Lemon Curd

There's nothing like home made lemon curd, shop bought just doesn't come near to it in my opinion. This recipe makes a lovely curd that is very smooth in texture yet sharp with the tang of lemon. You can use limes or oranges if you prefer, which I sometimes do. I like lemon & lime curd best. It's not at all complicated, a very simple recipe that uses just 4 ingredients.
My recipe is from an old Woman's Institute Cookery Book. The eggs and lemon juice are measured by equal volumes ~ you will get a good set and to make it even easier it's cooked in the microwave.

Lemon Curd:

You will need 2-3 small to medium size sterilised jars with lids.

100g unsalted butter
350g caster sugar
finely grated rind of 3 lemons
150 ml lemon juice
150 ml beaten eggs

Put the sugar, butter, lemon juice and rind in a large jug or bowl that will fit in your microwave.

Cook on full power for 2 - 3 minutes until the sugar is dissolved and the butter has melted.

Slowly add the beaten eggs to the mixture whilst constantly whisking. Continue cooking in the microwave on full power for 1 minute bursts, reducing to 30 second bursts as the mixture starts to thicken, whisking in between. It doesn't take long so keep your eye on it. Cook until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a large jug, this is important as it removes all the bits of rind and any specks of cooked egg.

Carefully pour the hot curd into the warm sterile jars and put the lids on immediately. As it cools it will thicken more. The curd will keep in the fridge, unopened, for 4 weeks. Once a jar is opened use within a week, that's why I try to use smaller jars when making this.

Once the curd is set, and using a doughnut filling piping nozzle - pipe it into some freshly baked lemon sour cream muffins.

More Jam Making....

It's the1st day of February already, I haven't had any time to blog about anything for the past couple of weeks. My husband has had to return to England at very short notice as there's been a sudden, unexpected death in the family, so I'm left here holding the fort by myself.

I've been knitting away on my zig zag tunic on and off, and I recently bought a jumbo flyer so I have been spinning, the only thing is the bigger the bobbin, the longer it takes to fill it!

But today I decided to make jam:

Peach Jam
1 kg peaches, skinned, de-stoned and sliced
800g sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Firstly, put a saucer into the freezer.
Then skin the peaches by scoring a cross on the base of the fruits. Dunk them into boiling water for 2 mins, then plunge them into a sink full of cold water. The skins will now slip off very easily.

Remove the stones and slice the fruit.

Put the peaches in a large pan, I use a stockpot to make my jams. Add 2 tablespoons of water plus the lemon juice and cook gently until the fruit softens, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the sugar, stirring very well. Heat very gently until the sugar dissolves, then bring to a full boil and cook for about 10 minutes, until setting point is reached. Test for the setting point by putting a teaspoon full of jam onto the saucer from the freezer, when it's cold push your finger through it, it should wrinkle up, if not boil for a further 2 minutes and recheck.

Stir in a knob of butter to disperse any scum and pour the jam, carefully, into warm sterilised jars.

Apricot Jam
(needs to be started the night before)

1 kg apricots
1 kg sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon butter

Start by greasing the pan with the butter. Halve the fruit and remove the stones, layer the fruit in the pan with the sugar, pour over the lemon juice, cover and leave overnight.

This process draws the juice out of the fruit, firming it up.

The next day cook the fruit over a very low heat, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Bring to a full boil and check for a set after 10 minutes, mine took 12 minutes but each batch veries.

Put into warm sterilised jars and store in a cool dark place.

I spun this skein of yarn ~ I bought the fibre as Polwarth, but I'm certain it isn't Polwarth it feels more like half bred to me:

95g, 300mtrs of DK weight yarn.












Now I'm spinning this beautiful Half Bred fibre:

Onto these giant bobbins:

I've got 210g onto one bobbin so far but still have room for possibly another 50g or more. I'm hoping to spin a sweaters worth of yarn, wish me luck!

Winter Warmers....Steamed Jam Roly-Poly, Spinning Shetland, and a Finished Sweater!

Anzac day weekend, we had 3 days of great weather for this time of year but yesterday was very cold and my word did it rain - all night and all day.

When it's cold and grey and it's a Sunday I had to make a nice traditional English pudding. Steamed Jam Roly-Poly, always loved it but I haven't made one for many many years. It's the pudding of my childhood.

It's simple and straight forward to make, however, you will need to get your hands on some suet which is easier said than done here in NZ. English grocers stock it, although it's the vegetarian version but I prefer that anyway.

Since you have the oven on to make one, you may as well make 2 as they freeze very well.

I prefer steaming but some recipes instruct it to be baked. Steaming gives you a nice soft, light sponge rather than the hard and crispy one that you would get from baking. I'm saying steamed but it's not cooked over a pan of boiling water, it's cooked in the oven wrapped in foil over a tray of hot water. For me the jam has always got to be homemade seedless raspberry, nothing else cuts the mustard!



Here's my recipe, makes 1 roll enough for 6-8 servings.

Steamed Jam Roly-Poly

250g self raising flour
50g butter, cold and cubed plus extra for greasing
50g suet
1 tablespoon of sugar
150ml milk plus possibly a little extra
150g jam

Put a roasting tin onto the bottom shelf of the oven and put another shelf directly above it. Fill the tin 2/3 full with boiling water from the kettle and preheat the oven to 180 deg/160 fan/ gas 4.

Tear off a large sheet of both aluminium foil and baking parchment. Lay the parchment on top of the foil and grease it thoroughly with butter.

Put the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter until it disappears, then stir in the suet and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Add the milk and mix in with a knife, you want a very soft dough, you may have to add a little more milk depending on your flour.

Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and bring it together until smooth. Roll it out into a square about 25x25cm.

Spread the jam over the surface leaving a gap of about 2 cm all around the edges.

Roll it up nice and firmly but don't squeeze it or put too much pressure on as you will force the jam out! Pinch the the edges together to seal and carefully lift it onto the greased paper join side down.

Loosely bring up the paper and foil and scrunch it together to seal all along the edges. It will rise quite a bit during cooking so don't wrap it tightly. Place the foil parcel on the shelf directly above the tin of water and cook for 60-80 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let the pudding sit for 10 minutes before unwrapping it. Slice thickly and serve warm with custard. If you want to freeze it just let it go cold, wrap it in fresh baking paper and foil and freeze.

Now the sweater which is a birthday gift for my Brother. I used some Shetland that I spun about 4 or 5 years ago when I first started spinning. I had forgotten about that yarn and I had more than a sweaters worth, that's what happens when you start looking through your stash, you find things long forgotten about! The pattern is Riddari, it was a very enjoyable knit:

This will keep him warm during the Otago winter. I've already got requests from hubby and both my son's for one of these.














So, after knitting the Riddari sweater I felt inspired to spin my remaining Shetland combed top. This is a fingering/4 ply weight yarn and the colour is a light fawn. 2 skeins done already, I'm aiming for a sweaters worth and thinking of over-dyeing some for a colour work sweater:

Here's Pandora keeping her eye on things, she's wondering if she can steal some fibre without me noticing.