Lemon-Lime Curd
I read somewhere that women in particular are drawn to yellow.
Although to be fair, this goes beyond a colour. And I don’t think you need a high level of oestrogen to desire the tangy, glossy voluptuousness that is lemon-lime curd.
This is my go-to recipe when I have leftover egg yolks. If you’ve been ripping your way through egg whites like I have (please refer to the last post), you’ll appreciate having a go-to recipe involving egg yolks, which isn’t for hollandaise. Something that stays alive and well for more than half an hour (heck, two weeks) and is versatile enough for you to make first, and surely find a use for later.
And such uses! You can slather this on bread or butter cookies, stuff it into pavlova, pipe it onto chocolate cupcakes. Swirl it through cheesecake. Fill tarts with it. Make layered cakes with it. Bathe in it. Mostly, I just lick it straight off the spoon. In fact, I highly recommend directly ingesting this stuff as an interesting alternative to the traditional imbibing of coffee at the desk, post-lunch. Try falling asleep with this in your mouth!
Lemon-Lime Curd Recipe
Yield: About 1 1/2 cups
Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
1/3 - 1/2 cup caster sugar (I start with less, taste near the end of the cooking process, and whisk in additional sugar if needed.)
Zest from the lemon and limes used (see below)
Juice from 1 lemon and from enough limes to constitute 1/2 cup juice in total, strained
6 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Instructions:
1) Whisk the egg yolks, egg, sugar and zest in a non-reactive bowl (eg. stainless steel) until light in colour.
2) Pour egg mixture into a small non-reactive saucepan, and add juice and butter.
3) Cook, whisking constantly, over low-medium heat until the butter is melted and the mixture is thickened.
4) Strain the curd through a fine sieve into a storage jar.
5) Let cool, place clingwrap on the surface of the curd, close jar and refrigerate. Keeps for a week or two in the fridge.