Jaci Hicken, a seasoned Riv journalist and trained chef, shares her wealth of knowledge on growing, cooking and preserving homegrown produce. In this edition, Jaci’s chooks have started laying again, and she can make lemon curd.
The days are getting longer, and some even look like (a false) spring, which means after freeloading for the past couple of months, my chooks have started to lay again.
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It’s always a joyous moment when they start laying, as it signals the beginning of a new season of cooking and preserving our homegrown produce.
Having eggs again, along with picking up excess lemons at the last local food swap, means returning to a family favourite recipe, lemon butter.
Digging back into my chef training, there are a couple of things we should all know to make the perfect lemon curd.
Firstly, eggs.
And not making bad scrambled eggs of your lemon curd.
Lemon curd thickens as the egg proteins coagulate.
For eggs, whites coagulate around 60°C and yolks around 68°C, with the coagulation temperature increasing depending on the amount of sugar you have added to them.
With this lemon curd recipe, you can achieve a coagulation temperature of up to 82°C without scrambling the eggs.
The advantage of heating your lemon curd to this temperature is that you can hold it at temperature for 5 to 10 minutes, which helps reduce the risk of nasty bacteria that can sometimes be found in eggs.
Cook lemon curd to a coagulation temperature of up to 82°C and try and hold at temperature for 5 to 10 minutes
Photo by
Jaci Hicken
Secondly, you need to use reasonably sized lemons for this recipe. If your lemons seem small, use an extra one.
And lastly, you will be cooking lemon curd using a bain-marie, a technique that’s crucial for achieving the perfect consistency and texture.
A bain-marie, also known as a water bath, is a gentle cooking method where the ingredients are in a bowl over gently simmering water and whisked until cooked.
Using a lightweight metal bowl that fits on top of a saucepan is ideal.
Hold the metal bowl over the saucepan with a folded dry tea-towel to protect your hand from the heat.
Hint: Don’t let the bowl touch the water.
If the bottom of the bowl touches the water, the lemon curd will cook too fast, curdle, and you’ll end up with bad scrambled eggs.
Lemon curd recipe
Ingredients
3 lemons, zest and juice
150 grams of pouring cream
200 grams of caster sugar
5 eggs
Method
Set up a bain-marie. Find a saucepan that will comfortably hold the bowl. Half fill the saucepan with water, checking that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. If you place the bowl on the saucepan before filling it with ingredients, then lift it back up, you will see and feel if the bottom of the bowl is wet. Bring the water to a simmer.
Zest, then juice lemons. Place all the ingredients in a heat-proof bowl. Beat the mixture together using a whisk.
Place the bowl of ingredients over the bain-marie.
Whisk the mixture together until it thickens. Using a kitchen thermometer, check the temperature, bringing the mixture to 82°C. Reduce the heat and hold the mixture at this temperature for at least 5 minutes, if not 10 minutes, whisking occasionally to ensure even heat.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. This step is essential as it removes any cooked egg bits or lemon pulp, resulting in a smooth and silky curd. Place a layer of clear plastic wrap on the surface of the hot curd. This will stop a skin from forming on the curd.
Here, the lemon curd was used between the layers of an upcoming lemon yoghurt cake, used to fill pancakes with a sprinkling of raspberries and on toast for brekkie.
Do you have a go-to lemon curd recipe? Share your secrets and what to do if you have too many eggs with Jaci at jaci.hicken@mmg.com.au.
