Tags
curd, dessert, homeschool, lemon, recipe
When one of my kids was going through the put-all-in-mouth stage, I recalled the day clearly when his path crossed with a slice of lemon. We were at a restaurant, and I was having one of those sinking feelings that everyone was staring at my child’s ill-behaved mother for not “doing something about it,” whatever “it” was that was bothering fellow patrons about children in general.
Well, little man dipped his fingers (that had now been all over the place) into my glass of water. EWWW. He made a lightening fast decision to grab the lemon and shove it in his mouth. The rest of us saw it coming; my neuropaths were all lit up with anticipation. I imagined his was, too. You should have seen his what-the-hell-was-that face. What surprised me was that he went back for more…definitely his mother’s child. Who wouldn’t go back for more lemon?
So, we made some lemon curd this week. It took three of us to make things go really fast. I was surfing on the internet, while the kids were zesting lemons and juicing.
Here is the recipe (crediting lemon-lover’s kindergarten teacher):
1. Bring the zest of 4 lemons, 1 1/4 cup lemon juice, and 2 1/4 cup of sugar to a rolling boil over medium/ high heat.
2. Meanwhile, cut 6 oz of butter into small cubes and set aside.
3. Crack 6 eggs into a large bowl and whisk till lightened in color. (Do NOT ignore the large bowl requirement.)
4. When the lemon juice mixture is at a rolling boil, add small ladles of liquid into the eggs while whisking continuously till the outside of the bowl becomes very warm to touch. The goal is to not cook the eggs. (It helps to have an assistant for this step: One to whisk the boiling lemon mixture, one to whisk the egg mixture.)
5. Carefully pour the warm egg mixture back into the boiling lemon mixture and continue whisking. Lower the heat to medium and cook till the mixture returns to a boil, stirring constantly.
6. Once at a boil, remove from the stove and strain into a large bowl. Whisk while slowing adding cubes of butter till melted. Cover with plastic wrap to avoid skin forming. Keep refrigerated!
The kids were happy to just lick the bowl, but we preferred lemon curd on ice cream, or whipping up greek yogurt and lemon curd for tartlets (pate sucre crust is a fabulous tart crust: https://deliberatelysusan.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/rhubarb-pop-tarts/).
Delicious, and no scurvy for our family this week!