Friday, July 24, 2009

Where I learn to make lemon curd...


...or more importantly, how I learned to zest a lemon.

I really like lemon curd, and was really excited when a friend invited me to her home to teach me how to make it. Since a jar of good lemon curd can be quite expensive, I jumped at the chance. I never realized how something so luxurious could be so simple to make. What you'll need - lemons, butter, sugar, eggs, and a double boiler. The recipe came from AllRecipes.com

I've heard it said that if you can read a recipe, you can cook. But I am a visual learner, so watching my friend do it was helpful to me. Here are two tips that I learned from watching: (1) I have always found zesting (or grating) a lemon difficult, a lot of work with little result. My friend showed me that zesting is best done in a circular motion against the grater, not with straight strokes like planing a door, which is how I had always done it. Brilliant! (2) When adding the eggs to the sugar, you must keep whisking so as not to let the eggs scramble and leave a bunch of eggy bits in the curd.


We made some scones and a pot of tea to go with the lemon curd. Delicious! By the way, warm gingerbread and lemon curd go together very nicely as well.

"Come along inside...we'll see if tea and buns can make the world a better place" - The Wind in the Willows

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is there such a thing as a self-zesting lemon? I usually have trouble with the width of the zest - varying measures of thick and thin usually don't do well in recipes.

Jodi said...

Self-zesting? No. Where's the fun in that?

Perhaps that's why you're a musician...

Anonymous said...

LOL! Isn't it funny how people are good with their hands in different ways?

Zach said...

I love the blog header, the lighting in it is perfect.

As for the zesting, is it easier to hold the lemon and move the grater, or to move the lemon in a circular motion against the grater?

Jodi said...

"ya gotta put down the ducky" and move the lemon.:)

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