Day 13: Lemon Curd and Eggs Benedict

Today we made a couple of delicious egg-based sauces that required totally different whipping styles: Lemon Curd (soft whip, don’t want air) and hollandaise (big whip - get that shit fluffy!)

Lemon Curd

This might be one of my favorite desserts which is a shock given that I thought I hated lemon curd until just about 6 months ago. It’s creamy, and vibrant and the flavor just pops in your mouth.

Ingredients:

• 3 whole eggs plus 2 yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• ⅔ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Grated zest of 2 lemons
• 4 oz softened butter

Kitchen tools:

• Pot
• Stainless steel bowl
• Whisk

Method:

• Put a pot of water on the stove and bring up to a simmer - you’re going to use this as a double boiler!
• In a large stainless steel bowl, whisk all ingredients except the butter together
• Place your bowl on top of your pot of simmering water, and mix in slow even strokes until the mixture thickens. This will take a few minutes, but watch it carefully! If you keep it over the hot water for too long, it’ll turn into scrambled eggs!
• Once thickened, remove from the heat and whisk in your butter
• Drizzle over EVERYTHING. Then lick the bowl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Candied Lemon Zest:

This is a beautiful little mixture that brings some zing to any dessert that has citrus in it. You can also make it with any kind of citrus zest.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 lemons

Kitchen tools:

• Little pot
• Measuring cup
• whisk

Method:

1. Peel your lemons, doing your best to take light even strokes - you want to take as little of the white pith off as you can
2. Once you have your lemon peels, take the back of your paring knife and scrape whatever white pith remains on the peel off
3. Slice the peels into thin little strips
4. Place the strips of peel in a little pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and then strain. Repeat at least one more time. This takes the bitterness out of the lemon!
5. Once your lemon peels have been boiled at least 2-3 times, place back in the little pot with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar. Bring to a simmer, and then cook until lemon peels are translucent ands shiny, about 20-30 minutes. Simmer on LOW - if you have the heat too high, the water will boil off too quickly and you will end up with rock hard candy.

Hollandaise!

Hollandaise is controversial, but turns out that’s only because it’s often cooked incorrectly (read: overcooked). The sauce we made in class was light, frothy, and filled with flavor from the clarified butter and splash of lemon juice. While the egg yolks can make this dish rich, beating the mixture pretty substantially ensures you get a nice, light as air sauce.

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp water
• ¼ tsp salt
• Crack of pepper
• 6 oz clarified butter, melted
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Kitchen tools:

• Pot
• Stainless steel bowl
• Whisk

Method:

1. Put a pot of water on the stove and bring up to a simmer - another double boiler situation
2. Whisk egg yolks, water and pepper in a stainless steel bowl until light and foamy.
3. Place the bowl on the pot on the stove and whisk rapidly and vigorously, incorporating lots of air, until the mixture triples in volume. You want it to become thick enough that you can see the bottom of the bowl as you whisk, and wisps of steam start to rise.
4. Now quick - take it off the heat! Leave it on any longer and you’ve got scrambled eggs
5. Remove from the heat and whisk in the clarified butter in a steady stream until completely incorporated and your sauce is smooth and thick.
6. Add lemon juice and adjust seasoning!

Drizzling in the oil

Poaching eggs:

Still getting the hang of this, and not sure how to get a nice shape, but here are some tricks:

• You want the water as hot as you can get it without boiling. Think little air bubbles coming to the surface, but in water that is fairly calm. If you have boiling water, it’ll be agitated and shred the eggs
• Crack your eggs into little bowls, and pour from there - will have a more cohesive egg as opposed to cracking directly into the pot itself
• Use a tall pot! The more time the egg has to fall through the water before it hits the bottom, the more it will come together. If you use a short pan, the egg will basically just go splat on the bottom.
• The runny part of the whites will break apart and make your water cloudy. Don’t worry about that
• If you aren’t going to be serving the eggs immediately, get an ice bath ready. You can always reheat later by popping back into some barely simmering water.
• Have a cloth ready to lightly dry the eggs before serving
• If you need 2 eggs, cook 3. If you need 5 eggs, cook 7. Point being - some will come out all wrong, and you’ll have no idea why, but you’ll be glad you had some backups.