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Culinary Sketch 12/31/2017

In coffee shops you can often find tartlets, meringues with lemon filling and some supermarkets sell glass jars of citrus treats. But in fact, this dessert can be prepared at home as well. This does not require expensive ingredients, and the end result is always pleasing with taste. Today, a regular blog reader, Julia Khoroshilova, will share with us a proven recipe for lemon curd.

Good day! Today I would like to continue the topic of delicious gift ideas for New Year for loved ones and friends, started in the article.

V cold winter it is impossible to resist the temptation to please yourself and your family with fragrant and delicious dessert... On the eve of new year holidays I offer you a simple and proven recipe for a fragrant lemon curd. It may seem to many that the delicacy is too high in calories, but let's forget about carbohydrates for a while. After all, food is, first of all, positive emotions and energy, especially if it is prepared with love.

What is this dessert

Lemon Kurd very popular in Great Britain, America, it is often served for breakfast in bowls with pancakes, crispy honey toasts. Many pastry chefs add citrus kurd to pies, meringues, and tartlets. For its consistency, this dish is often called lemon cream, and its bright and rich taste will appeal to you. true gourmets... Many people compare this delicacy with the classic custard version. fruit cream, but there is one significant difference - flour or starch is not added to the Kurd.

Lemon cream is quite easy to prepare and has different variants... For example, the popular culinary blogger Irina Chadeeva (Chadeyka) makes a cake with lemon curd and meringue. She confirms that even novice cooks will master this recipe, since it is simple both in terms of ingredients and in preparation. Another famous chef Andy Chef adds lemon Kurd to cupcakes and pasta. Believe me, the dessert will add variety, even if you eat it with regular pancakes.

Lemon Cream Recipe

When I first looked for how to cook Lemon Kurd, I was amazed at how many recipes there are for this delicacy. In this case, the cream can be prepared with the addition of lime, strawberry, orange, but lemon remains the basic ingredient. Even if you are not a fan of this citrus, be sure to appreciate the taste of the Kurdish for harmonious combination sourness and sweets.

Most of the recipes are slightly different. For example, according to Jamie Oliver's recipe, lemon curd is made from 5 yolks and 2 whole eggs. This ratio is considered classic, but this recipe did not suit me, since I did not have time to think about where to put the remaining proteins (although later I remembered that air meringues could be made of them). Therefore, I suggest the option step by step recipe with a photo of a lemon curd, which uses whole eggs, which further simplifies the cooking process.

You will need the following ingredients:

• zest of 2 lemons;
• freshly squeezed juice from 4 lemons;
• 220 g sugar;
• 120 g butter.

First you need to grate the lemon on a fine grater, trying not to touch the white crust of the fruit, so that there is no bitterness in the taste. The best and easiest way to do this is to hold the lemon in the freezer for a while.

Add lemon juice to the grated zest. There are some tricks on how to squeeze out more juice. To do this, you need to warm the lemon in the microwave for 15 seconds, and then cut it not along, but across.

Add eggs, sugar to the mixture and stir everything thoroughly, and then put the container in a water bath.

Cook the Kurd over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 5-7 minutes. Add the diced to the citrus cream butter and continue stirring until thickened for another 2 minutes.

If you do not like the taste of the zest, then the resulting Kurd can be filtered through a sieve or cheesecloth. I love the thick consistency of lemon cream, so I add 5 g of gelatin at the end. If you add more, you get a fragrant citrus jelly. From the indicated amount of ingredients, I got 600 ml of Kurdish.

As you can see, the recipe is quite simple and takes 10-15 minutes along with preparation. This time I poured the cooled lemon curd into jars and put it in the refrigerator for infusion. Here is such delicious gift I cooked for my loved ones!

Popular dessert recipes

If you are not afraid of difficulties, then you should be interested in recipes for making citrus cream from famous chefs and food bloggers. For example, Andrei Rudkovsky, better known as Andy Chef, on his blog shares a recipe for a lemon Kurd, which is closer to classic version... The result is a bright yellow cream with a thick consistency.

Lemon Kurd. Recipe from Andy Chef

It uses the following proportions of the constituent components:

• zest one lemon;
• lemon juice- 115 g;
• egg yolk - 4;
• sugar - 75 g;
• butter - 60 g.

