Monthly Archives: February 2012

She Wore Lemon: [Recipe] Meyer Lemon Curd

Posted on February 26, 2012 by thef3175 | 3 Comments

Inspired by my lovely friend Gail, who asked me last week if I had a good recipe for lemon curd. At the time I didn’t.

Over the course of the past week, I’ve done a lot of research on lemon curd – looking for recipes and how they varied. Finally, I came up with my own recipe – a combination of the recipes from bakers I trusted. I am very satisfied with the results. I’m very happy I decided to make a double batch, allowing a nice amount to enjoy right now, and leaving lots for jars to be enjoyed later.

I’ll have to send some home to my dad – he looooooves all things lemon.

Meyer lemons, for anyone who might not now, are a hybrid fruit, a cross between a mandarin and a lemon. They are quite a bit sweeter than regular lemons, and they happen to be in season and widely available right now, so I chose to use them. Regular lemons will work just as well, but you may consider adding just a bit more sugar.

[Recipe] Meyer Lemon Curd

4 meyer lemons (to yield about 3/4 C juice)
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C butter, at room temperature
4 eggs
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp salt

First, you must zest and juice your lemons. You should do them in this order, since it is very difficult to zest the lemon after it’s been juiced. I know this from experience.

I ended up with about 3 Tbsp of lemon zest, and 1 1/2 C of lemon juice. (Remember though, that I made a double batch. A single batch will yield about half these amounts of zest and juice.)

Next, cream the butter, sugar, and zest until well blended.

Incorporate the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one, finishing with the egg yolk. Finally, add the juice and mix well.

Transfer the mixture to a pot. Heat and whisk the mixture continually over medium-low heat (closer to low to discourage curdling and burning the curd).

Heat until the curd starts to thicken and your whisk starts to leave tracks in the curd, about 20-25 minutes. You’ll know the curd is ready to remove from the heat when it coats the back of a spatula, and when you run your finger through it, the trail left by your finger doesn’t fill itself back in.

Strain the curd through a seive, which will catch the zest and any other small lumps that might have developed during the cooking process.

Refrigerate for 4 hours before eating. Or at least, maybe you should, we wouldn’t know. I will say though, that it’s quite delicious served warm.

Store the curd in jars if you wish, otherwise it can be kept in a bowl or container in the refrigerator for at least a couple of weeks. It can be frozen too, for up to 6 months, although I have no idea how it would last that long around here!

Gail – thank you so much for the inspiration for our dinner of cream scones and lemon curd on this cozy Sunday evening.

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Posted in all recipes, sweets

Tagged lemon curd, meyer lemon curd

My Kitchen Bucket List: Fresh Cheese

Posted on February 19, 2012 by thef3175 | 2 Comments

I have a kitchen bucket list. On this list are things like mastering souffle, ice cream, and eggs, among a lot of other things. The list is constantly getting longer and luckily I’ll never get to the end of it.

This weekend I successfully made an attempt at one of the things on my bucket list: making cheese. I mean sure, it was a fresh cheese much like (technically, exactly like) ricotta – the easiest cheese to make, but it was successful, and I feel very accomplished and proud of myself now that I’ve tried it. This just opens the door to a lot of other cheesy possibilities.

If you are so inclined, I very much encourage you to try it yourself. There is no fancy equipment needed – just quite a bit of patience, a bit of dairy, and a vessel with which to eat it when it’s warm, fresh, and ready to eat. This entire recipe comes together in about an hour, if that. In return for about $5, you’ll get a pound of warm, fresh cheese, and a warm, happy feeling. You’ll also get 2L of leftover whey that you can in turn use to make another pound of ricotta (using a method I’ll post next weekend).

To make your own fresh cheese at home, you will need:

2 quarts whole milk
1 C heavy (whipping) cream
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp lemon juice

along with a large pot, a large strainer, a wooden spoon, and some cheesecloth.

Let’s get started.

Put the milk, cream, and salt into a large pot over medium heat.

The liquids must come to a rolling boil, and you need to be mindful to stir it frequently and heat it slowly to avoid the dairy scorching on the bottom of the pot. This is the longest part of the cheese making process. Bringing the liquids to a boil will take about 25 minutes (this is a completely approximate estimate). It’s important not to rush this step.

While you’re waiting for the liquids to boil, take the time to line a strainer with cheesecloth and put it over your large bowl. It’s also a great time to juice your lemon (or get your handsome assistant to do so).

Through the magic of blogging, we’ll say that about 25 minutes have elapsed and your liquids are now boiling!

Pour in the lemon juice and immediately turn the heat to low to allow the liquid to simmer until it curdles – this can take anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes. This part threw me for a loop. I thought I was waiting for a larger curd to form, but they’re actually quite fine curds that look like this:

Once the curds have formed, pour the liquids into your cheesecloth-lined strainer, over the bowl.

The whey will drain out of the curds into the bowl and the cheese will begin to take shape. Let the curds drain as long as you’d like, keeping in mind that the longer they drain, the drier and firmer the cheese will be.

