Making Satsuma Curd

Our neighbors have several satsuma trees on their property that load up with fruit every year.  So much so that they tell us to pick as much as we want-as often as we want.  Nice neighbors!!  Satsumas are a type of citrus that are super sweet and  very easy to peel.  We eat bags and bags of them because they are so delicious.  Here is a picture of one of their trees.  See how many satsumas?  It's amazing how much these trees produce.

Satsuma tree loaded with fruit

What else can you do with satsumas?  Well, a co-worker friend of mine told me in the past that she makes lemon curd.  I've never tasted lemon curd, but she tells me how good it is, so I figured you could probably do the same with satsumas.  I was able to find a couple of recipes for Satsuma Curd on the Internet and also found that you can make it with any citrus: Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit, Orange, Satsuma.

I'll show you how we did it.  First you zest one of the satsumas.

Satsuma Zest!

Then cut some satsumas in half and juice them.  The juice is a brilliant orange color and smells great.

Juicing Satsumas

They are so juicy and flavorful!  

More satsumas to juice

Keep juicing until you've captured 2/3 cup satsuma juice.  I think it took 3 satsumas for me to get this much.

Satsuma Juice

Add the satsuma zest, 1/2 cup sugar, and one stick of butter (chopped in small pieces) to a double boiler where you have water boiling in the bottom pot.  Turn to medium low and stir until ingredients have dissolved.

Stir up ingredients while heating

Once dissolved and water has stopped boiling, crack two eggs and slowly incorporate into mixture, stirring constantly. 

If you wanna make satsuma curd, you gotta break some eggs

Keep stirring for 10 minutes or until curd thickens.  You'll know it is ready when the mixture coats the back of your spoon.

Satsuma Curd thickening

Then pour into a half pint jar and allow to cool.  This will keep in the fridge for a week.

Sunshine in a jar!!

Tricia made some pancakes the next morning and we slathered satsuma curd on top of them.  Creamy, smooth, sweet, and delicious!!

This stuff is good.

In fact, it was so good, I went ahead and made orange curd with some of the navel oranges that we harvested off of our trees.  The color wasn't quite as pretty as the satsuma curd, but I'm sure it will be delicious as well.  I'll freeze both of these so we can take them out and enjoy as we're ready.  We've got to pace ourselves!

Behold, the Orange Curd

On Sunday morning, after the chores were completed and before church, Tricia whipped up some homemade biscuits.

Yum!

And I put a "little bit" of Satsuma Curd on top of a hot biscuit.

Satsuma Curd on top of a piping hot homemade biscuit.

Very nice!  Making Citrus Curd will definitely go into our rotation.  Easy and delicious.  You can use it for a cake or cupcake filling, on top of toast, or heck, just eat it out of the jar with a spoon.  You can't beat that with a stick.