It’s no secret that the kitchen has long been my happy place.  Over the last while, I’ve not had the inclination – or reason – to spend much time  in the kitchen.  Other than what I must do for the market each week.  I am grateful for that – it is one of the things that helps to shape my week, and depending on what I (don’t) sell, ensures that I eat.

For a while, I admit, Fridays literally involved going through the motions.  Sometimes that was very hard.  That’s getting more manageable – thanks to time.

I also have friends to thank.  As the summer approaches autumn, harvests begin and friends who have produce they can’t use, arrive with armfuls.  In the last two weeks I have had deliveries of pears and granadillas.  Here, passion fruit vines sometimes bear more than once a year and when the do, I have a ready market for granadilla curd.

As so often happens, it begins with a

Could you use….granadillas?

message.

As it turns out, one of my regular marmalade customers is passionate about granadilla curd, so I knew I’d make at least one person happy if I made a batch.  So, of course, I answered in the affirmative.

Then.  I couldn’t find the recipe.  Or so I thought.  Then after trawling the interweb, I did.  There was something at the back of my head that told me I’d found and saved the recipe somewhere.

An aside:

In June last year – the 4th to be precise – my house was burgled and my laptop stolen, and along with it, recipes that I’d created and saved.  But neither saved into the Cloud or on to the Blockchain.  I should have known better.  Anyhow:  another lesson learned.

Back to the curd recipe:

I knew I must have a recipe because less a month after that burglary, I’d made a batch of granadilla curd.  I knew I had the recipe.  And because of aforementioned disaster, I also knew I had saved it in some or other cloud.  I love it that my new flying machine (story for another time, perhaps) laptop has fab-bloody-tastic search features.  I eventually found it: I’d filed it under something else.  Anyway, this time round, I’m saving it here, on my blog and from here on to the blockchain so that I won’t lose it and I (and others) can find it.

For those who don’t know, a sweet curd is, effectively, a custard to which you add fruit.

People are most familiar with lemon curd and other than the lemon, this includes the same three ingredients:  eggs, sugar and butter.  Yes, it’s very sweet.  And rich. Occasionally rich and decadent are a necessary combination. This is one of them.

Curd takes time and attention

Curds need gentle treatment.  That takes time:  if you rush things you could end up with a scramble(d egg) which neither looks nor tastes good.  You also have to keep your eye on it.  For two reasons:  the first I’ve already mentioned which means that you need to continuously stir the mixture, preferably using a whisk.

Secondly, if you don’t have a double boiler (even if you do), make sure your equipment can “contain” everything.  If it’s an “only just” situation like mine, you have to stir gently to avoid spillage or its boiling over and creating an almighty sticky, burnt sugar mess.

Happily, I did!

This batch of granadilla curd

Even if I say so, myself, this is a spectacular batch.  The granadillas are fantastically sweet – thanks to all the rain – and hot temperature we’ve had/been having.  It’s delicious on toast or bread, on cup cakes, ice cream and yoghurt.  Or, as R who gave them to me, pronounced,

…with blue cheese!

Thanks to her dumping the granadillas with me, and with another friend acting as guineapigs for another product (more of that in another post), I’m beginning to recover my passion for curd cooking.  For the moment.

If you’d like the full recipe, you’ll find a printable version here.

Until next time
Fiona
The Sandbag House
McGregor, South Africa

Post script

If this post might seem familiar, it’s because I’m doing two things:

• re-vamping old recipes. As I do this, I am adding them in a file format that you can download and print. If you download recipes, buy me a coffee. Or better yet, a glass of wine….?
• and “re-capturing” nearly two years’ worth of posts.

I blog to the Hive blockchain using a number of decentralised applications.

• From WordPress, I use the Exxp WordPress plugin. If this rocks your socks, click here or on on the image below to sign up.

• Join Hive using this link and then join us in the Silver Bloggers’ community.

• lastly, graphics are created using partly my own photographs and Canva.