say it with pie

Yesterday I bought a Microplane grater (Gourmet Series – Fine) from that kitchen supply store in St. Lawrence Market to replace my cheap Microplane-imposter grater. This morning I decided to zest a lemon to test the difference. It was incredible! Go name-brand Microplane!

But then I had all this zest sitting around with no plans for it. What to do? I hadn’t even had my coffee yet, so I wasn’t in the mood for a big baking project. Then it struck me: lemon curd! Lemon curd only has four ingredients, takes 15 minutes to make, and the payoff is luscious sweet-n-tart goo that is good to spread on anything.

Ingredients
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tbs lemon zest
2/3 cup white sugar
3 eggs
4 tbs butter, small pieces

Directions
Combine eggs, sugar and lemon zest in a metal bowl. Place metal bowl over a pot of simmering water (double boiler) and set a timer for 10 minutes. Whisk! Whisk like you’ve never whisked before! If you don’t whisk fast enough, you’ll get little chunks of cooked egg and will have to strain the curd. Whisk like a madman, and you can skip the straining step. After 10 minutes, take the bowl off the boiler and add the butter and zest. Whisk together. Transfer to a smaller bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in fridge to set. If you push the wrap down so it touches the curd’s surface, it won’t develop an icky skin.