Food Bucket List: Meyer Lemons

This is going to be a rambling post. Just a heads up.

Lemon Curd: It's delicious and I needed something bright and sweet. The fact that I had a bag of Meyer lemons in the fridge giving me the hairy eyeball before they went to waste also didn't hurt.

I've been reading about Meyer lemons for a long time. They have been described a bit like a semi-mythical beast: a lemon that has bright colour, very little tart flavour, a bit of a floral scent and sweetness to them... but still certainly a citrus, and not at all an orange. They sounded about as close to perfection as my idealized citrus was likely to get, and I am someone who loves lemons. However, they have exceptionally thin skins and as a result do not travel well at all. I've had a few years worth of chronic envy of those lucky people who live where the Meyer lemons grow. They are an item on my Food Bucket List.

And then they showed up at Costco.

Yes, I know I shouldn't be munching things from too far away for environmental reasons. And most of the time, I am exceptionally good at monitoring my food footprint and making sure things are as local as I can get them. However, I am sometimes foiled by two things - 1) my student budget, which sometimes, perversely makes the local, more expensive stuff a no-go for me, and 2) my taste-buds, which occasionally demand treats like pomegranates and papayas that in no way grow where I am from. I do my best to make sure when I have to have the far flung luxuries that they are at least in season where they come from. And then I walk or take the bus everywhere, my version of an off-set system.

So when these quasi-mythic lemons showed up at Costco, I couldn't resist. I picked up the bag and resolved to enjoy the smithereens out of them.

Then life happened. And the bag sat in my fridge, front and centre, reminding me that they were there and needed to be used. And life kept happening. I found myself packing my fridge and heading to my Aunt's to cat-companion while the family is away. And they end up in another fridge. But this one is better... because it comes in a house that has a rasp grater. Which can only mean one thing: it's time for curd. I went hunting a recipe for curd online that specifically mentioned Meyer lemons, figuring a more standard lemon curd recipe would probably come out too sweet if the milder Meyers were substituted straight across. I was also hoping to find one that didn't call for 8 egg yolks or two cups of butter, because although those versions are undoubtably lush, I find the lemon flavour to be muted and that was not the goal. After following links and reviewing about a half dozen recipes, I ended up at Fine Cooking and found the one I wanted to try. And it was awesome.

Lemon Curd
(yields ~2 cups)

3 oz. (6 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature 

1 cup sugar 
2 large eggs 
2 large egg yolks 
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (from roughly 6 Meyer lemons)
1 tsp. grated lemon zest 

Start with your lemons - wash and dry them.

I ended up juicing one without zesting it to see how it went. They definitely have a much thinner skin than the lemons I am used to. So juicy!

I zested all of my lemons, figuring that I would use the zest required in the recipe and then spread the rest out to dry so I could make some lemon sugar, or perhaps some lemon finishing salt. After zesting the lemons, I cut each one in half, and juiced them by jabbing them repeatedly with a fork and mushing all the juice out. Not particularly elegant, but effective, and I couldn't locate another juicing tool in this less familiar kitchen.

Then I grabbed a large bowl and added the butter and sugar.

I creamed the butter by hand until it was smooth, although the original recipe advocates an electric mixer. Really, it's whatever you have on hand. Once the butter and sugar are well-creamed, add the eggs and egg yolks (reserve the whites for another use) and cream again until fairly smooth.

Add the lemon juice and stir well to combine. If it looks a little curdled at this stage, don't fret, it will smooth out as soon as it heats up in the next step. Mine was fairly smooth.

Choose an appropriately sized sauce pan (remember that you have to be able to stir this emulsion), and pour the mixture into it. Warm under low heat until the butter in the mixture has completely melted and everything is very smooth - this took about 5 minutes for me.

Hard to see, perhaps, but everything is silky.

Once the butter has melted, turn the heat up to medium, and heat for ~15 minutes, stirring constantly. The constant stirring and medium heat will prevent the eggs from scrambling in the pan. Because that would not be cool. You'll notice things really starting to thicken up around the 10 minute mark, but don't shy on the time or it won't be as thick as it should be once it cools.

Hard to see, perhaps, but much thicker.

Once the curd is thick enough that you leave a trail when you drag your finger across the back of the stirring spoon (the original recipe has an excellent photo of this if you want the visual reference; I forgot to take a shot to illustrate this myself), remove it from the heat and pour it into an appropriately sized bowl. Add the lemon zest.

I ended up adding 2 teaspoons zest, because one wasn't quite giving me the punch I wanted. Stir the zest into the curd. Ta-da! All done.

To cool, place a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. Wrap the bowl well, and place in the fridge to cool.

The curd will thicken, and its flavour will strengthen as it cools. Once it has fully cooled, it is ready - you can use it to fill tarts,  have it on toast, use it as a filling for sandwich cookies (mmm... macarons), or just eat it with a spoon. I read somewhere that someone whips some into their buttercream icing... That could be fun...

I hope all of my Food Bucket List experiences are this delicious. ^_^