Curd

You know how there are words you just don't like. Curd is one of those words for me. I guess it makes me think of curdled, which makes me think of sour milk. I just think it is an ugly word.

I was out of town this weekend and had a TV in my room. This is notable for me for two reasons, one I don't have a TV in my room at home, and two we don't have cable or live TV. Anyhow, I was watching TV in bed and ended up watching a show on the Food Network called Chopped. It is a competition between four chefs to come up with a portion of a meal in 30 minutes or less using basket of "mystery" items that each must be used. One chef is cut after the appetizer, and another after the main dish. Then the final two go at it for dessert, and the winner gets $ 10,000. The mystery ingredients were odd combinations and I would have found it impossible to come up with something edible. For example, dinner was quail, chocolate covered raisins, escarole, and smoked paprika. I have to admit I was mesmerized by the show. Anyhow, the winning chef made a dessert that contained papaya curd. The judges kept saying, wow the curd is amazing. How can anything named curd be amazing? So, when I returned home I decided to look up what goes into a curd. As it turns out, it is a short list of lovely ingredients. I actually had a ton of lemons hanging in my fridge, so I decided to make some lemon curd. YUMMY! What a spoonful of delicious sunshine. I just ate it like a pudding with a small dollop of fresh whipped cream, but imagine it would be delightful with over a sugar cookie crumble or such.

I am now curd lover, but I still think it is an ugly word, especially for something so delightful.