Lemony Morning
My little lemon tree has long been lemon-less, but thanks to two bags of lemons from dear ones, I am lemoning it up over here.This morning, I did two simple things with the lemons: made fresh lemonade (never have done that before) and lemon curd (never have done that before either!).
Debbie posted her lemonade recipe, so I wanted to give it a try. It seems the secret is letting the lemon juice, sugar, and rind sit and mingle together for an hour before adding water. You get a true lemony refreshment, which can brighten up any dreary rainy day. If you try it and like it, be sure and let her know!
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar (more if you prefer...Debbie uses 3/4 to 3/4 ratio)
Rind from lemons
Let juice, sugar, and rind sit together for an hour. Add ice and water to make a quart. Adjust to tasting preference.
Okay, now time for the recipe that stole the show for me this week, maybe even this year: homemade lemon curd from Joy of Baking. I had always assumed this was too much of a pain to try and needed too much lemon, but I'm glad to say I was wrong. It is pretty simple and the results are divine.
3 eggs
1/3 c fresh lemon juice, strained (2-3 lemons)
3/4 c granulated sugar
1 large T finely grated lemon zest
4 T unsalted butter
In a stainless steel bowl, whisk the lemon juice, sugar, and eggs together over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk constantly until it thickens to be something like hollandaise sauce, which takes about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and strain into a bowl. Add the butter in 4 chunks and stir until melted. Add the lemon zest. Cover and refrigerate.
If you're a lemon lover, you will absolutely fall over when you taste this. Great on scones but perfectly wonderful by the spoonful, as well :)
Just to clarify, last weekend was the first time I did the equal amounts sugar to lemon juice. My style is to use as little sugar as possible. For some reason I was thinking equal amounts though and I have to say Jerry was delighted with the results. It really was a different drink, very smooth. I have to say I liked it too, but overall I prefer the more tart lemony version of half sugar to juice.
ReplyDeleteAs for lemon curd, another use is to make tiny tarts, maybe in a mini muffin pan, filled with lemon curd and topped with whipped cream. Brush the baked tart pastry with melted chocolate for even more layers of flavor! I like lemon curd so much better than that starchy lemon merengue pie filling stuff.
Candace, I read in a recent post that you were working on changes to your blog, specifically the links across the top of the header. I've been looking around blogger to try to figure out how you did that but I'm not being succesful. Can you tell me what you did? Thanks!
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