Seville Orange Curd Food

SEVILLE ORANGE CURD

Steps:

• Place a strainer over a medium-sized bowl near the stove.
• In a nonreactive 2 quart saucepan, combine the whole eggs, eggs yolks, and sugar and whisk until well blended. Whisk in the orange juice and add the butter and salt.
• Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture is thickened. As you cook the mixture the butter will melt. When the mixture has thickened and reached a temperature of 185 degrees F pour it into the strainer. Press the curd through the strainer with a spatula to remove the solids.
• Zest a medium navel orange directly into the curd and whisk the zest into the orange curd.
• Cover the surface of the curd with plastic wrap, gently pressing the plastic wrap onto the surface of the curd. Place the curd in the refrigerator and chill.
• The Seville orange curd is good in the refrigerator for 3 weeks and can be frozen for up to 1 year. If freezing the curd, package it in a freezer container after it has chilled. When ready to use place it in the refrigerator to thaw for 24 hours before its intended use.

SEVILLE ORANGE CURD

Steps:

• Beat eggs, yolks and sugar in a wide, shallow saucepan until smooth.
• Add butter, orange juice and zest.
• Place over low heat, and stir constantly until butter has melted and mixture has thickened.
• (If mixture begins to curdle, place bottom of pan in cold water, and beat vigorously.) Remove thickened curd from heat, and pour through a fine strainer into a bowl.
• Set aside to cool.
• Note: A substitute for Seville orange juice may be made by combining 2 parts orange juice to 1 part lime juice.

SEVILLE ORANGE TARTLETS AND CURD

Steps:

• To prepare the pastry, combine flour and butter in a small bowl, and place in freezer for 10 minutes. With a food processor, pulse mixture until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. While running the processor, gradually pour 5 tablespoons juice down feed tube until mixture forms a ball. Turn pastry onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Pat into a flat disk. Enclose disk in wrap, and refrigerate.
• To prepare the orange curd, beat eggs, yolks and sugar in a wide, shallow saucepan until smooth. Add butter, orange juice and zest. Place over low heat, and stir constantly until butter has melted and mixture has thickened. (If mixture begins to curdle, place bottom of pan in cold water, and beat vigorously.) Remove thickened curd from heat, and pour through a fine strainer into a bowl. Set aside to cool.
• Heat oven to 400 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to about 1/8 inch. With a 3-inch-diameter fluted cutter, cut 24 disks, rerolling and cutting scraps if necessary. Press disks into two tartlet pans with 12 2 1/2-inch indentations. Put a heaping teaspoonful of orange curd into each tartlet. Curd will spread as it cooks. (Refrigerate any remaining curd to use on breads and pastries.)
• Bake tartlets until pastry is lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and transfer tartlets to a cooling rack with a small spatula. Serve at room temperature.