[/caption]The bag of lemons was staring at me from the top shelf of my fridge. I didn't buy them, you see. I inherited them. My friend (who lives a stone's throw away from me) was going out of town for a couple of weeks and decided to bequeath me the vegetables from her fridge. So, early last Friday morningmy doorbell rang and I saw my friend (cheerful and immaculately dressed at 6am) with a bag, waving furiously at me. My dog, Mojo, -- not too pleased at a house guest so early in the day -- wouldn't stop yapping and so our conversation was brief.
Hope can be such a futile thing. I was hoping that somewhere in the bag I'd find avocados, feta cheese, greek yoghurt, pine nuts ... What I saw, instead, was a head of cabbage, some cauliflower and a bag of lemons. A bag of lemons!
[caption id="attachment_432" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Looks like custard; but it's curd. No yellow colourant was used. Only lemons and egg."]
[/caption]I don't usually buy lemons -- definitely not by the bagful -- and so I was a little stumped at what to do with 12 lemons. Why would someone have 12 lemons in her fridge unless she was catering a party or erecting a lemonade stand outside her house? A bag of lemons!
Three days passed and I managed to ignore them lemons. Though everytime I opened my fridge, they taunted me.
And then, the inevitable happened. Had a couple of friends coming over for tea and I had nothing in my fridge that had dessert potential. Except the lemons. Oh, God Bless them lemons. I really didn't want to peel off my ratty home shorts to go to the supermarket.
Found an easy recipe for lemon curd tartlets. I swear it took me less than n hour in total. Of course, I had some home made Pâte Brisée (short crust pastry) in my fridge from a few days ago so that made things a lot easier.
As they weren't too sweet -- more tangy and refreshing -- I quite liked the lemon curd tartlets. But, I gave one to my good friend Taj and she found it a tad too tangy. So, if you're into desserts, you could top the tart with some meringue or cream.
The thing about lemon curd is that it requires next to no baking. You make the lemon curd, let it cool and bake the pastry shells in a tartlet pan. When cooked, fill shells with curd and pop it in the overn for just a couple of minutes. Literally, just 120 seconds.
Isn't it easy?
Now I have some leftover lemon curd and I am thinking of a cake with a lemon curd layer.
Hmmm.... methinks me may be making too many desserts. I blame it on the holiday season. All the good cheer and joyousness... bah. I promise, I will be back on track soon.
Meanwhile, here's how you make Lemon Curd.
2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Juice and rind of 2 large lemons
1tsp Salt
2 oz butter
In a saucepan, add the butter, lemon juice, lemon rind, salt and sugar and cook on low heat. Slowly stream in the eggs and keep strirring till the curd is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
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