Lemon Curd

I am obsessed with scones and lemon curd. I think it probably started when my Aunt and Grandma started taking me to high tea in San Francisco as a little girl. We would go somewhere (I can't recall the name. It might have been the Ritz) and we would drink tea and eat alllll the little snacks. The cucumber sandwiches, the cookies, the petit fours, and most importantly the scones that I would slather with clotted cream ad lemon curd.

Then, when I was 20, I moved to England for six months, and there are scones everywhere in England. Scones, clotted cream, and lemon curd everywhere, and I ate them so much. I came back, and I never tried to recreate lemon curd, but I did start making scones. I stopped making scones for awhile because I had to stop eating flour. But then I made my flour, and I started making scones. I make scones at least once a month, but usually two or three times a month. I really have nailed the scones.

So, in order for me to have dairy-free lemon curd, I have to make it myself. Which is TOTALLY fine, because my lemon curd is really quite good and tastes just like anything from England or anywhere else. I also refuse to eat scones without it, so, as you can guess, I will be making scones in the near future. :)

My partner's mom sends us true British black tea from England, so it's always takes me back to my England days of drinking black tea, eating scones with lemon curd, and enjoying life. And luckily, I have someone who enjoys it just as me, if not more.

You have to make the curd the night before you want to eat it. You have to cook it, and then in order for it to set, you have to put it in the fridge for a good 8-10 hours. It thickens up and the lemon tastes so good. One of the problems with lemon curd, is that if you cook it too long on the stove top, your lemon curd will taste like nasty egg. Yes, I've experienced, and yes, it really is god awful.

I use more lemon than most, because I like my lemon curd to be really lemony. The first time I made it, I only used a half cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice, but since I have made this so much, I usually up the lemon juice to a cup. But, if you're looking for something not so tart, stick with the half cup. 

While you're mixing everything up in the blender, it will look chunky and gross. The lemon juice doesn't necessarily curdle the egg, sugar, and vegan butter mixture, but it does something to it that makes it weird. I am sure it has to do with the acidity in the lemon. 

But once you start to heat it up, the sugar starts to melt and it becomes this beautiful yellow sauce. As I mentioned before, please be extremely careful when cooking this. It can turn on you in an instant. If you have a candy thermometer  I suggest you pull it out. You want this to get to 160 and then immediately stop cooking it. If you don't, I have noticed that cooking it for 8 to 10 minutes is perfect.

Once you're done cooking it, I would suggest putting it directly in jars. I use canning jars, but with this recipe, you're gonna have a little extra, so I use just a miniature jar we have laying around in our glass jar stash. The way we eat this is with scones, but it also tastes really good with shortbread cookies, toast, and in cakes as a filler. Feel free to experiment!

Lemon Curd
1 stick of butter at room temperature
1 1.5 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice (more if you're wanting something tart)
4 eggs

Blend the butter and sugar on medium speed until it comes together. Add the eggs one at a time until they are combined with the sugar mixture. Once eggs are combined, add the lemon juice.

Once these are all mixed together, transfer to a medium size pot and turn the stove top to medium-high (I usually put it between 4 and 5). Cook, stirring constantly until the mixture has changed to a brighter colour, has gotten a little bit thicker. This will take between 8-10 minutes or until you reach between 150-160 on a candy thermometer.

Pour into jars immediately and let cool at room temperature for two hours or so (if you have more time, that's fine). Cover jars and place in the fridge overnight.

Spinach bake and fried eggs

Sheesh. This past week has been hectic! After last Tuesday, I woke up at about 1.30 in the morning with the most excruciating pain in my stomach. It felt like I was getting stabbed in my stomach. I woke up at 5 in the morning Wednesday and was sick. Not just the sniffles sick, but SIIIIIICK. And it wouldn’t stop. I asked myself many times, “how the hell is all this in my body? Why hasn’t it stopped?!” Needless to say, I didn’t eat or do any cooking on Wednesday. I stayed on the couch half the day, and when I wasn’t on the couch, I was in the bathroom.

