Friday Five: all about lime…

This week has been all about limes. In fact we’ve christened it Lime Week.

Our tree floweth over.

So I’ve been cooking with them. Some new recipes, some old thai favourites. It’s reminded me just what I love about cooking with seasonal ingredients- finding recipes and ideas from all around the world to try.

I still have enough limes left for an Indian Lime Pickle- maybe next week…and there’s plenty more on the tree.

Ayam Kapitan

I blogged it here. Enough said.

Lime Mousse

A frothy, foamy, sweet and tangy confection- I blogged it here.

I sent the leftovers next door and got back a load of lemons in return. Now, what to do with lemons? That’s a question for next week.

Roast Chicken with a difference

This one is a new family favourite- although with the sticky sweet marinade, is a sometimes food…unless you are diligent about removing the skin- and who wants to do that?

This chook is roasted just like normal. What isn’t normal is the paste it’s cooked in. It’s a mix of soy sauce, brown sugar, oyster sauce, onion and garlic…all whooshed together and painted over the top and inside a free range chicken. You baste it with marinade every 20 minutes or so and the result is tender and lip smackingly yummy.

Where’s the lime? Served on the side in wedges with rice and stir fried chinese greens.

Persian Celery Stew

This recipe was sent to me by a Tweep. Here’s the link.

I love the name- Khoresht Karafs. It sounds like it tastes.

I couldn’t source a few of the ingredients so it’s not really an authentic Persian stew- but who cares about that, hey? Like advieh- I googled it. It’s a spice mix that includes turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, cumin, ginger and sometimes even saffron, nutmeg, coriander and rose petals.

Thankfully Persian Kitchen has posted a recipe blend. I couldn’t get hold of rose petals, but I also popped in a few shakes of ginger, coriander and turmeric. It smelled amazing.

I used chicken as the meat and chopped the celery up a lot smaller. I also couldn’t source the dried Persian lemons, so used some preserved lemon I had in the fridge. I guess that made this more of a tagine than a khoresht. That’s another thing I’ve learned this week- khoresht  (or khoresh) is Iranian for stew.

Oh, and I realise that there are no limes in this recipe…technical detail…

Pork larb

I cook a lot of Thai recipes. I especially love the salads- all those wonderful herbs and ingredients that somehow blend together for the perfect combination of sweet, hot, spicy and sour.

The larb salads, are particular favourites. Larb is a bit of a catch all phrase that essentially relates to minced meat salads. Strictly speaking, larb is a laotian meal more than a Thai meal, but as this is a salad widely available throughout Thailand, I’m lumping it in that category…don’t write to me.

Anyways, larb is usually made with chicken or pork, but can also be done with mushrooms, prawns, fish or whatever. I’ve also had a yummy duck one. The rest of the ingredients are pretty well constant- roughly ground toasted rice, a heap of herbs such as chilli, mint, thai basil, and flavoured with fish sauce, lime juice and a little sugar.

On Wednesday we used pork mince- from free range oinkers, of course. It made a nice change from chicken.

I can’t be faffed copying out the recipe that I use, but this one is pretty good. Marion Grasby (check out her website- it’s seriously good) has a pork larb recipe in this months Delicious magazine. Serve it with extra lime wedges on the side.

Lime and coriander flash roasted fish

Ok, so this is number 6- but, if we want to be pedantic, the Persian stew wasn’t specifically about limes…

This one is a go to recipe for when I’m attempting to treat my body as the temple it should be. At just 170cals (if you allow 150g white fish per portion- the recipe below serves 4), with a green herby salad, it’s a good bang for your dietary buck.

Here’s the recipe:

what you need:

• 6 boneless white fish fillets
• 1 tsp minced red chilli
• Finely grated rind of 1 lime plus 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1tsp sugar
• ¼ cup chopped coriander
• Salt & pepper

What you do with it:

• Heat oven to 240C
• Arrange fish on a shallow tray lined with baking paper.
• Combine chilli, lime rind, juice & sugar & spread over fish. Season & sprinkle with coriander.
• Cook for 6-8 minutes until fish is cooked through and stand for a couple of minutes before serving.