The ingredients in this recipe are almost identical to many others, the only difference is that only egg yolks are used. So, first you need to grate the zest from one lemon. At the same time, Andy Chef believes that it is not necessary to use a fine grater, since he always filters the citrus mixture afterwards.

In a saucepan, whisk the sugar, yolks, squeezed juice and zest with a whisk and put on medium fire... Once the sugar has dissolved, add the butter and stir constantly. Gradually, the cream will begin to thicken. Andrey advises using 3 tablespoons of starch if you want to achieve a dense consistency. After 5-7 minutes, the stewpan must be removed from the heat, filtered through a sieve or cheesecloth and poured into glass containers.

Lemon Kurd by Jamie Oliver

I am a dedicated fan of the English chef Jamie Oliver, a popular restaurateur and popularizer. home cooking and principles healthy eating... Many people love his recipe for making lemon curd, although at first glance it seems a little more complicated than others.

I suggest watching a video in which the author prepares a citrus cream according to Jamie Oliver's recipe.

Experienced chefs and pastry chefs who often prepare this dessert share their tricks on how to make lemon curd even more delicious and aromatic. First of all, they remind that lemons cannot be stored without zest. If you could not immediately use them to prepare some kind of dish, then you need to immediately squeeze the juice and place in the freezer to preserve the taste and useful properties.

As I wrote above, the easiest way is to grate the zest from chilled lemon, and some cooks say that you can even freeze it a little. By classic recipe zest must be added to the lemon curd. If you do not like its taste, then you can strain the cream, but without this component, the cream will not be fragrant.

If you are using small eggs, then increase the number. Better to let them be more than fewer. Otherwise, the Kurd will not thicken and remain liquid. In this form, of course, you can enjoy its unique taste, but you will not be able to make a cake with lemon curd in such a consistency.

Remember that before adding eggs to lemon juice, you need to beat them well with sugar so that no lumps remain, which can then curl up in a water bath. Ready-made lemon curd can be stored in the refrigerator for 1 month, but I am sure that you will eat it much earlier.

This fruit dessert conquers with its tenderness and pronounced lemon taste. There are many ways to make lemon curd, but our recipe offers the easiest and fastest.

Kurd is prepared like a custard with lemon juice, which is squeezed right there. Usually a Kurd is made in a water bath, but with our method of cooking, you can do without it. Eggs, with the specified amount of granulated sugar and citric acid will not curl up. So the mixture can be heated simply on the stove in a convenient container.

Kurdish can be eaten on their own for dessert. For example, with tea. And you can use it like a regular cream: with pancakes, for spreading cakes, in buns, in choux pastries, etc.

The Kurd also has a feature that it is desirable to know about.... The more oil it contains, the softer its taste. Therefore, if you want a calmer taste, add twice as much oil as given in the recipe. If you want a less high-calorie product, but a sharper lemon, do not add oil at all. True, in the latter case it will no longer be a Kurd, but some completely new cream.

Ingredients

• 1 lemon
• 1 egg
• 15 grams of butter
• 50 grams of granulated sugar

Preparation

1. Wash the lemon, wipe it with a towel. On the finest grater, remove the zest from it. Squeeze the juice out of the lemon.

2. Mix lemon zest and juice in a bowl. Pour in sugar. We rub everything together with a spatula or directly with our fingers. You need to grind so that the sugar is saturated with the aroma of the zest.

3. Add 1 egg and beat.

4. We do this with an ordinary fork and not very actively, without the formation of foam.

5. Now filter the resulting mixture through a fine strainer.

6. Turn on a medium heat on the stove, put a saucepan on it, in which we will cook the dessert. Put a piece of butter in a saucepan, pour in the resulting composition.

7. Cook with constant stirring until the mixture thickens.

8. Ready cream remove from the stove, put in a bowl, cool and serve with tea. Or put it in a jar or container for storing food with a lid, put it in the refrigerator. Kurdish retains its taste and condition for quite a long time, literally up to several weeks. True, you won't be able to keep it for so long, the Kurd is eaten very quickly!

