By Melanie Fincher August 23, Pin FB Share. Know exactly how many limes you'll need for your next recipe. Photo by Melanie Fincher. Pick firm fruit. Soft fruits have less liquid. The firmer and tighter limes are, the more juice is packed inside. Look for a smooth rind. The rind of a fresh lime will be smooth. This is because the rind is stretched when the fruit is full of liquid. Go green.
The more green a lime is, the riper it is. For optimal flavor, go for the greens ones over the yellow-green ones. Pick them up. Kaffir lime leaves are a common ingredient in Thai and Indonesia cooking; especially found in their soups, curries, and stir-fries. This flavor pair well with fish, seafood, chicken, pork, noodles, rice, and most vegetables. They also blend well with Asian flavors like ginger, lemongrass, shallots and chilies.
Besides the culinary world, the extract from these fragrant leaves is used in aromatherapy. In addition, leaf oils are used on the skin in hopes of reducing the signs of aging.
The Kaffir lime is a small green warty thick-skinned fruit that contains a small amount of bitter juice. However, the fruit is used to make some mainstream medicine, and also homemade cleaning products. Finger limes grows on short, thorny trees in the rainforests along the Australian coastal regions of Queensland and New South Wales. Inside pulp called vesicles resemble tiny caviar-like balls. Both the peel and the pulp come in a rainbow of colors from pale green, yellow, coral, to dusky red.
And as a bonus, finger limes are easy to use; just cut them in half with a knife and gently scoop out the pulp. The small beads are perfect for sprinkling on top of your meal, adding to a dressing for a bold flavor or stirred into your favorite cocktail for a zesty punch. They have an extremely short season which is why they are so expensive and difficult to find. Your best chance to find finger limes is at specialty grocery stores, local farmers markets or you can always order them online.
After being an Australian basic food source for thousands of years, they are now starting to gain popularity with chefs throughout Australia. Then cut the fruit in half lengthwise. Put the lime halves cut side-down on a cutting board. Slice it at an angle, lengthwise into the size of wedge you prefer. Do the same thing for the other lime half. To cut a lime slice, slice the fruit in half crosswise.
Depending on the thickness of the slice you want, make parallel cut about that far from the edge of the first cut. You can always squeeze the juice out with your hands but there are several suggestions to help make juicing easier.
Regardless of what method you use to juice a lime, roll and press the limes on a hard counter prior to slicing it open.
This helps soften the flesh and make it easier to release the juices when you squeeze your limes. Juice by Hand: After rolling, cut the lime either in half crosswise or quarter it lengthwise with a knife. Put a section of the lime in your hand and squeeze the juice into a container using your fingers. Juice by Using a Hand Reamer: After rolling, cut the lime in half crosswise with a knife. Using either a regular fork, plastic or wooden reamer, stick the implement into the pulp in the lime half.
Holding the lime firmly in one hand, squeeze it and turn the reamer at the same time. The sharper the reamer, the easier it is to juice the lime. A problem with hand reamers is the splattering of lime juice during the process; this method requires post-juicing clean up. Juice by Manual Juicer: There are several types of manual hand and manual tabletop juicers; all brands are relatively inexpensive.
Regardless of which manual juicer you use, be sure to roll and press the limes on a hard counter prior to slicing it open. Hinged hand presses are easy to use, and most strain out the seeds while directing the juice into the bowl with little mess. With this type you place the cut pulp side of the lime down on top of the slots or holes this looks wrong, but it IS correct! Close the press over the skin side and squeeze the juice into a bowl.
Tabletop manual juicer is another good choice. It is more stable to use operate since it sits securely on the countertop. After rolling the lime, cut it in half crosswise with a knife. Place the pulp side down on the juicer and twist the lime. The juice will flow into the attached bowl underneath the plastic reamer.
In addition, these presses capture most of the seeds while directing only the juice into the bowl with little mess. You can zest a lime with a microplane zester, fine grater, peeler or knife. Not only is a microplane a surprisingly versatile kitchen tool, is the easiest to use for zesting. Fine Minced-like Zest: Hold the whole lime in one hand and the microplane zester in the other.
Place the lime on the side of the zester with sharp edges. To make fine zest, make short strokes on the lime peel while pressing slightly; continue this motion until you have the amount you need. Long Thin Strips: Start with the whole lime in one hand and the microplane zester in the other. Place the sharp edge of the zester at the top of the lime and pull down while pressing slightly.
You may need to increase the pressure against the zester if your strips are breaking off shorter than you want. This will give you long, thin, curly strips of zest that really dress up any dish. Consistency is another problem with this type of tool.
Many people who zest without a special tool use a vegetable peeler and take off wide strips. Most of the time the sharp holes are too deep or too big to get the zest off of the citrus without including some of the bitter white pithy part under the peel. Place the pulp side of the lime wedge over the edge of the class. Place the opening in the slice onto the rim of the glass. For example, this wonderful lime curd recipe calls for either fresh or bottled lime juice, and it also requires lime zest.
Quite simply, the recipe is calling for all the juice you can squeeze out of one lime. You can squeeze it by hand , or use one of several tools. Manual juicing tools like a hand juicer , a reamer , or an electric or manual squeezer will work great. If you have a masticating cold press juicer or a centrifugal juicer, you can trim the peel and drop whole limes in. A lime weights between ounces and yields anywhere between 1 and 4 tablespoons of juice depending on its size.
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She enjoys reading, gardening, home improvement, and finding pragmatic solutions to common homeowner problems. Feel free to get in touch via donna thehomedweller. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Table of Contents.
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