Lime curd tarts with kumquats and step 2…
It’s still early but I am wide awake. Partially that is due to jetlag and partially because my brain seems to be in overdrive lately. Lots of to-do’s are battling for attention and when I think about it, only more is added to the list. I briefly told you before of our plans and the exciting changes happening, but everything seems to be moving at breaking speed since our holiday is over. Our first event is on November 23rd in Haarlem. Mark it in your calendars!
So what will happen in the coming weeks? And what is it about anyway? Well from this moment onwards we will be selling some of our favorite products. Yes, you’re hearing that correctly: we will sell a couple of our all time favorites so you can use them as well. It will be sold under our own Simone’s Kitchen label. Think about beautiful olive oil, special oils (chili oil, truffle oil etc), delicious vinegars (mango vinegar, our favorite balsamico), chutneys, special sugars, special salts and spice rubs. Tom will be the one selling the products at special markets (and I will sure come along every so often) Not the regular day markets. But think about special ones like the food markets here in Amsterdam, Sunday market etc. A lot of it is still work in progress but we will keep you updated on which markets we will be appearing next.
First is the Seinfestijn, the day after it will be the Noordermarket in Amsterdam and for the rest it is still a bit unclear… 😉 Next to that we will also be setting up a small webshop so you can also purchase some of the products online. Or order in advance and pick it up at whatever market is most convenient for you. We have a fabulous supplier which we’ve been a fan of for ages ( because yes we really do use all those products ourselves) and the idea is also that the blog will fill also with recipes using the same products.But that is also work in progress.
And wow…. so much to do, so little time. Arranging a mobile pinmachine, having labels designed with our logo, deciding how much we’re going to be buying first, where to store everything, banners for the marketstal, registering at about a 1000 organisations and thinking of our base collection. Can you see why I had trouble falling back asleep this morning? Tom will still be working until end of January so everything will need to be done in between. For the time being he will have one day extra off each week and for now that is the wednesday. So this wednesday is jampacked with appointments. Chamber of Commerce, supplier, bank… And it is soooo exciting! We of course hope it is going to be a huge success and worst case scenario we will be eating and using vinegar and oil for the rest of our lives… 😉
So exciting times… And with exciting times comes a bit of pampering right? I had thi recipe lying around for a while already. Remember our visit to Natures Pride? We went home that day with a huge box of tropical fruit and one of the things I made with that fruit were these delicious lime curd tarts with kumquats. It was a bit of a try-out but hugely successful so I had to share… Delicious for the holidays coming up but also fabulous for your own personal pampering days… 🙂
Lime curd tarts with kumquats
Ingredients
- For the curd
- 3-4 limes you need about 3/4 of a cup
- 280 g caster sugar
- 150 g butter at roomtemperature
- 6 eggs lightly beaten
- For the tarts:
- 2.5 cups 310 gr all purpose flour
- 56 gr sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2 sticks 8 oz unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/4″ cubes
- 3 tbsp ice-cold water or just enough to hold the pastry together
- Put the sugar into a medium stainless steel saucepan. Wash and dry the limes, then finely grate the zest of 2 limes, and add the zest to the sugar.
- Squeeze all 3 limes. Pour the juice into the saucepan with the sugar, add the soft butter in pieces and the lightly beaten eggs. Place the smaller saucepan into a larger one, partly filled with hot water (au bain marie/double boiler) and simmer until the cream begins to thicken. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon. Never allow the curd to boil! it should only simmer very gently.
- Ladle the lime curd into perfectly clean jam jars. Close the lids tightly and store in the fridge. Lemon curd is perishable because of the eggs, so don’t store it for more then two weeks. Or use directly on these tarts
- Pastry:
- At least 30 minutes before rolling and baking (or up to 1 day in advance) prepare the pastry. In the bowl of a food processor, fitted with a plastic blade, pulse together the flour and salt. Add the butter and pulse rapidly, about 40-50 times, or until the butter is blended into the flour and is coarse and the size of small peas.
- Gradually add the water in a small trickle, with the processor running. Continue adding just as the pastry starts coming together in the shape of a loose, crumbly ball.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Form into a disc, about 1" high, and wrap tightly with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
- When ready to bake take out your dough from the fridge and put it on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry quickly out till thin enough and lift it into whichever form you have prepared. (round,square, little or big) Line it carefully along the sides and remove the excess dough.
- Blind bake your pastry by lining it first with baking paper and then weighing it down with beans or rice. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for about 20 minutes. Take out the tins, remove the baking weights and brush your pastry with egg wash. Put it back into the oven and continue baking for another 10 minutes.
- Take out of the oven.
- Assembling:
- Pour the lime curd into the baked shells and reduce the heat in the oven to 150 C (300 Fahrenheit). Slice the kumquats as thin as you can and arrange them nicely on the tarts in whatever shape you want and bake them for about 10 minutes or until the curd is set. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before slicing.
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
2 comments on “Lime curd tarts with kumquats and step 2…”
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Hope it is as delicious as it looks – great idea. Next time I see kumquats I will definitely try this. i am not a great baker but the explanation seems to make it easy..
It is even better than it looks Claudia! 😉