If the resulting Kurd seems to you too sour (and it should be sour), try to partially replace the lemon juice with some other one, but also citrus.

Note to the hostess

1. It is difficult to find that the lemon, protecting it from spoilage, was treated with something, since its skin itself seems to be artificial. However, the protective layer on the peel of citrus fruits is most often present and must be completely removed. Contrary to popular belief, boiling water does little to cope with the task. A tough dish sponge is a tool that needs to be used to process the fruit after scalding. Then it should still be held under running water.

2. Ghee is not good for cooking custard desserts... It leaves a specific taste in them. For any cream, it is recommended to purchase an expensive high-quality product, and the spread is not in any case.

3. All thick culinary mixtures with sugar, which stand for a long time on low heat, and strive to bake in a saucepan. Sticking to enamel cookware is the fastest. Sintered metal, on the contrary, is the safest in this regard.

4. Lemon Kurd is capable of provoking allergies. Gourmands prone to negative reactions to citrus should not eat it with spoons, like jam. And 5-6 crackers, thinly spread with a pleasant sweet and sour mass, will not harm anyone, and in terms of calorie content, such a dose of delicious vitamin food is optimal.

It is fragrant and very tasty treat, which is easy to prepare at home. In consistency, it resembles a cream, has a thick gelatinous texture. It can be used as a filling for pies, pancakes, buns, muffins, cakes and this is not the whole list. Cream Kurdish can be served for breakfast with toast, a freshly baked bun instead of jam, pour cream ice cream, cottage cheese dumplings and sweet cheese cakes on them.

Lemon Kurd is often found in cake recipes with biscuit cakes(for example, ideal in combination), serves as an excellent filling for puff croissants, macaroni cakes, sand tartlets, cupcakes, muffins, biscuit rolls... we have an article.

Pie with Kurdish and meringue will be a great pleasure for you. Preparing a Kurd from eggs a large number lemons, sugar and butter. Lemon juice gives the delicacy a pleasant sourness, and grated zest gives a pronounced tropical aroma. To decorate desserts during the preparation process, you can add a little starch to make the Kurdish cream thicker.

Historical facts

Kurd, or creamy fruit dessert, is more commonly prepared in the UK and the northern regions of the United States. Historians claim that it was invented in these countries. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, housewives served this delicacy for tea with rolls and white bread, replacing berry jam with lemon curd.

More than a hundred years ago, American and British women used the Kurd as a filling for homemade baked goods. Since the middle of the 20th century, when they began to actively develop confectionery factories America and Great Britain, Kurd from lemons began to be cooked there on an industrial scale. Part of the sweet and sour cream went to the production of fillings for mouth-watering puff croissants, buns, and part was packaged in jars and sold in bulk.

Supermarkets in our country also sell small jars with this delicacy, but they are quite expensive. In addition, they often contain preservatives. And to make a cream in your kitchen, you need a minimum of ingredients and a little precious time.


There are a lot of recipes. First of all, the cream differs in its composition. In addition to lemon, tangerine, strawberry, raspberry, banana, currant, cherry, blueberry, from several types of berries, as well as chocolate Kurd are also known. It can also be prepared with or without the addition of starch, in a water bath or in another way.

Starch recipe

I suggest that you familiarize yourself with the recipe with the addition of starch and in a water bath. Deviations from the basic version allow you to obtain thick cream which is convenient to use in cakes. So let's cook.

Ingredients:

Recipe Information

• Cuisine: English
• Type of dish: cream
• Cooking method: in a water bath
• Servings: 3
• 30 minutes

• lemons - 3-4 pcs.
• chicken egg - 3 pcs.
• granulated sugar - 150 g
• butter - 90 g
• salt - 1 pinch
• corn starch - 1 tsp

How to make

First, prepare the lemons. It takes 3-4 medium fruits to get 100 ml of juice. But before squeezing out the juice, remove the zest from all the lemons. Place the citrus fruits in a colander and scald with boiling water, pat dry with a towel. Place a sheet of parchment on a fine grater to reduce the loss of zest. Peel off the yellow portion of the lemon by rubbing gently from all sides. Then, peel off the parchment with a knife.


