This morning I ran out of butter.
Sound the alarm!
I was in the middle of a practice run of Nigella's famous Lemon Pavlova for the weekend.
Well, it would all come to naught without the curd!!
So I did what any self-respecting foodie would do, and I made it without butter.
My grandmother has always said that her mother made a butter-free curd and I'd done it once before in a bid to reduce the caloric load of the luscious spread, but generally opted for 'all of the butter, please'.
So, here's how it transpired:
Ingredients:
-3 egg yolks, maybe 4 (I'd made a pavlova base the night before, then used some of the yolks for a carbonara, forgive me for the rough estimates)
-1 whole egg
-1/2 cup of white/caster sugar (rough estimate here - somewhat to taste)
-1/2 cup of citrus juice - I used a mixture of lemon and lime due to availability
Method:
Get a small saucepan of simmering (boiling if you're in a hurry) water and place a large glass bowl on top. Add the citrus juice and sugar.
Whisk until the sugar dissolves. This will take a few minutes and will happen faster if the water is really raging below. Make sure the water doesn't touch the bowl, though.
Lightly whisk the yolks and egg together in a separate bowl, then add them to the sweet citrus juice.
Whisk your heart out until the curd thickens. You know it's ready when you can dip a large spoon in, drag your finger through the back of it and the two sides of curd coating the spoon don't ooze back toward each other. 'Until it coats the back of a spoon'. It will thicken upon cooling. I added a single passionfruit at the end, because give me one good reason why I shouldn't have!
Take it off the heat, pour into a sterilised jar if gifting, or simply a glass/plastic container with lid and pop in the fridge until needed. This will last until you eat it all or until it goes mouldy.
Let's hope it's the former!
Enjoy!
You can see it's sticking a bit to the whisk, this is a good sign.
For all the lactose-intolerants in your life! Also, save 1076 calories of butter! Usually this quantity of lemon curd would have 150g of butter incorporated. I'd rather have that butter where I can see it, on toast!!
So glad we saved 1076 calories by not putting butter in the curd.... ;)
Happy Valentine's Day!!
xoxo
Brisbane Foodie