Thursday, January 13, 2011

lemon custard







This contains the juice of one lemon but it is insufficiently lemony. I could probably have used two lemons and all their zest. There are five whole eggs for four cups of milk and no corn starch. 3/4 cup sugar and one tiny itty-bitty pinch of salt. No nutmeg or any other spices, although for a moment there I considered cayenne but then I thought, "What are you, a manic? " 

I was going for the pure taste of lemon. I think next time I'll go overboard on the lemon and back off from the egg and go ahead and thicken with corn starch. What the heck. Also, vanilla extract is so much easier and more powerful than scraping out vanilla beans, although less authentic. 

I considered adding a little something alcoholic like dark rum, which I hate by itself but do not mind as a flavor enhancer, or Armagnac which I also find awful by itself. That's the thing about alcohol, I pretty much hate all of it but I don't mind using it in small amounts. I had wine with dinner the other day and didn't mid it at all, an easy-going Beaujolais. My companion graciously allowed me to suggest it. The waiter, an amusing French guy,  goes, "Un vee-lah'je (village)? And I nodded affirmatively politely and graciously while privately thinking, "WELL, WHAT THE HELL ELSE? YOU IDIOT!" I do hope none of that registered on my vee-zah'je (visage). 

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