Lemon Curd

I was in the grocery store today looking for some jelly when a bottle of lemon curd caught my eye. Unfortunately, when I looked at the ingredient list, it had high fructose corn syrup in it among other things. So, what do I do? I go on my trusty iPhone and look up a recipe. All I needed to get was some lemons!

Here's the recipe, from Ina Garten:

Ingredients:

3 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
4 extra-large eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

 

Lemons! 

 

Use a vegetable peeler to zest the lemons (try not to get a lot of the white part).

 

Three lemons zested!

 

Mix with the sugar.

 

Blend in the food processor.

 

Wow! The smell of the lemon sugar is intoxicating!

Now, cream the butter in a stand mixer.

Add the lemon sugar.

Add the eggs, the juice from the three zested lemons and the salt.

Pour into a saucepan and simmer for 10 minutes.

Look at that! A whole jar of lemon curd.

Spread on toast, pancakes, sweet breads, muffins, scones or just on a spoon (I won't tell).

Try it out and let me know what you think!

Tips & Tricks: Fresh Lemons

How many times has this happened to you? You find a recipe that you really want to try out and it calls for lemon zest. You think maybe if you just add a little extra from that bottle of lemon juice you have in the fridge... but no! you are going to do it right, gosh darn it! So you go to the store and now you're hit with a difficult decision. You see you can buy two large lemons for $2 or a whole bag of smaller lemons for $2. If you're anything like me, you want to get the most bang for your buck so you get the bag, not knowing what you're going to do with all those extra lemons. And most likely, all but the lemon you used for the recipe ends up going bad and you toss them. Sigh.

Now here's the trick to buying a bag of lemons. Freeze them! Whenever you come across a recipe that calls for lemon zest, march right over to your freezer, pull out a lemon and zest away!

Chicken Piccata

Tonight I wanted to do a dinner that was a little more involved than my Ravioli with Spicy Sage Butter from yesterday. I had recently seen an episode of the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network Channel and Ina Garten was making Chicken Piccata for her husband as he was on his way home from work. I was mildly envious of Ina's beautiful white kitchen and the fact that her husband was able to be home from work while it was still daylight, and while I knew those were two things I might not be able to have right now, I could still make a delicious Chicken Piccata.

For some excellent tips on ensuring you cook your chicken to perfection, check out my earlier post.

Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tablespoon water
• 3/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons), lemon halves reserved
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Sliced lemon, for serving

Gather together your ingredients for dredging the chicken - flour, egg, water, bread crumbs, salt and pepper.

 Mix 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper with the flour on a plate. Then beat together the egg and water and put it on another plate. Set aside.

Put your chicken between two pieces of parchment paper or saran wrap and pound thin. I usually use my rolling pin for this.

It should be of even thickness now.

Now's the time to put your pan on the heat (no oil yet!).

Dredge the chicken in the seasoned flour.

Dip in the egg wash.

Then coat in the breadcrumbs.

Now, your pan should be nice and hot so go ahead and add some oil. It should swirl around and steam a bit. Place your chicken in the pan and watch it closely. The seasoned breadcrumbs can burn easily if you get distracted.

It should only take a minute or two on each side.

Now set the chicken aside on a lined cookie sheet and put your second chicken breast in the pan. If you noticed that you have some burned bits in the pan, go ahead and wipe it out with a paper towel and add more oil before putting your next chicken breast in.

Once all your chicken is seared and on the cookie sheet, pop it into your pre-heated 400°F oven and cook for 5 minutes.

Now, it's time for the sauce!

Gather the lemons, white wine, butter and salt and pepper.

Wipe out any burned bit from your pan and melt a tablespoon of butter in it. Add the wine, lemon juice, lemon halves, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.

Reduce the liquid by half, about 3-5 minutes.

Remove the lemon halves and any seeds that might have fallen out. Remove the pan from the heat and swirl in the remaining two tablespoons of butter.

Plate your chicken with a spoonful of sauce and a twist of lemon. Enjoy!