If Life Gives You Lemons

I ache all over from my physical exertions yesterday so probably won't ride as I don't think I've got the strength. I finished off the tidying and reorganising today and now the place is spotless, not a whisp of straw out of place. I've put loads of winter rugs away and have done a hay net and feed for each horse so they can come in tonight and eat for an hour. Barnaby made it quite clear yesterday that he isn't getting enough to eat (am I the only person praying for rain??) so we put some hay in the field last night, but I have decided they'd better come in for a teatime feed and stand in for an hour and eat hay, without having to fight over it in the field or watch it blow away. There is more grazing to be had, but not until the haylage is cut which could be very late June, so they'll have to eat the hay for now.
Well I've made the lemon curd and followed a recipe from a Youtube video as I haven't got a recipe for it in any of my cookbooks, even my Farmhouse cookbook.
Basically you whisk up four eggs in a pan, add sugar, butter (yes I used real butter) juice and peel from four lemons and cornflour (although not all recipes require this) and put it on to heat. Then just heat it up and stir constantly like you would a white sauce. Some recipes say to stir in a glass bowl above a pan of boiling water, which I might do next time. Apparently it stops the eggs scrambling by themselves. I just kept whisking and it was fine, but it hasn't gone as thick as shop bought lemon curd, despite the added cornflour and it's a much brighter yellow than I think it should be but this may be because I haven't used any shop bought ingredients, and I have used totally organic eggs. There are no colours or preservatives in it, are there? It almost looks like picalilli or curry sauce. I sterilized my jars with no problems at all and I'm still waiting for it to completely cool before I put the lids on, but have a look anyway:





Needless to say, it isn't Country Fair standard so I'll have to have another go next month. It was quite an experience, though. It has quite a subtle flavour, but I suppose you don't want it to be an overpowering lemon zing. The only disappointment is that it tastes more floury than buttery which is a bit frustrating. I'll just have to keep experimenting until I'm happy with it. I also want to make about four jars at a time, so I can give some as pressies if it's any good. I've realised the sensible thing to do would be to bake some bread and have it on that. Imagine that, warm home baked bread with fresh, home made lemon curd on it.
It was a lovely experience, though, to be standing in my country kitchen (you can tell it's the countryside as the chickens won't shut up!) with the sun pouring in, making lemon curd whilst listening to the radio - bliss.

Next month - chutney...