I need to thank both Sam Mason and Alex Stupak for their inspirational views on curd and what is possible. Sam constructed a Meyer lemon curd which he served with blackberries and basil. Alex took yuzu and created his own sinfully delicious curd. Both preparations may be cut and thus placed and arranged according to their specifications. While I have only tasted Alex's dish, the visual inspiration of both have had me wondering. I really liked the idea of curd which could be cut. It's not a far stretch of the imagination. And yet, it is these breakthrough approaches which bridged the gap between concept and reality.
Continuing this thought process, we have taken an extremely long time to digest and formulate our own
version of sliced curd. When I was younger, Texas ruby red grapefruits were the wintertime breakfast treat. Usually these were cut in half, the fruit freed from the membrane, and then drizzled with honey or occasionally maple syrup. I suppose this fond memory was the driving force behind our ruby grapefruit curd.
It is tart, bracing, buttery, and bitter. The curd has a firm texture which slowly melts on the palate. We enriched our base with a bit of whole milk yogurt and stabilized it with, gelatin. I currently have juniper on the brain and believe it will pair well with the curd as we start imagining dishes. The goal is a light and frothy whipped yogurt sweetened with honey and accented with juniper. We have the curd. Next we'll see how the rest of the dessert evolves.
