Lemon Mousse

 Ok, so now we've made our lemon curd (click here if you missed it).  If you didn't eat it all up yet, we can use it to make a wonderful lemon mousse.  This mousse is delicious served all on it's own, or it can be used as an ingredient in tarts, cakes and pies. 

Lemon Mousse

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups lemon curd

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and heavy cream to soft peak stage.

Because we whipped air into the cream and made it light and delicate, and because the curd is heavy and dense, we will fold the cream into the curd gradually, so we don’t completely deflate the cream. Scoop a third of the whipped cream into the bowl with the curd. You can eyeball this. It doesn’t have to be exact. Gently fold it in.

Scrape in the rest of the heavy cream and fold it in.

That's it. You're done. Easy peasy. Now you're faced with the tough decision of whether to spoon it into parfait cups to eat right away, or perhaps take it a step further and make a lemon berry tart - recipe to follow!

Whatever you decide, make sure you refrigerate your treat until you're ready to eat or use it :)

Lemon Curd

Lemon curd - oh how I love your happy color and the way your bright flavors zing my tongue and make my cheeks pucker with your sweet sourness.  So summery and a great way to use fresh lemons when you find them 10/$1.  Once you've made your delicious lemon curd (which tastes awesome by the spoonful) you can turn it into Lemon Mousse or a Blueberry Lemon Tart or Lemony Sunshine Cupcakes.  All of these recipes will soon follow. I guess this will be my first "blog recipe series."

But for today, let's start with the basic ingredient for all of these lemony wonders - the lemon curd.  This is by far the easiest lemon curd recipe ever.  It requires no tempering of the eggs and no straining.  I LOVE easy.  And the taste is tart perfection.  So, here we go.

Lemon Curd

6 Tbs butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon zest
4 drops food coloring, optional

Seriously - aren't these some of the prettiest ingredients ever!

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, about 2 min. Slowly add the eggs and yolks. Beat for 1 min. Mix in the lemon juice. The mixture will look curdled, but it will smooth out as it cooks.

In a medium, heavy-based saucepan, cook the mixture over low heat until it looks smooth. (The curdled appearance disappears as the butter in the mixture melts.)

Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 15 min. I know, 15 minutes is a long time, but while you're stirring you can imagine all the wonderful ways you will be enjoying your delightful lemon curd. When it has thickened enough it will stick to the back of your spoon and when you run your finger through it it leaves a path. Don't let the mixture boil.

Remove the curd from the heat and stir in the lemon zest and optional yellow food coloring (I did not use food coloring in this batch). For this recipe I prefer to peel my lemons with a potato peeler which gives me big chunks of zest.  I can then chop them into the size I want (I like bigger bits) and freeze the leftover zest for when I want to brighten the flavor in some of my other recipes.

Transfer the curd to a bowl. Press plastic wrap on the surface of the lemon curd to keep a skin from forming and chill the curd in the refrigerator. Or you can spoon it into small canning jars that can go into either the refrigerator or freezer. The curd will thicken further as it cools. Covered tightly, it will keep in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for 2 months.

You can also substitute limes and make lime curd - this too is awesome stuff!!

Yield: 2 cups

Here's a teaser for what we might do with our lemon curd. . .

Are you hungry yet?

Old Fashioned Tapioca Pudding

Ahhhh, the weather outside is frightful.  We have been hit with a winter storm that has left us homebound for 4 days now.  The kids are loving it - no school for 4 days and the weekend starts tomorrow!  

Fortunately, we have quite a nice food storage supply, and I had just picked up some milk and fresh produce the day before the bad weather hit, so we are set.  With all this wonderful time to cook on my hands, the dish that has sounded most wonderful to me is homemade tapioca pudding!  I used to try and make tapioca, and for some reason I always burned or curdled it. Then I happened upon this recipe from Bob's Red Mill which has turned me into quite the tapioca making diva.  Best stuff ever!

Old Fashioned Tapioca Pudding

2/3 cup Tapioca (Small Pearl Old Fashoned)

1 1/2 cup Water

4 1/2 cups Milk

1/2 tsp Salt

4 Eggs, separated

1 cup Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

Soak tapioca in water for 30 minutes in a dutch oven size saucepan. Add milk, salt and lightly beaten egg yolks to tapioca and stir over medium heat until boiling. Simmer uncovered over very low heat for 10-15 minutes. Stir often. 

Beat egg whites with sugar until soft peaks form. 

Fold about 3/4 cup of hot tapioca into the egg whites.  This tempers the eggs so they don't scramble up.

Then gently fold the mixture back into saucepan. 

Stir over low heat for about 3 minutes. Cool 15 minutes then add the vanilla. 

I hate to be a vanilla snob, but this stuff really is the best! Click here to order some :)

Serve warm or chilled, plain or with fruits, nutmeg or coconut mixed in.  Tonight I'm having some plain, and then some more over raspberries pureed with fresh lemon juice and a bit of sugar.

YUMZ!!!

 Update:  It was YUMZ!