As a woman who hates to throw anything away (and has recently started buying more expensive eggs), I was left with two yolks and a determination not to toss them. I knew I had to have a culinary gold mine on my hands. So off I went to my second-favorite cook book: Google.
Within a few minutes of clicking about, I found not only did I indeed have a culinary gold mine, I had an Anglophile's culinary gold mine. With very little effort, I could turn these egg yolks and a few other bits and bobs into lemon curd.
Let it be known that I am crazy for lemon curd. I think it is best served on a spoon, headed rapidly for my mouth, but on a finger will suffice. I have never actually bought any to keep around the house because it seemed kind of frivolous. Now that I know it is this quick and simple, AND that it uses up leftover ingredients from other dishes, I'm unlikely to ever be without.
Quick Lemon Curd
My recipe is adapted from the one I found at My Kind of Food. I tweaked it since I had fewer egg yolks and no limes lying about.
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 lemons, juiced (do yourself a favor and don't cheat with the bottled stuff)
sugar to taste (4 tbsp did me, but I like very tart curd)
4 tbsp butter, separated
1. Start a pot of water boiling. Once it's there, pop a metal mixing bowl of the top of it. Don't put the bowl on and wait for the boil to start--you'll cook the egg with that hot bowl.
2. Are you ready to whisk? Here it comes. Put your lemon juice in first (again, cooling that bowl) and start whisking. Add your yolks, still whisking. Once that's incorporated, add sugar to taste. Do not stop whisking while you taste for sweetness--you'll regret it.
3. Add your butter 1 tbsp at a time, still whisking.
4. Your curd should now coat the back of a spoon easily. It'll still seem thinner than what you may have had out of a jar before, but a session in the chill chest will firm it up. Take your bowl off of the pot, still whisking. You can stop whisking when the bowl is cool enough to touch.
5. Pour into a clean container and pop it in the fridge (after eating several spoonfuls for quality control purposes).
IF you can keep yourself from eating it all right away, this should keep a week or so in the fridge. I dare you to make it last that long.
Lemon curd, whipped cream, & puffy pancake: breakfast of champions.
Oooh, I may have to make that and find something else to do with the whites...
ReplyDeleteAlso, I highly recommend dulce de leche for milk that needs to be used up.
Sounds wonderful! I shall have to request it made.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit confused though, What do you mean "(again, cooling that bowl)" ?
@Stephanie: Danger Will Robinson! If I knew how to make dulce de leche, I'd be in real trouble. I'll try it! Thanks for the recommendation.
ReplyDelete@Alice: The biggest danger to your final product is the hot bowl. Adding the lemon juice before the egg helps cool the metal a little bit, decreasing the likelihood your egg will hit the hot surface and cook right away.
@Stephanie: My mom suggests freezing them individually in an ice cube tray and then, when you've stockpiled a dozen, making an angel food cake. You could go for macaroons as well.
ReplyDeleteEgg whites?
ReplyDeleteShake a leftover egg white with 2 oz of Pisco or brandy or gin, 1 oz of freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice (key lime is awesome), and 1/4-1/2 oz of simple syrup (to taste), then add ice to the shaker and shake it again. Strain into a glass and add a dash of Angostura bitters onto the foam on the top of the drink and then DRINK IT.
Instant Pisco Sour/Brandy Egg Sour/Gin Egg Sour.