Chef Liam: Lemon Curd

Hi, this is Liam here. I think it's been a bit of time since I had a guest post on our "family" blog. Well, it seems like Mommy does most of the blogging and limits our technology time. But she gave me permission for this post. Why do I get to write the post?

Because I'm Mommy's knight.

Oh, that's not reason enough? Well, then maybe it's because I loooooooooove lemon curd. Well, that's what Mommy calls it anyways. I call it lemon jam. I first had it when I was over at Nana and Papa's house. Nana didn't have any normal jam in her fridge. Actually, she didn't have any normal peanut butter either. But I always have peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch (and yes, it's jam and not jelly-- but trust me, you don't want to get Mommy started on the difference!). So what did she do for Aiden and I?

Well, she gave us sunflower seed butter and lemon curd. Trader Joe's to the rescue, I tell ya! I love Trader Joe's. It's my favoritest place. Aiden and I like to find Cocoa the Monkey. Have you found him before??

Well, let's just say that her version of pb&j became my new favoritest thing. Aiden, well, he could take it or leave it. And technically he can't have a lot of it anyways, because of the butter. He can't have my cow's milk stuff you know.

So anyways, she said I could make this post, because we ran out. And I wanted some on a sandwich. And we had the ingredients.

So here is what you will need. It really only takes 5 things.

1. Lemons
2. Sugar
3. Salt
4. Eggs
5. Butter

Mommy has only attempted lemon curd once before- before I was born when she was on a blueberry scone and lemon curd pregnancy kick. And she didn't quite stir constantly and fast enough in the saucepan on the stove and the curd... well, it curdled. It made it look almost like little baby bobas. But my Mommy doesn't like bobas (she doesn't like Halloween either), so she wasn't discited.

So she had an idea to use the vitamix. Because the guy at costco makes yummy soups with it. And it worked! She wasn't sure what to do about the creaming the butter part and ran upto the internet really fast to figure out if anyone else had made lemon curd before in their vitamix. (Aiden and me like it when she runs up to the computer really fast, because we follow her and then ask to see movies. Aiden wanted an octopus movie. And I wanted a humpback whale one. We saw the octopus go through a little tiny itty bitty hole and pretend it was a stingray. We also saw the humpback whale sing. The guy said that no one knows why humpback whales sing. But I said that's silly. They are singing to God!) Someone had, and said to put the butter in last, so that's what she did instead. Otherwise, she mostly followed Ina Garten's recipe, because she said it has lots of stars. But she didn't put as much sugar in it. Because sugar isn't good for you. And I don't like sugar. I like protein. That's why she used Ina's recipe too. Because she uses the whole egg, not just the yellow part.

So here's a picture tutorial on how to make lemon curd. Mommy let Aiden and me make it. She tried taking pictures the whole time, but after we kind of spilled sugar across the table and Aiden was playing with it like snow and brushing it on the ground and I was laughing and being bossy at him and telling him not to and Callum was pulling on her leg because he wanted to be held... well, she kind of got distracted.

And of course, she thought it best if she did the egg part. We crack eggs, but she was afraid a little tiny itty bit of shell might get in the curd.

First, you need a happy cook.

Then you need to zest the lemons. Mommy has us use a microplane.
 

And Jesus likes us to share. So it's good to let others help you too.

Next you need to get the lemon juice. You can do that one of three ways...
1. Do it by yourself one-handed.

2. Hold the jar while your helper squeezes the juice out.

3. Use your head and push down with all your might.

Then, after you add the zest, juice and sugar to the blender... pulse and blend it a bit. Then add the eggs and blend it on high for a few minutes.

You want it to get to about 170 degrees. That makes the eggs ok to eat-- unless you are the raw egg type of person (or like cookie dough :)  That's about 4 minutes on high. Add the butter chopped up and blend about 1 more minute.

Pour into a bowl, chill in the fridge, and then transfer to jarred containers and use within a couple of weeks. Then, the best part...

... you lick the blender!

And lick...

And give it three thumbs up.

** By the way, Mommy thought it would be funny if we italicized all the words I really say a lot in person... in case you were wondering. Probably only Daddy will smile for that.

Oh, and don't judge the pajamas. Sometimes Mommy just doesn't want to battle with us. :)