Lemon Honey or Lemon Curd

I seem to be blogging about almost anything except beads at the moment, but I promised to give you this recipe ages ago, so here it is.

Lemon Honey
Glennys Raffils

75 g butter
1/3 cup lemon juice
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rhind

Put butter, sugar, juice and rind into a little jug and cook on high (100%) for 1 – 2 mins (until sugar has dissolved). Mix and gradually add to egg mixture, stirring well. Return mixture to the jug and cook on medium (50%), stirring every minute until mixture thickens (3-5min). Mixture will thicken more as it cools.

Lemon Honey using left-over egg yolks

1 cup sugar
Juice of 3 lemons
100gm butter
1 egg
Grated rind of 1 lemon
3 egg yolks

Same method as above.


Lemon Curd
Annabel Langbein

340gm caster sugar
220gm butter
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
300ml lemon juice (about 6 juicy lemons, strained)
6 eggs beaten lightly with a whisk

Place sugar, butter, lemon zest and juice in a pot (use a double boiler if you don’t have a
thermometer). Heat over medium low heat till butter has melted. Take off heat and
strain eggs into mixture.
Return to heat with a thermometer attached and cook, stirring constantly, until
temperature reaches 75 deg C. If using a double boiler, cook until mixture thickens
enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Remove at once from heat and stir a little to prevent mixture overheating at base and egg
from curdling.
Pour into hot sterilized jars while still hot and seal with pop-top lids or store in a sealed
container in the fridge. Chilled, it will keep for many weeks.
Preserved it will keep indefinitely as long as seal is unbroken.
Makes just over 1 litre.


I made the complicated (Annabel Langbein) recipe a wee while ago, with all the fuss, complete with thermometer etc, and what a palaver it was! I ended up with so many dirty dishes and even put the mixture back in the pot to do it all over again as I wasn’t satisfied that it had set the first time. I have to say that it is absolutely fabulous though – the flavour is really tart, and I’ve used a dollop of it in the middle of muffins, made a Krummeltorte with it (a butter crumble cake), and mixed it with yoghurt and whipped cream for desserts – and there’s still a jar left.
There’s nothing like having a jar of Lemon Curd in the fridge to whip up something fabulous when the urge comes upon you!
Next time I will try the microwave recipe – it’s one which my sister has used often and swears by. I remember that she used to make lots of microwave jams in the days when her kids where at home, and they were jolly good.
I’m sure it’s not Weight Watchers approved, but a little of what we fancy does us good, they say, just focus on of all the Vitamin C in the lemons!

Travelling South

When we heard that the Dunkley's Great NZ Craft Show was cancelled we were all packed and ready to leave - in fact we delayed our leaving because we were so sure that it could not go ahead.
So we decided to come ahead anyway, if only to take time to visit with elderly family living in Christchurch. It was an amazing experience, and one I'm not keen to repeat anytime soon.
I checked on this amazing website (you may have to install Google Earth to see it), and found that they have had in excess of 500 (yes, that's right) aftershocks since Saturday's huge quake. The ground is moving all the time, and even in the short time that we were there I began to wonder if my head was spinning or if the world really was moving constantly. A lot of the shakes were quite frightening, even then.
We had a brief drive around the city checking on old haunts and it seems that one of our old homes in the suburb of Dallington has probably gone - a victim of liquifaction. We could not get close enough to be sure, and it felt rather ghoulish to be viewing other people's misfortune quite so closely.
Liquifaction is where the earth is shaken so vigorously that the silt and fine sand comes to the surface with any groundwater - rather like shaking a container of wet cement.

The quaint old shop where I had my first after school job has totally gone - it is the gap in the photo at the top - there are so many of these lovely old heritage buildings disappearing and being demolished before they can do any harm.
We had a little essential shopping to do while we were in the city and found that when we asked shop assistants how they were coping they almost broke down - the whole city is in a state of shock and grief.
It's hard to convey just how hard this vibrant place has been hit - the damage goes much further than the eye can see - literally!
It has been a relief to move further South and sit in this gorgeous little fishing village on the coast. How fortunate we are to be able to do this! I will tell you more about this over the coming days.

CHRISTCHURCH DUNKLEYS GREAT NZ CRAFT SHOW CANCELLED

Due to the horrifying series of earthquakes in Christchurch, the Great NZ Craft Show in that city ONLY has been cancelled.
We will be in Dunedin and Invercargill, but will only visit Christchurch briefly to check on family and friends. I wish I could bring you all home with me!
Our love and prayers go to everyone in Christchurch.

Christchurch Earthquake

Even from this distance we are having trouble coming to terms with the devastating earthquake in our old home town. It seems that huge swathes of the old city have collapsed under an earthquake that is comparable with the Haiti quake.
It's hard to imagine, and a part of me wants to go there to see with my own eyes, and the other part of me never wants to see what's happened. Buildings that I walked past most days of my life at times and are so familiar that they are like old friends are not only gone, their remains are scattered and dismembered.
We are still making contact with friends and family and they are all OK apart from superficial damage, apart from one old and dear friend who has lost his home. It has been condemned.
So many people tell us that they ran for their lives - it's so hard to believe that there were no lives lost.
We are due to leave for the Dunkley's Great New Zealand Craft Show tomorrow, and can't quite believe that the show will go on...but we have had an email from the organisers to say that it's still happening. From what we hear in the news I'm expecting another email reversing that decision any time.
We live six and a half hours drive from Christchurch in Golden Bay, and were staying in Nelson on the night of the quake and still felt it quite strongly.
Our lovely old clock stopped at the time of the quake, as did the lovely old clock on the clock tower in Victoria Street in Christchurch. (Sorry - I've tried and tried to get a photo of this but you can find some amazing pictures here)

It reminded me of that poem by W H Auden "Stop the clocks...". Perhaps I'm being melodramatic?
Arohanui me kia kaha o te whanau o Te Waipounamu (Love and strength to family and friends in the South Island).
Apologies for the photo hiccups in this post - Blogger and I were having a disagreement!