Now squeeze the juice in a way convenient for you. Roll the lemons on the table before spinning. Cut in half and squeeze out the juice. You should get 100 ml of juice.


In a heat-resistant deep container, add chicken eggs medium size. Add granulated sugar. Stir slightly with a hand whisk. No need to whip.


Add a pinch of salt and lemon zest. Stir.


Pour in the squeezed juice, add the pieces of butter and cornstarch. Stir.

Cornstarch can be substituted for potato starch.

Now let's figure out how much to cook to get the desired consistency. ... Pour water into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Place a bowl of egg-sugar mixture in the bath. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the liquid and the water should boil slowly. Take a whisk and stir constantly until the mass thickens. This process usually takes 2-3 minutes.


Once the mixture has thickened, remove the bowl from the water bath.


Pass the cream through a fine strainer to remove any remaining rind and lumps. It is convenient to do this step with a hand whisk, turning it in a circle.


Prepare dishes with ice water in advance. Dip the bowl of cream into cold water and stir vigorously until the temperature drops below room temperature. Thus, we will prevent the appearance of a film on the surface of the cream.


Done, help yourself!


Delicious desserts for you!


According to the above recipe, I recommend cooking for beginners. Beginners do not feel the food so well, the cream can curl, burn, and come out with lumps. And in a water bath nothing will burn or curl up, starch will act as an excellent thickener. And you will get good results. When you get your hands on it, you can try the recipe of professional pastry chefs. I'll give him.

Classic recipe

Prepared without starch and without a water bath.

Ingredients:

• lemon juice - 150 g (4 lemons)
• chicken egg - 3 pcs.
• zest of one lemon
• unsalted butter - 80 g
• sugar - 150 g

Cooking method

1. Wash the lemons well and squeeze the juice out of them. Grate the zest of two lemons on a fine grater and put in lemon juice.

   Attention!

   You need to rub only the yellow part of the peel, without touching the bottom white layer, otherwise the cream will turn out to be bitter.

2. Break eggs into lemon juice, add sugar. Now you need to mix the mixture well.
3. Pour the mixture into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and place on the stove over medium heat. Heat the mixture, stirring continuously with a spoon or whisk.
4. Bring the cream until thick, but without letting it boil. If bubbles appear, beat the Kurd especially thoroughly. The heating process will take about 4-5 minutes.
5. As a result, a fairly thick mass is obtained, into which immediately, without waiting for cooling, you need to add butter. Whisk all together with a whisk or mixer.
6. The Kurd is ready. You can put it in the refrigerator to cool it down. After cooling, the cream becomes thick and is quite suitable for use as a filling for "pasta".

About storage

Housewives who prefer to prepare food and meals for future use are often interested in shelf life. Pour the cream into clean, dry jars and store it in the refrigerator for one to a week and a half. It can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Fruit or berry Kurdish has a lot in common with the custard that we are used to making, for example, for the Napoleon cake. The fundamental difference is that custard cooked in milk, and the Kurdish is based on the juice of lemon, orange or other fruits and berries.

Useful video

For visuals, I suggest looking at another version of the recipe - without starch, but in a water bath.

Hello my dear friends! Probably, in my absence for a month, you guessed that something was happening. Even the absence of events is an event when it is outside the norm. Oh, how she twirled!

I twirled it - I untwist it.

For several years I have been thinking about moving my brainchild to a “new home”. There were many reasons for this, and at the end of last year I decided: New Year - new beginnings. And this is not only symbolic. January is the perfect time for this: while you, I am sure, enjoy the holidays, pleasant meetings and delicious food, I dived into the jungle of a world unfamiliar to me and worked on the creation of a new site. Believe that you will love it!

With a frank culinary delight

and sincerely delicious wishes,

Galina Artemenko

Source https://vku.life/zhizn-vkusnaja/

Hi Hi! I continue my series of pre-New Year compilations, and today the next step is… snacks! Again! It's just that there are not many of them ...

So, today we are preparing the cutest mini-muffins with cheese, a snack cake with olives, onions and nuts, as well as liver cake in an exquisite presentation.

How to prepare a lot of snacks for the festive table and not brush your teeth? Snack oils! This is one of my favorite dining themes, and today we are preparing as many as six types!

