Nigel Slater"s lemon spread recipes Life and character The Observer

Lemon curd. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin

The kitchen is crowded of feeling pleasures. That pervasive, roughly Christmas-time smell that accompanies a day outlayed jelly making; the tray of creatively oven baked oatcakes that sends the smell of spare bonhomie wafting by the house; the roughly hallucinogenic incense of harsh a large apportion of cardamom for Danish pastries or a curry. On a quite icy day last week, my kitchen came alive with the severe strike of creatively grated lemons for a collection of lemon curd. One or dual would have been appreciative enough, but when the total kitchen is filled with the smell of grated citrus the outcome is startling. Slightly steamy, comfortable and bitingly uninformed – this was the undiluted kitchen ambience for a winter"s day.

Lemon curd, that gloriously sweet-sharp safety – a small glass container of fever – is so most improved when done at home. Good though a small of the blurb things is, and generally when done by workman producers, it can never compare the collection you have at home. The warn for me is that, rather than the inconstant safety I had been warned about, creation lemon widespread couldn"t be some-more straightforward.

You will need a great pointy grater, one that allows you to make use of usually sufficient vigour to remove usually the lemons" utmost zest. Anything next the initial excellent covering of liking will be green rather than agreeably green and take your widespread well over lip-puckering. The liking should be so excellent as to be indefinable in the accomplished safety – this isn"t marmalade.

The lemon problem: do you wash or scrub, purify or usually massage them on your apron? Most lemons are right away sole with an succulent polish coating. It is oily to the hold and turns gummy when you wash the ripened offspring underneath the tap. It is there to keep the lemons on the emporium shelves for longer in great condition. Unwaxed or organic lemons are sole at a reward since they have a shorter shelf life, but they don"t supplement polish to your lemon mousse, soufflé or curd. Given the option, I lend towards not to buy those but a root or dual attached. The leaves are the idealisation idea as to how prolonged your ripened offspring has been off the tree, but supermarkets remove them as a make a difference of course.

The shops are full of rock-hard lemons. If you can wait, leave them compartment they are soft sufficient to hole with your thumb. You will get most some-more juice. The warmer the fruit, the some-more extract they will give. I leave cave in the regard of the kitchen, or put them in the bottom of the Aga for 10 mins prior to I fist them. Failing that, a great organisation rolling on the list with the palm of your palm will do the trick.

Flip by old cookery books, quite those from the Victorian era, and you will find most a recipe for this deeply citrus butter. It seems we have regularly had a ambience for it, but afterwards we have each reason to. A glass container of the canary-coloured widespread in the fridge is a contingency for seasoned reduction pancakes, stuffing éclairs, swelling on toasted teacakes and entertaining up a baguette or floury white loaf. But it will go a lot serve than that. This silky widespread is usually what you need for stuffing meringues and for stirring in to thick, Greek-style yogurt and dejected Amaretti biscuits as an present dessert.

A integrate of quickies I should additionally mention: you can furnish an present syllabub by stirring an next to apportion in to churned thickk thickk thickk thickk thickk cream and portion it with frail almond biscuits. You can additionally win spirit points for portion it at Sunday breakfast – ladle the widespread over small blinis true from the vessel and tip with a twist of crème fraîche.

LEMON CURD

Most lemon widespread recipes indoctrinate you to stir the reduction with a wooden spoon. I find that stirring easily with a drive introduces usually a small some-more levity in to the curd, creation it somewhat less plain and some-more wobbly.

Makes 2 small jam jarszest and extract of 4 unwaxed lemons200g sugar100g butter3 eggs and 1 egg yolk

Put the lemon liking and juice, the sugarine and the butter, cut in to cubes, in to a heatproof play set over a vessel of simmering water, creation certain that the bottom of the dish doesn"t hold the water. Stir with a drive from time to time until the butter has melted.

Mix the eggs and egg yolk easily with a fork, afterwards stir in to the lemon mixture. Let the widespread cook, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes, until it is thick and custard-like. It should feel complicated on the whisk.

Remove from the feverishness and stir spasmodic as it cools. Pour in to spotlessly purify jars and seal. It will keep for a integrate of weeks in the refrigerator.

LEMON CURD AND ORANGE PARFAIT

The preferred here is homemade meringues with a frail outward and a chewy centre. Failing that, store-bought meringues will do, but the hardness of the accomplished ice will be somewhat less interesting.

Serves 6-8500ml defeat or stand in cream180g meringues8 heaping tbsp lemon curdgrated liking of 1 orange

You will additionally need a baked sweat bread tin or cosmetic freezer box we estimate 24cm x 12cm x 7cm deep, lined loosely with kitchen movie or waxed paper.

Lemon widespread and orange parfait. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin

Pour the thickk thickk thickk thickk thickk cream in to a cold blending play and drive until soft and thick. I regularly stop usually short of the thickk thickk thickk thickk thickk cream combining unbending peaks, so that it can usually about hold the own shape.

Crumble the meringue nests in to the cream. I think the hardness of the accomplished parfait will be some-more engaging if the pieces range in distance from counterfeit sand to that of a square of fudge. Add the lemon widespread afterwards abrade in the orange liking (taking caring not to embody any white pith). Stir kindly to soak up the meringue, widespread and liking in to the cream. Try not to overmix.

Tip the reduction in to the lined container, cover with a square of kitchen movie and put in the freezer until set. Depending on the heat of your freezer, this will take about 4 hours. You can keep it solidified for multiform days, but you should remove it from the freezer a great thirty mins or so prior to serving.

To serve, unmould the parfait and cut in to thick, unsound slices.

Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or revisit guardian.co.uk/profile/nigelslater for all his recipes in one place