lemons
2 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
a pinch of salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 TBS milk
6 TBS unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Finely grate the peel of one lemon. Set aside.
Juice the lemons until you have about 1/2 c. of lemon juice. Set aside.
Mix the eggs, yolks, salt, sugar, and milk together until just combined. Add the juice and the grated peel. Put the mixture into a small non-reactive saucepan and add the butter. Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it begins to get thick and cling to the back of the spoon, 7-10 minutes. As soon as the mixture gets thick remove it from the heat and keep stirring to cool it. Do not overheat the mixture or the eggs will cook and curdle (although if you get a little cooked egg in your curd, just strain the curd through a fine mesh sieve and it should be fine). The mixture will thicken a bit more as it cools. Put it into a glass bowl or jars. When it cools to room temperature, cover and store in the fridge.
If you can resist eating it straight out of the jar, you can spread lemon curd on toast, scones, pancakes, crepes, or muffins. You can mix it with whipped cream to make a lovely lemon mousse (or use it as a frosting), or use it to make a lemon tart.
I got out my cookbooks last night and found a couple of interesting variations. Mark Bittman, in How to Cook Everything, includes an option of adding a teaspoon of finely chopped ginger. I think I will try that next time I make it. Bittman uses a full cup of sugar; however, which is too much for me. The recipe in The Gourmet Cookbook uses even more sugar at 1-1/3 cups. Both the Bittman and the Gourmet recipes call for whole eggs (three and four, respectively) and don't require any separating, which would eliminate one step in the recipe above.
