Forgive me mother, for I have erred – it’s been one week since my last blog post. I make no excuses for my delinquency other than a brief sojourn to Seattle for the International Food Bloggers Conference otherwise known as #IFBC2014 or just #IFBC. But you’ll see it was worth it because I’m back tethered to Mac with reams of valuable intel to share.
First up, a recipe for lemon curd. Citrus lovers (like me) crave that burst of acid on the tongue that travels at lightning speed along neural pathways igniting lethargic nerve endings along the way. (Shades of Diane Jacobs‘ writing workshop detected here.) Lemon curd is the epitome of pure concentrated citrus bundled with eggs and bound to mounds of rich creamy butter. Which is why I’ve never made it, preferring instead to remain ignorant of just how much butter goes into certain delectable treats I enjoy. But, this is a lemon curd that you can feel good about because, surprisingly, all that butter is replaced with the healthful heart-friendly extra virgin oil (only the good stuff please!).
These two extra virgins are Laura Bashar (L) and Mary Platis (R), two of my favorite people (also known for their blogs Family Spice and California Greek Girl) from San Diego, who took the leap into book publishing this year. I bow before them because I know how hard they have worked and have a little first-hand knowledge about all the hurdles they’ve encountered and places not in their comfort zone the book has taken them. Yet they prevailed, and look how happy they look here! The book is Cooking Techniques and Recipes with Olive Oil and, as the name suggests, provides easy yet detailed techniques for poaching, braising, marinating, infusing, and baking with olive oil — everything home cooks need to know about olive oil: from purchasing to storage to delicious recipes.
- 3 ounces extra virgin olive oil
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice (3 lemons)
- 3 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
- pinch of salt
- 6 Safest Choice eggs, separated (reserve egg whites for another use)
- Add olive oil to a heavy saucepan and heat over medium heat until oil is hot.
- Remove pan from heat and whisk in sugar, lemon juice, zest and salt.
- Whisk in egg yolks until smooth.
- Cook egg mixture, whisking constantly until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Do not allow the mixture to boil.
- Immediately pour lemon curd into a clean jar and cool to room temperature, whisking occasionally.
- Refrigerate (min. 6 hours to overnight), covered, until ready to serve.
Recipe from Cooking Techniques and Recipes With Olive Oil by Mary Platis and Laura Bashar
Olive oil is a staple of the Mediterranean diet and largely responsible for making it one of the healthiest and delectable diets in the world. And, like a fine wine or exquisite cut of meat, olive oil is known for its dynamic and diverse flavor characteristics. But surprisingly, most people don’t really know how to cook with olive oil and have no idea what to look for when buying it.
“Our goal in writing this book is to teach people new ways to cook with olive oil and master fundamental skills,” the authors state. “The techniques in our book will sharpen skills in the kitchen and acquaint cooks at all levels with basic methods of cooking with olive oil.”
This 132-page cookbook includes recipes, tips, gorgeous photographs by Laura Bashar and was a Gold-medal winner of Dan Poynter’s Global Ebook Award. This valuable resource for your kitchen is available in hardcover, Kindle, Nook and PDF – I have mine, order yours today!
Lemon Curd recipe photo and book cover courtesy of Two Extra Virgins.
Dianne will be proud!! Loved this post, not just because of your sweet words about Mary and I, but because your wit and humor is totally in this post! Love you, friend, and thank you for your friendship and support!
You’re so welcome. I told my husband you either come away from blog conferences inspired or depressed because what you have to work on seems insurmountable – or a combination of both 🙂
This post is an example of faultless articulation of a culinary dissertation for a blog think-piece! We can thank Diane for her informative class at #IFBC. (can you tell we all attended ) Thanks for setting the bar so high! You are a dear friend and we appreciate all that you do for us!
Many more days of lemon curd making….
You’re making me blush, Mary 😉 Yes, long may olive oil lemon curd reign!
Love everything about this post, especially your writing and those two amazing Extra Virgins! Great seeing you this weekend!
Thanks, Jeanne! I’m glad we were able to get out and have some fun 🙂
Geeze, this sounds amazing, Priscilla!! I’m a huge lemon lover, too!
Olive oil ‘stead o’ butter. Who knew? Gotta try this with my backyard Meyer lemons.
Beautiful in every regard. Olive oil is so under used in sweet applications. But it can be so fruity in flavor it really is a natural. GREG
Now this recipe I definitely need to try! I love the idea of a healthier lemon curd. Your recipe looks and sounds fantastic!!!!! Yum, Hugs, Terra
Hi Terra! I actually liked the lemon curd with olive oil better – not quite as heavy or rich as butter versions 🙂
You mentioned that the lemon curd recipe above was in the olive oil cookbook. I just purchased the Kindle version and it wasn’t included. Do you know if the recipes are supposed to be the same for the print vs. Kindle versions?
Hi J.S. – I’m sorry – this recipe was printed on a complimentary recipe card and is not in the print book. (I double checked my book). Print this one out and enjoy the other great recipes. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Thanks for the clarification. Just wanted to make sure I didn’t have only half the recipes:-) I have printed the lemon curd and thank you very much for sharing it.
Hello. The recipe says eggs, but the instructions says egg yolks. Can you please confirm which is the correct one.
Hi Adrienne – Egg yolks. Thanks for pointing that out. I edited the recipe to clarify.