The verdict? Norovirus. It’s awful. AWFUL! I was only sick Wednesday, and went back to work Thursday, although I didn’t really eat anything because I was to traumatized at the event of Wednesday, I didn’t dare touch a piece of food. So that was Wednesday and Thursday. The rest of the week? Well, let’s just say life got the best of me. Between the giant blizzard that dumped more than a foot of snow in 24 hours, to driving down to Phoenix for my partner’s fencing tournament, it’s been crazy. And now it’s Friday and I am ready for the weekend

But I am back! Sorry I was gone for so long. It’s Friday (YAY!) and it’s going to be about 70 degrees here in Flagstaff (BIGGER YAY!). I wore shorts today to embrace the warm weather and by doing so, hopefully telling the Universe that this is the weather that I want for the rest of the spring and summer.  

Tonight I decided to try something new! I grabbed three bunches of spinach from the store and cleaned the hell out of the spinach. Spinach is AWFULLY dirty, and it takes forever to clean. You can't really tell, but that water, is FILLED with sediment and dirt. 

I haven't been consistent with eating since I got so sick last week, and we've been so busy, that I made it a REQUIREMENT for me to cook tonight, because I needed to cook. One of my bosses has six chickens, and him and his lovely wife, who I consider very good friends, gave me some eggs. These eggs are so beautiful! There's white, brown, and even green! They taste so good... When you crack them open, the yolk is all orange and large. So. Good.

I am pretty sure that when you add butter (or something similar to butter) with onions, spinach, and garlic in a pan cooking, it just smells so good. We left work after three hours and decided to go fly fishing! I actually didn't fly fish, but I helped put together a fishing rod!

We didn't make this a vegan meal, because I REALLY wanted cheese. Aged cheese, of course, so I don't end up getting sick all over again, and let me tell you, this was a good idea. The sharp cheese from England was perfect with this dish. It added a great taste to it. 

I think you could eat anything with fried eggs. I have been on a roll with fried eggs. I want them on everything that I can have them on. I like them more than scrambled, probably because with fried, they don't have a weird texture like scrambled eggs have.

I also make the best freaking asparagus in the world. I don't really know the measurements. I cut them, I put olive oil on them, added a couple shakes of garlic salt, and pepper. You bake them till they get crunchy like french fries. They really are so good. My partner hates asparagus, but he loves mine! So that means I have something good up my sleeve!

 This was a great and different dinner. We both liked it. I think the eggs helped! :)

Spinach Bake and Fried Eggs:

3 bunches of spinach
1/2 red onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced,
3 tablespoons of vegan butter (I use Earth Balance)
1/2 cup of cheese (vegan cheese, normal cheese, whatever your heart desires)
1 cup of vegetable stock
1 1/2 tsp of flour
4 eggs (two per person)

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Clean the spinach. Clean it REALLY, REALLY, REALLY well. Spinach is tricky and holds a lot of sediment, so I cleaned mine about four times. Once it's cleaned, you're going to de-stem it. I did this by simply pulling and twisting the bottom part of the spinach bunch. I am sure if you were to use baby spinach, you wouldn't have to do this.

Place the clean and de-stemmed spinach in a pot on medium heat and just cook it until it shrinks. This will take about 2-3 minutes. Once it's shrunk, place the spinach in cold water to shock it (stop it from cooking) and then drain it again.

Heat the "butter" in the pot until it melts. Start dicing up the onions and garlic. Once you're done, add all the ingredients into the pot and let it cook. Once the water from all the ingredients starts to leave (things will start to stick to the pot), add the flour and stir. Once incorporated, add half the stock and stir. Let it simmer, and if it is still really dry, add the rest of your stock. While things are simmering  you can grate some cheese if it isn't already grated.

Once all your ingredients have come together nicely, add the cheese, stir, and then place in an oiled 8x8 pan. Place in the over for about 30 minutes and cook until the top is a little bit golden brown.

In order to keep the bake warm, turn off the oven while you start frying the eggs. We ate two eggs each, and it was delicious. The yolk mixed perfectly with the spinach bake. Although, my "bake" doesn't mean that it's stiff. This was a little runny and I think it was perfect. I don't think it would be good if it was like a cake consistency.

Sorry the pictures are crappy. I couldn't find my camera, so I used my phone, and the light in our kitchen is pretty dim once the sun sets a little. But, it's still tasty!

Enjoy!