“When life gives you lemons, find someone who’s life gives them vodka. Then party.”
There is an old lady who lives nearby, one of the kindest souls around, who is very fond of me. She makes it a point to stop by our home on her morning walks, at least twice a week, to make sure all is well with me. Constantly spoiling me with sweets & chocolates, this time she sent me a bag of limes off her lime tree. I love anything & everything citrus, & I was overjoyed! The basket of limes sang to me & then, along came Judy twittering about lemon curd!!
It’s been my first go at lemon curd (lime as in my case). I’ve drooled over Meeta @ WFLH ‘s fresh homemade lemon curd for long enough. It’s enticing & refreshing, as her posts always are, but have never had the courage to make it because of the ‘egg’ issues that I have. Egg yolk & me are not good friends, & I tend to associate eggy aromas with anything that uses egg yolk.Being a Daring Baker has made me use egg yolks more often than I would otherwise, & frankly, this has been a turning point in my baking obsession. I’ve yet to wander into eggy ice-creams which are equally tempting, but the Bavarian cream I did here made me change my eggy-huliar feelings to quite an extent. I gingerly tried a little bit & found that there was nothing too eggy there. Was twittering with Judy @ No Fear Entertainingthe other day, exchanging notes on summer vacations, kids, beaches & food of course. She mentioned she had just made lemon curd off Meeta’s recipe & it was delish. She was thoroughly cross-twittered to make sure eggy aromas didn’t feature in the curd, & I was sold on the idea. I made fresh lime curd the next morning thanks to my haul of fresh limes…
Fresh Homemade Lime Curd as adapted from What’s For Lunch Honey Ingredients 8-10 limes, zest & juice (increase lime juice if you think it isn’t tart enough.Meeta used 4 lemons) 100g unsalted butter, cut into pieces 4 eggs, beaten 450g fine granulated sugar Method
Set a fine strainer over a medium bowl, then set aside.
In a medium sized saucepan whisk together the juice, zest, sugar and eggs until incorporated and the sugar has dissolved.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and gently cook the mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon, until steaming. Make sure the curd does not boil. Stir frequently and continue to cook until the curd has thickened and the curd coats the back of the wooden spoon – approx 3-7 minutes.
Take the curd off the heat and then add the butter, stirring to incorporate it to the curd. Pour the curd mixture through the prepared strainer to make sure there are no lumps in the lemon curd.
Pour into warm sterile jars , cover and seal. Allow to come to room temperature, then refrigerate.
With rich curd on hand, could dessert be far away? So much lime curd needed a destination. Thought I’d put it into an ice-cream as Judy had made, but currently suffer from freezer overload. Next thought ‘lemon shortbread bars’. One thing led to another, & I finally thought ‘TART’. How would ‘tart and rich’ fresh lime curd taste in a nice tart? LOL, pretty much talking to myself, I set off to make a regular plain tart, & then found my bag of buckwheat next to plain flour. A combination of random ingredients later, I ended up with a nice, crisp tart shell, inaugurating the flan/tart pan my sis had just got for me! The result was a nice dessert which we enjoyed with unsweetend whipped cream. INDULGENT!!Am sending this picture off to Jugalbandi for CLICK: July 2009. (Bi-Colour) BUCKWHEAT CHOCOLATE TART SHELL Ingredients: 1/2 cup buckwheat flour 1/2 cup plain flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 3T cocoa 3T vanilla sugar 2/3 stick (75gms)cold butter, cut into pieces (or grated) 1/8 cup olive oil Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Place the flours, baking soda, cocoa & vanilla sugar in food processor. Pulse for 30 seconds.
Add in chilled butter (I like to grate frozen butter directly into the processor), and pulse till the mixture forms breadcrumbs.
Add in the olive oil & process for a further 30seconds till it all comes together in clumps. Put into a bowl & gather into a ball of dough. Do not knead.
Take a loose bottom tart/flan tin, & spread the dough around evenly with your fingers to cover the bottom & sides. (You could even chill the dough for 30 minutes & roll it out I think).
Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes. Cool in tart pan for 30 minutes.
To finish:
Cover the baked tart shell with the lime curd, sprinkle flaked almonds if you like, & bake at 180C for 30 minutes/until you can see the curd beginning to set. Lightly top with a sheet of foil if beginning to brown too fast.
Cool completely on rack & chill for 6-8 hours. Slice & serve with unsweetened whipped cream.
