I love the seasons and the variety of produce that they bring to our plates. We have recently been enjoying blood orange season. You’ve gotta love blood oranges right? The vibrancy of their colours and distinctive rusty coloured skins are extraordinary, not to mention the fabulous flavour they have.
My favourite thing to make with them is curd. I can’t tell you how many oranges I went through to get this recipe how I wanted it – so many that the greengrocer was starting to ask questions and I was in danger of being asked to leave some for others! 🙂
I wanted something that was thick and silky. I played around with the number of eggs and yolks and the lemon juice. These first attempts were all too runny for my liking and weren’t really setting. I tried thickening with cornflour but that adversely affected the lovely rich orange colour of the curd and also had that distinctive cornflour pasty taste on the palette which wasn’t pleasant. I tried locust bean gum which is a natural thickening agent which was better but a bit to gloopy. I then tried arrowroot and it was a eureka moment. Yay! At last, it was how I wanted it.
And here’s another thing … Did you know you don’t have to put butter in curd? So, if you want something with less calories, this is a good secret to know! Butter does thicken the curd slightly on cooling and will extend the shelf life due to the fat content whilst also providing the creamy, silky finish to the curd. However, it doesn’t have any setting factor; that’s all provided by the eggs and lemon juice. If you wanted that silky finish and you couldn’t care less about the calories, then add 50g cubed butter at step 7.
If you can’t get blood oranges you can of course substitute normal oranges in the same quantity.
I hope you enjoy this recipe. Let me know how you get on making it!
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