YUMMY!

4.03pm 7 October 2006 Saturday

Remind me of the reason I don't cook often please.

*thinks hard*

OK, I hate cleaning up, but there's the dishwasher to help me out. I've to vacuum and mop the floor after my efforts because I'm too messy, but hey, might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone, right?

I digress.

This afternoon I decided to try my hand at making lemon curd and a butter pound cake for tea, and I must say that there's nothing better than an unexpected success. Am eating my cake with the lemon curd, and both taste so delicious!

I mixed up the number of lemons and limes I have on hand but since I've already started the whole process, I thought I'd follow it through and see how the whole thing turned out. It involved about 30 minutes of hand whisking since I don't have the nice and convenient immersion whisk H's mum uses for her jams, but once you get into the rhythm of the whole business it actually feels rather therapeutic to just whisk and not think. The end product of all that whisking was a beautiful buttercup yellow, semi-liquid... curd of a creamy consistency. I poured most of it into a container but shoved the rest into the freezer so that I could eat it with my cake, and lo and behold. After about 7 minutes the thing took on a fantastic texture but best of all, the taste is so refreshing, I feel like I'm almost going to break out in sweat.

First of all, it's not too sweet. Secondly, it's wonderfully tart despite adding only 1/2 the amount of lemons the recipe called for. Thirdly, the mouthfeel of the lemon curd as it enters your mouth is.. so silky and smooth! I mean, I can eat this with scones, ice cream, even plain because it doesn't feel like a jam, which is what I think of it as. Somehow as I savoured its taste in my mouth, it felt like I was eating the essence of a lemon. Lemon ice cream is usually to tart for me, and lemonade usually has so much sugar that my tooth aches. This recipe has such a great balance between sweetness and tartness, that I cannot imagine another ratio.

My next accomplishment that left my kitchen in a mess from all the weighing (which I inadvertently always manage to spill no matter how careful,) was a pound cake. H laughed at my ignorance for not knowing the name "Pound Cake" was derived from the fact that the simple recipe consisted of 1 pound each of flour, eggs, sugar and butter. My goodness, that must be part of the reason why only rich people get fat - I don't think people can afford such luxuries back in those days of early settlement! The scrooge in me protested loudly when I measured out 1/2 measures of everything, which to me, was far more than enough. There was nothing difficult about the pound cake - mix and pop into the oven. That's it! Geez. Had I known it was so easy, I'd never have stupidly thrown my money at Sara Lee... The end result was a pretty golden cake with a rich egg-y and buttery taste. Yum yum..

Hrm. I've to say, discovering the Miss Read series really made me feel... homely. I've always liked cooking and baking, and to be honest, I do so because I'm sick of eating out. Anyway. Making the granola stuff and today's stuff really makes me feel alot more contented. Just hope I can do it more often when H and I are together. All my thoughts of cooking fly away when he's here. mm.. think I'll do this again when my mum, aunt, H and his parents come! It'll be such a delectable afternoon tea.. =)

Recipe for lemon curd: (Adapted from Alton Brown's recipe available at Food Network)

5 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice (reserve zest - might be a good idea to chop it up into small pieces)
1 stick of butter cut into pats and chilled

Steps:
1. Prepare a double boiler with gently simmering water. A gentle simmer means you can see an occasional bubble burst onto the surface. Use a pot that is just slightly bigger than your bowl - DON'T LET THE BOWL TOUCH THE WATER!

2. Using a bowl slightly smaller than the pot so that it can still fit into the pot but not touch the water, whisk egg yolks with sugar till creamy.

3. Add lemon juice + zest. Whisk till creamy. I only had 2 lemons, so I added the juice from 2 limes.

4. Put the bowl over the double boiler. MAKE SURE BOWL DOES NOT TOUCH WATER. OK, if I repeat something 3 times, it must be important right..?

5. Whisk the mixture for about 8 minutes till it thickens. What does thicken mean..? At the start of the reaction you'll see a liquid-y mixture. Upon heating, the egg yolks get cooked and the whole mixture thickens like a scramble egg. You want to whisk all the time so that the mixture will be smooth!

6. When you're satisfied that the mixture has thickened, remove from heat. Immediately whisk in the butter you've chilled previously, 1 pat at a time till it's completely melted. (I got tired at the end at stopped with about... 1/5 of the butter left so you can always judge for yourself.)

7. At this point, your curd is done! Transfer into a contained and gently put plastic wrap on the curd itself to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate to solidify the curd, and use within 2 weeks.

NOTE!!! A little bit of lemon curd goes a long way so be prudent in using... Now I've a whole lot left on my plate because I was too greedy, but on the other hand I'm too parsimonious to throw it away...

Recipe for Pound Cake: (I kind of made it up..)
200g butter
about 50g cream cheese
230g flour
250g eggs (weighed with shell on)
210g sugar
pinch of salt
pinch of baking powder
pinch of baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F or 170C

1. Cream butter and cream cheese.
2. Add sugar and whisk till creamy.
3. Add in eggs 1 by 1. (I used 4 eggs)
4. Sift in flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
5. Mix till just incorporated - minimise mixing to keep cake soft and fluffy!

Bake till stick inserted comes clean. (Mine took about 45 mins, some recipes gave 1h 15 mins, so just bake for 30 mins and observe its progress.)