As I’ve mentioned before I read a lot of blogs, including every blog written by the lovely people who choose to leave me a comment and my one recurring thought when I read your musings or admire your work is, “I wonder who taught them to do that?”
I was chatting with my wee Nana last week on the phone and telling her what I’d been knitting and sewing lately. I was the typical eldest grandchild when I was younger, spending weekends staying at my Grandparents and getting that one to one attention that was unavailable at home with a plethora of siblings. When I was growing up my Nana made me the most amazing jumpers – she was always knitting until she had a stroke when I was about 9 or 10 and then she just wasn’t strong enough – and she taught me how to knit when I was barely a toddler. Before that, she used to let me cut up all the scraps of yarn and play about with them so I had an appreciation of textiles from a young age. It was my Nana who used to let me help her bake, who taught me the basics of cooking and food preparation, and who first let me play around with a needle & thread. Nana commented during our conversation that she finds it amusing that I sew, knit and bake but my Mother never did. Maybe it’s a generational thing?
Anyway. Two things that I associate with my Nana are knitting and jam-making, so it would appear that I’m more like her than I ever thought! Last Summer I used a massive crop of rhubarb to try and replicate the yummy jam from my childhood and it wasn’t bad for a first attempt. Not quite the same, but not bad. Last week I decided to expand my repertoire a little and made lemon curd. It was so easy, despite me making a huge error, that I thought I’d share it with you lovely lot.
The other jar in the photo is the fantastic marmalade that my lovely husband made recently following this Delia Smith recipe. It’s a nice recipe but I’ve found it very tart, next time I think I’d play about with different quantities and perhaps add a vanilla pod to the cooking process.
Those are 1L Le Parfait jars (available from Lakeland) so the recipe I’m giving you will make approx 2/3 of a litre, or 2-3lbs. It’s a bit of a mixture of different recipes I found combined with what I had available to me at the time.
Lemon curd
4 lemons, preferably unwaxed
5 eggs
100g/4oz butter, soft
450g/1lb sugar
Set a pan of water to boil on the cooker ensuring that you have a bowl which will fit on top of the pan to create a bain marie. Crack your eggs into the bowl and whisk them briefly to break the yolks and combine. Add the butter and sugar, then set aside.
Grate the zest from your lemons remembering to give them a good scrub first if they’re not unwaxed. Squeeze the juice from the lemons then add both zest and juice to the egg mixture, then set the bowl on top of your pan making sure you keep the water simmering.
Stir your mixture with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens to coat the back of the spoon and is all combined. This will take no more than 10 minutes. Do not do what I did and doubt yourself, as I ended up stirring my lemon curd for two hours before giving up and decanting it into the hot sterilised jar where of course it thickened as soon as it cooled down.
It won’t thicken much whilst hot from my experience, but if you are concerned about the viscosity then you can add another egg. Additionally you should feel free to play about with the quantities of sugar. This recipe used a lot of sugar in comparison to others that I found and the resulting curd is very sweet which may not be to everyone’s taste. It is yummy though!
Posted under cooking, recipes, sewing
This post was written by Vonnie on February 23, 2009
I never really thought about trying to make lemon curd before, I think I have only ever eaten it once or twice, I just never think to buy it or obviously make it though I do make alot of citrus-y dishes, lemon chicken is one of M’s favourite.
I probably get my crafty side from my Dad, he taught me to draw and to cook.. my mother only does holiday baking from the packet instructions, toll house chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, butter tarts, brownies from the box and thats about it, she can use a sewing machine but never taught me, and she did attempt to teach me to knit once when I was little but i onyl ever got to do one small square just big enough to be a blanket for a barbie doll. I get so much inspiration from crafty bloggers out there, I see something and I just want to have a go at it in my own way, though that isn’t always good its just the way my brain works. There are so many diffrent things I want to try out if only I had the materials, the know how, and quite possibly the talent.
My Grandma was a great inspiration too, as was my mum. I think you may have inspired a post on my blog later!
Oh, I love lemon curd. It is lovely stirred into natural yoghurt too. What a nice story about your mum. Mine was crafty too, but we never did any craft together. I suppose I just inherited her genes rather than being inspired by her.
Sorry, I meant nice story about your Grandma!
I love lemon curd. I wish we had a lemon tree so I could make enough to actually preserve. I got a bag of lemons off a friend, baked a bunch of things with it and then made some lemon curd – which I ate in the space of a few days, glutton that I am.
I’m definitely trying your lemon curd recipe, and I won’t let my disastrous jam making episode put me off.
My inspiration is definitely my mum, I remember baking cakes with her as a wee tot and having loads of fun.
Thanks for the recipe, I love lemon curd, I might have to get the hubby to make some(I’m an awful cook).
My Grandma was great at making things too I think maybe I get my need to be creating from her, I was never taught anything by her though, I started to crochet when I found a hook in her sewing basket that was left to me after she died. I get inspiration from other crafters on the internet too.
I just realised that I actually posted this via LJ and you probably wouldn’t get it, so here it is:
you know, I have exactly the same memories with my gran. My mum was always at work when I was wee and we lived with my grandparents, so naturally my gran taught me to cook, bake, sew and knit, whereas my mum can’t/doesn’t do any of them. It’s really strange how that happens though. I just wish I had more time to dedicate to those passtimes *sigh*.
I never really picked up the crafty gene so I think it skips a generation. My grandma was, by all accounts, a “lady who lunches”. She was a model who came from a wealthy family so didn’t lift a finger to do much. My mum, on the other hand, was really quite crafty. She taught me how to bake (the one crafty thing I do, and I do it bloody well). However she also used to knit, do amazing tapestries, cook, and make the best raspberry jam I have ever tasted. The summers of my childhood were often spend fruit picking so that my mum could make lots of jam.
My granny taught me the basics of sewing and embroidery, and although my Mum did knit and sew, it was practical stuff. I probably learned most of my ‘technical’ knowledge at school – at primary school the girls knitted in the winter and sewed in the summer – I think I did socks on 4 needles when I was about 9!! My Mum was a terrific baker (although she never used a recipe) but sadly that skill has passed me by. Both my granny and my grandpa used to make jam when they stayed with us every summer …. your post has taken on a trip to my childhood memories!
I’ve nominated you for an award here: http://pennydog.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/lemonade-award/
Wow, i love your blog! it’s so cool! you’ve an inspiration! (I’m not trying to suck up, i promise!)
My mum used to make ball gowns and wedding dresses before she got arthritus in her fingers from all that detail work, and i think i used to watch her and steal bits of fabric from her scraps (well, actually i KNOW i used to steal those bits, and i think she probably did too, but she turned a blind eye).
Also, my dad was pretty strict about TV, it lived in a cupboard and only came out on Friday and Saturday night, which made me a weirdo amongst my friends, but at least it forced me to develop my creative skills! i hope to do the same with my own daughter.
I have stolen your “50 creative things to do this year” thing on the side bar! You have inspired me!!
Thankyou for this recipe, it seems so easy! I’m going to give it a try over the weekend…