You can now remove the cheese from the strainer with the cheesecloth and squeeze more liquid out of it if you’d like.

Now is the time to taste the cheese, to see if it’s salted enough for your liking. This is a tricky step, since once you taste this warm cheese, there is no going back. We enjoyed it drizzled with olive oil, with salt and pepper, off a spoon. Trust me, this is a very smart thing to do.

In the end, we wound up with just under a pound of cheese. This was after our tasting too, so I’m sure we would have ended up with just over a pound of cheese.

You can see below, I managed to get a very civilized picture of the cheese, to make it look like I didn’t eat it right off the spoon. At any rate, this is an experiment I’ll be recreating often, especially knowing now how easy it really is. Next time, maybe we’ll move on to mozzarella. Or goat’s milk!

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Posted in all recipes, kitchen bucket list, other stuff

[FFwD]: Mussels with Chorizo (and Lemon Pepper Linguine)

Posted on February 18, 2012 by thef3175 | 5 Comments

When you live in the Canadian Maritimes, you eat a lot of seafood, lots of different ways. It’s one of the things we’re famous for, along with our friendly disposition.

In light of that, even though I haven’t cooked a FFwD recipe in quite some time, a mussels recipe was just the thing to get me back in the swing of things. Mussels are a favourite in our home, and they are readily available here, us being so close to Prince Edward Island, home of the best mussels in the world.

We’ve had mussels cooked a myriad of different ways, but never with chorizo, an ingredient not very readily available here. Luckily for us, I found some at our local grocery store this afternoon and didn’t have to substitute hot italian sausage – a small miracle, and a very lucky break.

We really enjoyed this recipe. The chorizo in the mussel broth provided a nice smoky note and left your mouth with a bit of kick. The broth was rich and savoury, a lovely spicy soup we sopped up with crusty bread. We chose to serve the mussels and broth over homemade lemon pepper linguine – a meal fit for royalty.

If you’re hoping to make this dish for guests be sure to let them know to leave their most proper table manners at the door, and just enjoy slurping your way through every delicious morsel.

My husband’s comment: “This was delicious in my face.”

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Posted in fish, French Fridays with Dorie

Tagged mussels, mussels with chorizo

The Start to Bonnes Choses: Pâte à Choux

Posted on February 11, 2012 by thef3175 | Leave a comment

Does the idea of making éclairs, profiteroles, and gougères scare you? Did you just google those terms? Well if you did, I bet you’re drooling right now. Go ahead and wipe off your keyboard, then listen up. What if I told you that you could make all of those delicious items yourself, in your own kitchen? Then can I convince you that it’s actually quite easy? Would you then believe me if I told you that you probably have all of the necessary ingredients in your kitchen right now?

It’s true.

Cream puffs will always remind me of my grandmother, who fills them with butterscotch pastry cream. They are such a special treat, my dad’s favourite. I never imagined I’d be able to make them so easily myself, since it always seems that only grandmothers whip up amazing food on the fly and from memory. I only wish I could cook and bake like my grandma. She’s the best kitchen consultant I know.

Back to the pate a choux – let me show you how you too can make your own, opening yourself up to a world of culinary possibilities. These little guys can be filled with sweet fillings like whipped cream, pudding, pastry cream, or fudge. Or they can be filled with savoury fillings like egg salad, cream cheese fillings, or cooked meat filling like curried chicken or buffalo chicken and blue cheese. Let your imagination run wild. They make a great little poppable mouthful for a special occasion or a lazy Sunday afternoon at home with your favourite people.

Pâte à Choux

1/2 C whole milk
1/2 C water
1/2 C butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 Tbsp sugar (if you’re using the dough for something sweet)
1/2 tsp salt
1 C flour
4 eggs, at room temperature

Gather the ingredients, then preheat your oven to 425F. Then, please read the recipe through, as things go very quickly once you get started.

Ready? Let’s go.

Bring the milk, water, butter, sugar (if you’re using it), and salt to a rapid boil in a saucepan over high heat.

Add the flour all at once, lower the heat to med-low, and immediately stir like mad with a wooden spoon or heavy whisk.

The dough will come together, and a light crust will form on the bottom of the pan. Keep stirring for another minute or two to dry the dough. The dough will be very smooth.

Turn the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer or a bowl you can use with a hand mixer (or a wooden spoon and more elbow grease). Let the dough sit for just a minute. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating all the while, until the dough is thick and shiny. Make sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next.

Drop the dough by tablespoonful (for round puffs) on a baking sheet lined with parchment, leaving about 2 inches between the mounds to allow for room to puff.

Slide the baking sheet into the oven, and immediately turn the temperature down to 375F. Bake the puffs for 12 minutes, then rotate the pan front to back and up and down on the oven racks. Bake for another 12-15 minutes until the puffs are golden and firm. Allow the puffs to cool on the baking sheet.

Now, the sky is the limit!

On this particular day, I chose to fill the sweet dough I made with 2 fillings: a vanilla pastry cream (later turning them into profiteroles with a little help from some chocolate ganache), and a smoked salmon and cream cheese mixture. Both were fabulous.