Thursday, April 5, 2012

using our grapefruits






We have a giant grapefruit tree.  It is one of the only things that stood in the lot when we bought our place - that and a lot of weeds and a funky old building.  The tree is huge, and the grapefruits are plentiful any time of year.  Only they are quite sour, bitter really, mouth-puckeringly bitter in fact.  They make the inside of your mouth feel fuzzy somehow.  We have tried various ways to use the grapefruits; my kids often have a grapefruit juice stand instead of a lemonade one.  But we have to add lots of sugar or agave or honey to make the stuff palatable.  And even then, it isn't something I really enjoy.  And unfortunately I really DON'T like marmalade, no matter how much I try.  So when I saw the recipe for grapefruit ginger curd on Heidi Swanson's 101 cookbooks blog several weeks ago, I took notice.  And Saturday when the rain washed out our other plans, I knew what I wanted to do.  Out I went into the rain to pick some grapefruits, up I went to borrow an egg from our friend, and then got to making a delicious grapefruit curd.  Really lovely stuff, I love the taste and the texture.  I used only honey, and I think next time I will use a bit more, and definitely some sugar.  It was a great thing to wake up to this past week - slathered on toast or muffins.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Jen,
    We have a grapefruit tree in a pot (down under the patio you designed!) that has beautiful deep green leaves and very bitter-tasting fruit. Now I have a recipe to try -- I'll check it out. Thanks - and love your blog!

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