Do you ever end up trying something new because you are stuck with some leftover food and don’t want it to go to waste? I strongly dislike food waste as it is both a waste of money AND resources. In my younger days, I had an aversion to eating the same food more than one day at the time, but having to eat on a budget kind of sorted that issue out…
I came upon this dessert more by chance as I ended up with a bunch of egg yolks after my first meringue making experience. I can’t believe I had actually never made meringues or curd for that matter, before! Both classic desserts and both pretty easy to make. Though if you don’t have an electric beater, like me, I’d suggest you try this lemon-lime curd recipe first.
Once left with my egg yolks and not being sure what to make of them, I went scouting for ideas amongst my many cookbooks. I struck gold with Susan Jane White‘s The Extra Virgin Kitchen! Susan Jane White is a funny, witty cool Irish food writer and The Extra Virgin Kitchen is her debut cookbook.
I have a kind of love-hate relationship with it as the fonts used in it makes the book somewhat hard to engage with… But the few bits I have tried so far have been delicious indeed. So I think I’ll have to revisit it again soon.
You’ll only need five very basic ingredients for this recipe. I’d even go so far to guess that you’ll have them all at home the majority of time so I dare you not to try it sooner rather than later…
The quality of eggs is something I never compromise on. I may not buy everything I eat organically, but eggs I certainly will. There is no comparison in both flavour and colour when you cook and eat eggs from happy hens which are truly free range and get to spend their life outdoors, picking at grass, herbs, worms and whatever else hens eat. I’m super lucky as I can get my eggs from an organic farmer up the road and I’ve seen what a happy life his hens lead. No wonder the eggs taste superior! Their positive energy comes through the food, for sure.
Extensive antibiotic use is a massive problem in the poultry industry. And I recently read an article about the worries that most of the antibiotic resistance we currently see in humans is due to a consumption of animals / animal products made from animals raised on excessive antibiotic use. Not good. Not good at all.
So choose your animal products with care. In doing so we naturally end up eating less, leaving more room for a colourful varied diet made up of mostly plants.
Maybe one day I’ll have my own hens. At the moment it’s not practical due to present circumstances such as, a lot of dogs, foxes roaming around and my bird phobia…
You will have this dessert made in about ten minutes, but you will be preoccupied with it for all of those ten minutes.
Lemon – Lime Curd
Serves 2-4 depending on how much you want to give everyone(!)
6 egg yolks – ideally organic (or home-rared)
5 tbsp coconut oil
4 tbsp raw clear honey
Juice of one lemon
Juice of one lime
Carefully separate out your egg whites from yolks. I usually do this by cracking the egg carefully and then shifting the yolk from one piece of the shell to the other as I let the egg white fall into a small bowl. Set your egg whites aside and place your egg yolks in a small saucepan.
Add in the coconut oil, the honey and the lime and lemon juice. On a gentle heat keep stirring your mix with a whisk. The coconut oil will gradually melt and so will the honey. Keep whisking until you have a golden smooth mix.
You will have to keep up this whisking for approx eight min. This step is important. As soon as you begin to see little bubbles on top keep a close eye on consistency as the curd will begin to thicken.
Once your curd is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove it from the heat immediately, before it splits. Pour it into small glasses or bowls and then set aside in the fridge, once it’s cooled a little, to set.
Serve with fresh berries. You can add whipped cream, Greek yoghurt or marscapone cheese if you are that way inclined too.
Recipe slightly adapted from Susan Jane White’s book The Extra Virgin Kitchen
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