Winter spiced lemon curd.

I got round to making this today after intending to make it yesterday.  It is a recipe from a cookery book I have borrowed from the library, Home Cooking Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale.  I remember enjoying the TV series of the same name a while ago.

Anyway, the recipe is 'winter spiced lemon curd with cinnamon and vanilla'.  I didn't follow the method in the book as I used Thermione but if I hadn't, I'd have used the microwave method and that's what I shall describe here.

Ingredients to make three pots of lemon gorgeousness.
Grated zest (or you can peel off the zest if you're using a thermomix) and juice of three lemons (I also added some lemon juice as the lemons were not that large.
4 eggs, beaten (and strained, it said - I didn't bother)
350g caster sugar (seems an awful lot - I will try less next time.  In a Thermione, you can use granulated)
100g unsalted butter, cubed
6 whole cloves
1 x 5cm piece of cinnamon
2 star anise
1/4 tsp vanilla essence/extract

Method.
Bung everything into a large bowl.
Cook on full in the microwave, stirring with a whisk every 30 seconds being sure to get right to the side of the bowl.  Near the end, reduce that to every 15 seconds.  If it seems to be 'scrambling', take it out and give it a good old whisk which should sort it.When it has thickened (you can tell), push the lot through a clean sieve to get rid of the spices and the grated zest (I prefer it smooth) and decant into warm and sterilised jam jars.  Cover and label.  Keep in the fridge and use within three weeks.

Thermomix method:
Follow the method in the cookbook, adding the spices when you insert the butterfly whisk.  Use reverse speed 2 to 3 to avoid bashing the spices into bits.
It cooks in about ten minutes and I finished it off by taking it to 100C to be sure.

My spices are rather old but they still imparted a lovely flavour to the curd.  I will make it again, for sure.