Fruit Curd Is the Word

I'm an avid customer of lemons. This is not rational. It's not like the corner of Brooklyn I live in is an inexplicable lemon wasteland, or that there's a shortage of these savory citrus fruits in the world. However: every time I come back from the grocery store with a fresh bag of lemons, I usually find three or four more pretties already lying around in the fridge. It's sad to see these bright, sunny balloons turn into useless ones, and only one lady can drink lemonade. So when the amount of lemons in my diet has reached an unacceptable level, I know exactly what to do: make fruit curd. Fruit curd does not have a sexy sound. You've probably heard most often about a variety of cheese or cottage cheese in the context of Little Miss Muffet's dietary habits. But don't be fooled: fruit curd is a more delicate relative of jam. This is a juicy, tart paste that can be used on buns, smeared with yogurt or baked in the form of a stunningly delicious pie. In fact, pie was the first dish I encountered cottage cheese in, thanks to a pastry chef friend of mine who lives in Southern California (her lemon surplus has more to do with the lemon trees in the yard than her weird food cravings). The last time I visited, tired after a long trip, she gave her guests something like a lemon meringue pie "inside out": an airy, crispy meringue crust filled with lemon curd with a barely noticeable sourness. Sold. Lemon is the main flavor of my cottage cheese, but you can also easily use grapefruit, orange or lime. I've heard that passion fruit, mango, rhubarb, raspberries, and blueberries are great too. All you really need is fruit juice. Best fresh, but in extreme cases, what you have. (If you prefer grapefruit, first reduce the juice to give it a sharper taste, or leave it as it is for something sweeter and softer.) The real trick of cottage cheese is that you need to watch how it hardens at a low temperature on the stove. Don't multitask (as I once learned firsthand, alas), or you'll end up with an omelette with lemon and sugar. Many recipes for making cottage cheese require that butter is added to the mold slowly, and then all the cottage cheese is filtered through a sieve at the end of the process, so that not very tasty inclusions of egg white are formed. I found that if you beat all the ingredients together before putting them in the pan, you can skip the sifting process completely. My recipe is taken from Meyer David Lebowitz's lemon curd and lemon pie, although I've learned to adjust my sugar levels based on the sweetness of the juice and the preferences of who you serve the curd to. Fruit curd, did you hear that?
Beat the butter, sugar, eggs, and juice in a hand mixer. At this point, it will look a bit split, but that's fine.Transfer the mixture to a small or medium saucepan over low heat.Allow the mixture to warm up slowly over low heat and stir frequently. For me, cottage cheese is usually prepared in about 7-10 minutes, but your cooking pans and stove top may be slightly different. The curd is ready when it thickens to such an extent that it covers the back of the spoon.Transfer the curd to a jar or bowl, stirring occasionally to allow steam to escape. If any grains of egg white appear, strain it through a fine-mesh sieve to remove them.Let cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour. As it cools, the curd will thicken even more.Enjoy on toast, scones, on top of ice cream, or just with a spoon. Cottage cheese!