Strawberry jam

Before I write anything I feel I must apologise, as I have failed to blog anything for a few weeks now, life just got in the way, in a wee spare moment I decided I had to use up the strawberries sitting in the fridge before they got wasted, jam seemed the obvious answer so I turned to the gorgeous James Martin. I love James' recipes and his passion for British food, and as a jam making novice I thought his recipe would be fail safe.


This recipe, found here , simply uses preserving sugar, lemon juice and strawberries. The jam making process was straight forward and it smelled absolutely wonderful, the only problem I had with it was it didn't set quite as thick as I would have liked it, I love a thick set jam, my foodie friends on a forum I frequent advised me to boil the jam back up for 10 minutes and it should set perfectly, I did this and also added a extra half a lemon of juice to it .
This worked perfectly, a lovely thick, chunky strawberry jam.
The kids and I decided this was the most delicious jam ever, they particularly liked getting whole strawberries in their jam on toast....who wouldn't.

Lemon curd

I always thought I did not like Lemon curd, I never ate it, as in a shop bought jar, on toast in place of jam, we never had it in the house growing up so I always thought it was just like a yellow marmalade. Yuk.

Once I got thinking about it I saw it was just my preconceived marmalade-esque thoughts that were putting me off. One of my favourite desserts is lemon meringue pie....full of lemon curd, talk about not seeing the wood for the trees.

Nigella's lemon meringue cake in Feast had caught me eye many times but I had always made the Strawberry version (from Forever summer) instead of the lemon version.

My first attempts at lemon curd making was for the above mentioned cake, I used Nigella's recipe, adapted from her Passion fruit curd recipe. I admit I was slightly nervous at making this, I don't really go in for jams and preserves but this recipe is so simple and extremely gratifying.

Lemon curd:

2 unwaxed lemons (zest and juice)

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

150g caster sugar

100g unsalted butter

Juice and zest the lemons.

Beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together.

Melt the butter over a low heat in a saucepan, when melted stir in the sugar-egg mixture and the lemon juice, keep cooking gently, stirring constantly, until thickened.

Take off the heat and whisk in the lemon zest, cool slightly and pour into a sterilised jar.

Store in the fridge.

Simplicity itself, I am always amazed at the cheerful yellow colour and extreme lemon taste this produces, all from 2 lemons, eggs, butter and sugar.

As it is so simple to make I always have a jar in the fridge now so I am never far away from a intense lemony hit.

This is great in Nigella's Lemon meringue cake, her 'Fried egg' biscuits from 'How to be a domestic goddess' and probably best of all, spread on fresh brioche.