When life gives you lemons....

Make lemon curd!

Or not...since in my case it wasn't lemons, but oranges. In which case, you make orange curd! (Although, I must admit, a good lemon one is my favorite. Shhh...wouldn't want the oranges to get jealous.)

Actually, before I start this off, I am going apologize and say that from this point on I will no longer tell you that I will have something out on such and such day. I homeschool, and cook, and homeschool, and sew, and homeschool, and chase a hyper german shepherd mix puppy out of my house, and deal with an awesome husband who is currently pursuing his Master's degree in Math (UGH! to the Math not the husband), and did I mention we homeschool? I love blogging things, but I'm finding my time doesn't usually go the way I plan, sooo.....I will spare us all the anguish of waiting around for something I promised and then can't seem to get to when I say I will (I'm also sparing myself a HUGE guilt trip!) and just let my posts be random surprise things that are fun and maybe a little informative.

Back to the oranges.

A couple of the recipes I tried out from the January SL citrus stuff used orange curd as a base. I've made a lemon one before and, honestly, it wasn't that great, so I figured I'd give this one a whirl.

Oh, and in case you're curious, you can find this recipe right here: Buttery Orange Curd.

You'll need orange juice, it doesn't have to be fresh squeezed, granulated sugar, corn starch, butter, salt, an orange, and an egg.

First remove the zest from your orange. That's the orange part of the skin. You don't want the white stuff underneath because it's really bitter! I have a microplane grater/zester and absolutely love it. All you have to do to remove the zest is pull it across the skin of the fruit and, viola! (Make sure you only pull it across the fruit because if you miss and get yourself, OUCH!) You don't have to use a microplane, the fine side of a regular grater will work too, you just have to be extra careful not to include any of the white pith.

Next, whisk together your sugar and cornstarch in a good heavy pot on the stove.

Then whisk in your orange juice.

Just mix gently until everything is nice and smooth.

Then whisk in the egg. I got a litttle carried away with the whisking and it really foamed up. I was worried, oops!

But no worries, after bringing it to a boil and whisking it constantly as the recipe stated...

It all evened out and I was able to add the orange zest, butter, and pinch o' salt.

Pour it into a bowl...

And cover it with plastic wrap. You want to press the plastic right onto the curd. This keeps the top from forming a thick skin. Ew! (Please, forgive the reddish pink color...I'm still trying to use up all the holiday plastic wrap I bought by accident at Christmas.)

Now, stick it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. I used this as the base of a Panna Cotta (that recipe will come next) but this would also be good in miniature tart shells topped with some sweetened whipped cream, or on a toasted English muffin. The recipe says to only store it for 3 days and this is a good guideline. I kept some of it in a bowl for a couple days longer, just to see, and the curd began to break down and got rather watery.

Also, next time I make this I will probably omit the zest. The curd had a good orange taste, but I thought it was a little bit strong. I think if I cut out the zest or at least halve it, the flavour will be just right for me.