My Culinary Trial Room

Monday, March 18, 2013

Strawberry Curd & Nutella Strawberry Curd Brushcetta

I have a thing with fruit curds, I love them, I drool over them when I see them popping across blogs but I have never tried them. Its nothing but fear ~ fear that the curd might get scrambled. Am never fast, you know and so continuous whisking is never my league. Another reason, standing in front of the stove for a continuous 15 mins is never my kid's thing. He hates it, literally and he starts wailing by the 5th minute. And so I never attempted making a fruit curd.

Now if I had the nerve to try any fruit curd then it would have been a sensational orange curd. But see what I have done here, strawberry curd ~ till date I have never browsed for anything of this genre. But the 4 mini-cartons of strawberry that I had purchased during my last week grocery shopping were starting to wilt (okay, I am a mad strawberry picker, I accept that fact ;)) and amma was yelling of getting bored with the tall glasses of berry smoothies that I have been throwing at her every morning in the name of healthy breakfast smoothies.

And so I set to make strawberry jam over the weekend. Midway chopping, amma peeked into the kitchen and when I told her that a jam was in the making, there she was with her don't-you-ever-use-so-much-sugar tantrum. And so I had to come up with a preserve that uses minimal sugar but can sit in the fridge for a minimum of 1 week. That was when the 'curd' idea came up and I started browsing for recipes. Every single recipe that I came across made a big batch of curd and what I was looking for was a tester. So after going through this and predominantly this here I am with my version of strawberry curd. It was sweet but not overpoweringly sweet and the strawberry flavor was just there. I tried them on toasts, butter croissants but I loved the nutella bruschetta the most.

~*What U Need*~
Strawberries - 1 cup, chopped
Sugar - 2 tbsps
Egg yolk - 1, medium
Water - 1 tbsp
Butter - 2 tbsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp(optional)

How I Made it:
In a bowl, add the chopped strawberries and 1 tbsp sugar and set aside for 15 mins. Puree it and strain to remove the seeds.

In a small saucepan, add the strawberry puree and 1 tbsp water. Over medium heat, allow to cook till mushy and soft, about 10 minutes. Add the remaining sugar and butter and stir till melted, remove from heat.

In a wide bowl, whisk the egg yolk till smooth. Add 1 tbsp of the hot strawberry mixture and whisk to temper the egg. Add the remaining mixture and whisk till smooth.

In a double boiler, cook till the curd thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 10 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour curd into a clean jar. Let cool, then cover and chill.

Serve with toasted french bread or hot croissants or simple toasts.

** My Notes:
** It will keep in the fridge for a few weeks.
** This makes around 3/4th cup of curd
** The recipe can be easily doubled for a larger batch.
** I skipped the lemon juice.

Nuttella Strawberry curd bruschetta ~ its simple, you dont need a recipe for this. Slice a french baguette as desired, toast with some butter, smear nutella as needed, top with strawberry curd and slices of banana. Serve!!!