lemon curd recipes

sophie and olympia made raspberry souffle last week and left a huge bowl of egg yolks. so when life hands you egg yolks you make lemon (or passionfruit) curd. i have made it many times before but thought i'd hunt for some variation in my recipe. there are squillions of them online so i've got a few and will scrutinise and select...

the first contender sounds pretty good as it is stephanie alexander's from this blog:
4 egg yolks
150 grams caster sugar
100 mls lemon juice
70 grams butter, cut into small cubes

place the egg yolks and sugar into a bowl and beat using an electric mixer until the sugar has dissolved. you'll know when the sugar is dissolved when the mix no longer feels gritty when rubbed between your finger tips.

put this mixture in a small saucepan along with the lemon juice and butter and place over a low heat. whisk constantly until it almost reaches boiling point - you'll notice that it will begin to thicken quite quickly and at this stage take it off the heat. at this stage it will have the consistency of a thick custard.

once off the heat, whisk again and then pour it immediately into hot, sterilised jars. Seal and allow to cool and then store in the fridge.


this one needs straining - hmmmm, sounds like too much bother, it's from here:
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4 medium lemons’ worth)
strip of lemon zest from 1 medium lemon
3 large eggs and 1 egg yolk, whisked
1/2 cup sugar
5 tablespoons of butter, cut into bits

place all ingredients in a heavy 2-quart saucepan. Cook over moderately low heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble just slightly, about 5 minutes. remove from heat immediately and press through a sieve to get out any stray bits of zest or lemon. chill lemon curd completely before serving, about 1-1.5 hours. it will thicken as it cools.

i love david lebovitz. this is his lemon curd:
1/2 cup (125 ml) freshly-squeezed lemon juice
or 1/2 cup, 100g sugar
2 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
pinch of salt
85g unsalted butter, cubed

place a mesh strainer over a bowl, and set aside.
in a medium saucepan, whisk together the lemon juice, sugar, egg yolks, eggs, and salt.
add the butter cubes and set the pan over low heat, whisking constantly until the butter is melted.
increase the heat and cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and just begins to become jelly-like. it's done when you lift the whisk and the mixture holds its shape when it falls back into the saucepan from the whisk.
immediately press the curd through the strainer. once strained, store the lemon curd in the refrigerator.

think i might go with my old one:
8 egg yolks
1 1/2 cup castor sugar
150g unsalted butter chopped
3 tsp grated lemon zest
100ml lemon juice (3 lemons)
pulp of 4 or 5 passionfruit

whisk egg yolks and sugar until well combined but not frothy.
in a heavy-based saucepan add butter, zest, juice and pulp.
stirring constantly, bring to simmering point over a medium-high heat (about five minutes).
as soon as bubbles appear, remove from heat, still stirring.
pour into to sterilised jars using a funnel and seal.

soap and jam update

i am still(! i know it's taking forever) refining my soap labels and image for the product range and refining the actual soaps themselves. now i have to send some to a health shop in hong kong (i used to work there some years ago), so i really have to get it done. i have been making soap regularly and have decided on a range of 6 soaps for hong kong. i'll post details soon. but here are some recent soaps - made with milk so very lush and creamy.

regarding the jam, i still have a fair bit of stock and the local cafes love them. i am doing a separate nutritional panel for each of the labels which is taking time. that and the garden and the property and the children and the animals and the recordings and trying to draw and paint and sew and print and write my blogs and cook and practise piano, recorder, violin and accordion and song-write and of course, teach piano and stay abreast of all that....

enough complaining. just get on with it!

our DA for the cottage at bobo creek is ready to submit

i will never again assume that a development application is a straightforward affair. i shouldn't say that because we haven't even submitted it yet, but the assembling of all the bits was pretty daunting. thanks to the amazingly helpful woman at Taree Council who assured me that i wasn't stupid and that it was hard for everyone. we needed: 6 copies of floorplans, elevations and sections (drawn up by yours truly), 6 copies of site plan including vegetation, neighbour notifications, statement of environmental effects, bushfire plan, septic (which will be a worm farm), geo-tech report, basix certificate etc... anyway it is all done and the fees calculated by the council are reasonable because we are not building a mansion!

lyrebird folk recording

pete and i are (still) recording our folk album. it's a labour of love (and blood, sweat and tears), but we are making progress. i wrote out two recorder parts for a delightful song based in sydney in the 1800s called 'down by the river' that pete wrote. we recorded the recorder (descant and treble) parts this morning. i think it sounds good. love recorder harmonies...

birthday invitation

my dad (david) turns 80 this year! well done to him. he's been writing his memoirs (as one does, i guess) and his are a lot more interesting than most, having grown up in guyana in south america before travelling by boat to the uk during the war which took 100 days. the best thing is that he writes well with no waffle at all. succint and dry but with a great feeling for beauty and poignancy.
anyway, we have convinced him that he must have a party this year and so i've been making the invitations. i steered away from the handsome youth on the motorbike and the father on the surfboard (yes he loves surfing although only with flippers now) and opted for two images that symbolise things he loves. i found some old manuscript of bach preludes, softened the black with a wash of cream paint and made a lino cut of a row of gum trees that i printed in lack over the top. i affixed this to some ochre-coloured card and printed the inside, including dad's request for no presents but donations to medecins sans frontieres. natch.

rosie's gig

rosie had another gig last week and again it was such a treat. she invited her friend billie mccarthy to open the show and billie blew us away with her original songs as well as some excellent celtic and english folk songs. then the gorgeous fantine gave us a set of soulful originals.
rosie was in fine voice and her band were rocking. it was really nice to be there with sophie and olympia (mookhi) - underage - but awesome company, a great listener and discerning critic. we had an excellent night.

here is byron's piano solo from a recent song by rosie from that night. it's called "in the scheme of things":

it's been a while...

i might break this into several posts to cover everything we've been up to since christmas...
we've been up at bobo creek and busy busy since we got back.
bobo creek was beautiful as always and thriving now the cows are no longer trampling it. we worked on the creek - trying to repair some erosion by planting lomandra grass, slowing the flow and creating some nice water holes for swimming. we plotted contour lines on the slopes with our groovy laser level and little orange flags. we put some lilies in the dam and planted stuff around and on the wall as it's a crappy littel dam and was very badly built. i landscaped the path down to the creek from the cabin with steps and river rock and gravel and more rushes and lomandra grass - all within easy reach!