What curd I do with some leftover oranges?

Do you have any leftover oranges after making your marmalade? Then you might do worse than to make some sunshiny orange curd with it.  I do prefer the sharpness of lemon curd, to be honest, but it's a good way of using up one of two leftover Seville oranges and frankly, I think it looks so pretty in the jar that it's worth making just so that I can look at it. You could also think about using it to sandwich together a sponge cake, or with some cream in a Swiss roll.

This quantity makes just over a jar, which is ideal if you don't want loads of jars sitting around in your cupboards. It doesn't keep as long as regular jams, so it's best made in small batches. The upside of that is that it's much easier and quicker to make than marmalade or jam, so you can rustle this up in a spare half hour, provided you've remembered to sterilise a couple of jars in the dishwasher.

Seville orange curd

 

3 'normal' oranges
1-2 Seville oranges
1 lemon
2 eggs
115g butter
225g caster sugar

1. Grate the zest from the sweet oranges into a heatproof bowl, then halve and squeeze them and add 2 tbs of the juice to the bowl.
2. Squeeze the Seville orange(s) and add 3 tbs of the juice, then the lemon and add 2 tbs of lemon juice.
3. Add the butter and sugar and then heat the mixture over a pan of hot water, on a low heat. You don't want to make the mixture too hot or the eggs will cook too quickly when you add them and you'll end up with sweet lumpy scrambled eggs, which I'm assuming is not what you are looking for.

4. When the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved, beat the eggs and then add them to the mixture, stirring all the the time. Keep stirring over a lowish heat until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, then pour into sterilised jars and seal.

Other ideas for using up Seville oranges:

• Try squeezing them over fish or using in salad dressings - anywhere you might use lemon juice otherwise. The juice is much more bitter than sweet oranges so don't try drinking it neat!
• Make one of those lemon puddings where the mixture separates into sponge and sauce, substituting Seville oranges for the lemons
• Rose Prince has a recipe for a Seville orange curd tart that looks good
• A Seville orange sorbet or ice cream