Hi Hi! The crazy time continues when you want to have time for everything and be able to relax at the same time. In December, the topic of finding a balance is more relevant than ever: what do you want to have time to do, but not at any cost, and what is better to leave (either for later or in the past year).

Eventually the New Year will come! So here are two recipes to complement your snack table. Fish appetizers are always on the topic, right?

My unequivocal top of what I always leave (for later or in the past year - whatever the mood will be) is the general cleaning. Honestly, I never do general cleaning! The traditional top time for this “joy” is either before the New Year or before Easter. The risk, as they say, is maximum! But it was not for nothing that I put the word “joy” in quotation marks, since I don’t like to devote some long time to putting things in order, even if I do everything that is necessary little by little for some time. So the "hostess" (one, by the way, of my unloved words!) Of me is so-so, and I try to maintain cleanliness with the usual routine cleaning. But for something rare at this time of year, I still decide. For example, this year I washed the curtains.

You can blame me for this approach to housekeeping or not blame me - in this matter, as in food, everything can be expressed in just one word: TASTE. Someone loves sparkling cleanliness and is ready to direct it, devoting time to it throughout the week. Someone is polarly ready to live in complete chaos. Someone wants to do everything on their own, but for someone it is better to entrust the care of cleanliness to a professional. The main thing, in my subjective opinion, is the sanitary measures necessary for a normal life, calmness and a satisfied state as a result. I believe that if the plafonds are not washed, and the brain does not let go of this, you need to either accept the given and calm down, or wash the plafonds. About plafonds an example is not accidental - I just plan to accept them as they are.

Cleaning by cleaning, and the New Year will come, as u already said at the very beginning. Two recipes that I am sharing today are from my book (there these recipes are presented in a step-by-step version).

Homemade sprats

I'll start with them. This recipe was awesome for me: when I cooked them, I could not believe that the capelin, from which they are prepared in this case, could really be exactly the same taste as sprats from a can! And you can call sprats the past century, “you need to move forward, not backward,” but in my head a black bread sandwich with sprats and pickled cucumber is something amazing!

800 g frozen capelin
2 tbsp. l. black tea (medium or small-leaved tea is better)
2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. l. soy sauce
1 tsp natural liquid smoke
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp salt
0.5 tsp Sahara
5 black peppercorns
3 allspice peas
2 carnation buds
1 bay leaf

Defrost the fish, remove the heads and entrails.

Pour the tea leaves with 1 glass of boiling water and leave for 10-15 minutes, then strain. Further, I will describe the process for a multicooker, but all the same can be done simply on the stove, or in the oven! So ...

Pour the tea leaves into the multicooker bowl, add salt, sugar, soy sauce, liquid smoke, vegetable oil and any remaining spices. Place the capelin backs up in the resulting marinade, trying to position the fish tightly to each other.

Select the "Extinguishing" operating mode, the time is 1 hour. At the end of the program, switch the multicooker to the "Simmering" mode, if there is one in your model, and cook for another hour. If there is no such mode, select the heating mode for 1 hour. When the multicooker is finished, turn it off and leave the capelin under a closed lid until it cools completely, and only then the fish can be transferred to a convenient container.

For cooking on the stove simply simmer the capelin on the lowest possible heat for 2 hours and leave to cool, covered.

For cooking in the oven send a container with fish there and cook at 150 ° for 1 hour under a lid or foil, and then turn off the oven and leave the capelin in it to cool.

Mackerel Riyette

This is a wonderful and very easy to prepare snack! Try replacing your standard lightly salted or smoked mackerel with festive table- so much more interesting.

1 fresh frozen mackerel
1 onion
150 g dry white wine
80 g smoked fish (I have salmon)
2 tbsp. l. fish sauce (if not available, replace with soy sauce)
1 tbsp. l. vegetable oil
2 bay leaves
6 green onion feathers
salt, pepper - to taste

Defrost the mackerel and cut off the head, carefully peel from the entrails and rinse the carcass. Cut the onion into rings and send it to the multicooker bowl along with the bay leaf. Place the mackerel on top. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the wine, close the lid of the multicooker and cook in the "Bake" mode for 15 minutes.

