This is a bit of a puzzle.
I bought some kaffir limes (the fruit, not the leaves) at the local Chinese grocery recently, and used them last night in a king prawn-based stir fry – kind of Thai, but with a pile of ginger instead of the chillies. My wife isn’t a fan of chillies.
The aroma and flavour were much more like I’ve had in Thai restaurants than I’ve achieved before.
I thought I’d find out some more about the fruit, as I’d never seen them before. Most of the sites talk just about the leaves being used in cooking – just one mentions juice being used in fish dishes.
So why the downplaying of the fruit itself?
I’ll have to ask the shop owner what I should be doing with the limes next time I go round there – and buy some of those tiny Thai eggplants they stock.
No related posts.
Indeed, not much people who raised among kaffir lime trees used their fruits.I don’t really know why. One thing I knew that among my family we don’t down graded the kaffir lime fruits.
We used it when we ground fresh chilli, mix the juice (season) with fresh fish before frying them, squarted onto sliced papayas.
Yum…….
Sounds great!
Are you from Thailand?
David
I lived for a couple of years in Thailand in the mid-70′s and have been a Thai food afficionado ever since. The fruit of the Kaffir lime is, as you probably noticed, firm and nearly juiceless. Their value is the wonderful flavor and fragrance of the zest of the fruit. I use them in a number of dishes, particularly Thai curries. I use a fruit peeler to remove only the aromatic, green portion of the zest and grind it along with other herbs and spices for curry pastes. If any of the white pith comes off with it, I trim it off as it is bitter and does not contribute to the goodness of the dish. The leaves are also wonderful, used mainly in soups and thord man (fish cakes)and some steamed seafood dishes, but it is the fruit that I really prize. Unfortunately, I have been having trouble locating the fruits lately. The last time I found them was in a Thai grocery in Chicago, where they sold them frozen. I stocked up and have been using them ever since, but only have one left. If anyone knows where these fruits are available in central or southwest Ohio, I’d love to know. Also, if you know of a resource that could ship them, I would be grateful for that info, too.
Mark
I just visited a friend in Honolulu, where she had what appeared to be a Kaffir lime tree in her front yard. I didn’t find the fruit to be nearly juiceless at all.