kiwi lime tart

Don't you love it when your food matches your kitchen decor? Oh, me too.

After much eager anticipation on your part due to much delay on my part. . . we have tart.
This time we ventured into Ellen's Williams Sonoma Desserts book. There was a little bit of confusion regarding the making of the tart "curd" part. {we don't like the word curd so much. cuuuurd} The book said that if one elected to use a candy thermometer one could heat the tart mixture over low heat until it reached 170 degrees. Well after about 15 minutes of stirring on low, the temp wasn't budging. We unpatiently upped the heat and began to discover that we were going to make scrambled egg whites if we kept that up. So we decided to just go with the filling how it was, because it had definitely "thickened to cover the back of a spoon."

A few recipes that we looked up called for straining the tart filling {cuuuurd} through a mesh colander after heating. So we didn't feel too dumb that we had to strain it . . . to perhaps, or perhaps not, remove a few cooked egg particles.

All that to say, I think you can just cook this on low heat, stirring constantly, until it's thickened. If you want to be safe in the way of egg white scrambling and get adventerous with your kitchen gadgets you can us a double boiler. But that's, like, way too many extra pots to clean up for me.
Look how great my sous-chef chopped up her kiwis and documented the adventure!

kiwi lime tart
INGREDIENTS
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, diced
grated zest of 3 limes
1/2 cup lime juice
4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 fully baked 10 inch pastry shell or pie crust
1 egg white, lightly beaten
4 or 5 kiwis peeled and thinly sliced
DIRECTIONS
Combine sugar, butter, lime zest and juice in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat, whisk in eggs, and pour into a heatproof bowl or bowl of double boiler. Set over a saucepan with 2 inches of simmering water. Stir constantly until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 6 to 8 minutes. Strain though mesh strainer if necessary. Let cool, cover surface with parchment paper to prevent a skin from forming and chill until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 350. Brush inside of pastry shell with egg white. Bake for 4 to 5 minutes to set egg white. Let cool completely.

{go lay out by the pool while your cuuuurd is in the 'fridge getting cool}

Spoon chilled lime curd into cooled pastry shell and arrange sliced kiwis on top. Serve immediately.
Really good and refreshing and perfect for a hot summer day! The sweet kiwi complimented the tangy lime. Very easy to make in advance as well since you can store the cuuuurd, well covered, until you need it.