Wondering what to talk about today, I thought I would have a go at a savoury curd, as discussed in the cranberry curd post.

I had lots of olives in the fridge, so now was a good time. I mulched them up with a hand blender and mixed them with the eggs and butter and tasted it, too bitter. So I added a little sugar, which was too much. Bum. What to do. There was a half tin of tomatoes in the fridge, so I added those. Good, nice flavour.

So, this is the recipe I did

2 eggs, Asda, 15 eggs/£1.25, 17p
150g olives, Asda 685g jar/£1.32, 400g drained? 49p
125g butter, 98p/250g, 49p
50g sugar, 65p/500g, 6p
200g chopped tomatoes, value tin/pk 31p, 16p
Half tblsp cornflour, 1p?
Total cost £2.74, made 2 jam jars full, so £1.37 a jar

The method is the same as for the cranberry curd.

You need to get the olives as close to a paste as you can manage. I used a litre jug and a hand blender.
Put everything, including the mulched up olives, into a heavy based saucepan. Heat very gently until the mix coats the back of a spoon. Keep whisking it to avoid scrambled egg, and don’t let it boil.

I put mine on a low heat and whisked it every other minute or so until it thickened.

While that is happening, put a couple of jam jars in the oven and heat them to sterilise them.

Once the curd is ready, decant it into the jam jars and seal. As this is made with fresh eggs, it needs to be used within a few weeks.

For the whole batch – 1437 calories, 25g protein, 83g carbs, 126g fat. The ingredients weigh a total of 625g, a tablespoon is about right for a slice of toast, and assuming the cooked mix weighs as much as the ingredients, that would be
Per tblsp – 46 cals, 1g protein, 3g carb, 4g fat and 13p

I was very pleased with the result of this experiment. This combination has made an interesting tasting curd. The butter and eggs soften the strong taste of the olives, and the tomatoes and sugar lend a sweet note. It would make a lovely sandwich filling, maybe with sliced cucumber, lettuce or tomato. Or you could dip crudités into it, lovely in a lunch box. You could use it on scones or with pitta too.

I would use it as a base for a pasta sauce (a base rather than just as it is only because of the calorific value). I would stir in some more chopped olives, thawed spinach, maybe some fried chorizo, complete with the peppery oil and serve it with salady bits.

Having successfully made this version, next time I might infuse the butter with garlic and rosemary, or lemon and coriander, or I could add some preserved lemons.