experimental orange curd
We went to the farmer’s market today, and it appears to be citrus season. I’ve got navel oranges, blood oranges, grapefruits, and a couple of meyer lemons, all for under $10. I love the farmer’s market.
I wasn’t sure what would be best to make; but I started with an orange curd using a couple of the navel oranges. I started with a yuzu curd recipe that I got from Extraordinary Desserts, and just kind of improvised. It could probably stand some improvement, but as it stands it tastes a bit like an orange julius with more eggs mixed in.
The orange curd is meant to be baked — the recipe I have for the yuzu curd has you bake it in some puff pastry with almonds — but if you use pasteurized eggs, you can use the unbaked curd as a glaze or sauce, too. I’ve now got a whole bowlful, and I’m not sure what to put it on.
Chilled orange curd
Here’s what I did:
- * Juice enough oranges to get about 1/2 cup of juice. For me this was one and a half oranges.
- * Slice off the peel from another orange, then dice up the rest of the orange, and add it all to the same container.
- * Zest a lemon into the same container.
- * Cut a stick of butter (1/2 cup) into cubes and set aside.
- * Add 1 cup of sugar and 4 eggs (preferably pasteurized) to a medium saucepan; mix together, then add in the orange juice/zest/orange mixture.
- * Whisk it around in the saucepan over low heat; the orange chunks will cook down a bit and juice; feel free to smush the orange chunks and juice them a bit more.
- * Keep whisking until the mixture starts to visibly thicken, between 5 and 10 minutes. You really can’t time it, you just have to watch it. Make sure it doesn’t get too hot and curdle.
- * Once the mixture is thick enough, drop in the butter. Continue whisking until the butter is melted.
- * As soon as the butter is all melted, take the mixture off the heat.
- * Strain the mixture through a wire strainer; you’re going to have to help it through with the whisk, moving around and pressing on the orange chunks and pulp to get the curd through.
- * Chill it in the fridge for an hour or two, and you’re done!
The curd can be used as a topping if you used pasteurized eggs, or added to pastries and baked (it comes out with a texture similar to the cheese in a cheese danish).
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I bought those pasteurized eggs. Wow are they fantastic! I can make a whole bunch of recipes now that I wouldn’t have made before.
Comment by Bette — January 21, 2009 @ 9:28 am
Wow! sounds delicious.
Comment by Dawn Smith — June 11, 2009 @ 10:26 am