I mean, honest-to-goodness, homemade, fresh eggs, fresh lemons kind of curd.
I use lemons from our trees (Yen Ben) and they are LARGE when ripe - we are talking an average length of 10cm and circumference at centre of 27cm. The skins are not perfect - we don't spray at all, nature takes it's course, skins are marked, nobbly and not very attractive at times, but oh so free of added 'nasties'.
What I absolutely love about this product is that no two batches will be spot on identical, there will be subtle differences in the lemons from the dates they were picked, the rainfall they had, sunlight etc etc that lead to differences in the acidity and taste of the juice. But that, for me, is the joy of growing your own food; being able to taste those subtle changes and to know that your food is real and not conforming to some production line statistic.
Another reality of this product is that it is highly perishable, in that I mean use within 4 weeks of making and keep in the fridge for the whole period. I do not sterilise (in the strict sense) the jar of lemon curd that is made for the eating or use now, and to be honest I only make lemon curd when I want to eat it as it doesn't last that long. The reason those identical jars on the supermarket shelf last so long....well look at the ingredient list.
The reason for this batch?
Well my wee cherub is one year old next week and she is getting a lovely birthday cake made by momma with our own lemons. So the curd was the first step ticked off the recipe list. All mommas out there know that you must tease out steps to a task into smaller managable chunks so that if it all goes pear shaped with the wee ones, you can fall back to the previous step at the next 'pick up' opportunity.
So, out came the old recipe, adapted from a Marguerite Patten book passed on to me from my (now deceased) mother-in-law. It was very hard to stop myself from constantly dipping into the jar with a spoon all afternoon!
In the region of half an hour to make
8 oz caster sugar
4 oz unsalted butter
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
grated rind of 2 large lemons
juice from 2 large lemons
As our lemons are very large you may want to double up on your lemons if they are very small :)
When grating the rind from the lemons try to avoid the white pith just underneath the yellow layer as this will impart a bitter tast to your curd.
Place all the ingredient except the eggs into a heatproof bowl and place this over a pan of simmering water (if you have a bain marie - great)
Stir from time to time as the butter melts and sugar dissolves.
Whisk all the egg and yolks together well.
Once completely melted, take the bowl from the pan and place on a wooden board. Whilst constantly stirring with a fork or whisk, slowly but steadily drizzle the egg mixture into the melted butter and sugar mix, incorporate into a smooth liquid. The key here is not having the egg going into a really hot mixture as it will immediately cook them into scrambled eggs. If you can see that happening (cooked egg white might start to float about), stop and leave the mixture to cool a little more. If you notice them once all the egg is already in (and it is more than just a couple of bits you can lift out with a spoon) you can always sieve the whole mixture now before thickening.
Once all the egg has been added, place back on the hot water pan and continue to cook, stirring from time to time until is thickens up. It should get to a thickness that will coat the back of a clean wooden spoon.
Pour into your jars and seal down.
If you do this in small jars you can sterilise the jars before hand and so the lemon curd will store out of the fridge. I always do it in one big jar as I intend consuming from then on and before it expires in four weeks time !
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