Use forks to cut the carcass into small fiber pieces, removing the backbone and bones. Add to mackerel smoked fish sliced small cubes... Slice green onions and mix with fish base. Season the riyet with salt, pepper, add vegetable oil and add fish sauce... Mix thoroughly.

Serve such a paste well on slices of toasted bread.

***
Let me remind you about my book with recipes for a multicooker - this is a whole hundred of the most a variety of recipes, among which you will find simple and quick recipes for every day, as well as recipes for special occasions. Everything from soups to pastries and drinks. You can buy it

Hello my dear girls and boys!

For most of us, desperate housewives and just housewives, autumn is the time to return to the kitchen, oven, hot meals and freshly baked pastries. And no matter how we resist it, in such cold weather it is simply impossible to resist the temptation to please yourself with a tasty, airy, aromatic and, most importantly, a hot piece of fresh homemade pie... After all, do not forget that food is not only carbohydrates and proteins, it is also positive energy, which is charged with homemade pies if prepared with love. I began to notice with pleasure how the feeds in social networks gradually began to fill with appetizing homemade cakes and the happy faces of the owners of this very pastry.

But it's still summer in Greece! There are no yellow leaves (although there are never any here), people wear shorts and shales, on weekends they still go to the sea to swim and sunbathe, and on the islands you can still find belated tourists, in taverns and cafes, even in the evenings, they still sit on the street ... And only lemons and oranges ripening on the trees remind us that winter is approaching.

I did not wait for the lemons on the tree to ripen from a neighbor opposite and went to buy them at the market. Because I had plans for a long time to show you how to prepare a real correct and rich lemon curd on fresh yolks and quality butter.

Who is a "Kurd" and what does lemons have to do with it?

The editor of a well-known culinary magazine, very respected by me, is actively fighting for the right of the lemon Kurd to be called cream ... She insists that the word "Kurd" in Russian can only mean the definition of an ethnic group living in Turkey. I can't disagree with her, but you can't argue against the will of the people. But in the minds of the absolute majority of the Russian-speaking population of the planet, a stable phrase has already been formed and fixed, a tracing paper from the English language - "lemon Kurd". So, it is this phrase that I will use in this context. Forgive me, dear Marianne.

In fact, a Kurd made from lemons is the same custard, or to be precise, an English cream in which egg yolks are brewed, only lemon juice and zest are used instead of milk.

Very often in recipes in lemon cream starch is added for consistency. In my opinion, this pretty much spoils not only the taste, but also the texture of the Kurd. With the correct and only correct preparation, the Kurd turns out to be quite thick and homogeneous.

And what I like best about lemon cream is that he prepares in 2 counts!

Where can you apply lemon cream?

Lovers of sour tastes can use lemon cream as a spread in any combination: with bread, rolls, pancakes, pancakes, cheese cakes, etc.

I have a girlfriend here, so give her a jar of Kurdish, a bigger spoon and she will be happy, and she doesn't need anything else. Those who treat lemons more carefully can fill them with tarts, cakes, rolls, cakes or cupcakes. I usually cook with him and.

For me personally, the most optimal use of the lemon curd is just the classic lemon pie with meringue. It is with neutral shortbread dough and sweet airy meringue sour lemon curd is the best combination possible.

Foreshadowing your question, I will say: Yes, instead of lemons, you can use oranges, tangerines, limes, and even various berries (preferably sour). At the same time, the cooking technology and the ratio will remain the same. It's just that such a cream will no longer have the characteristic lemon sourness. I advise you to try the Blood Orange Kurd. The color turns out - fire!

So, let's get down to the step-by-step cooking!

From this amount of ingredients, we will have a 250 ml jar of finished product.

We need:

• freshly squeezed lemon juice - 115 ml (2-3 pcs.)
• grated lemon zest- 2 tsp (2 pcs.)
• sugar - 75 gr.
• egg yolks - 4 pcs.
• butter - 60 gr.

Step by step cooking:

For the filling of the tart, the Kurd is better to use while still warm. And for cakes, the lemon cream must be cooled.

On this bright yellow note, I say goodbye, but not for long.

Good luck, love and patience.