Cooking with limes

Gbear

I've had mixed results with limes lately.

I tried to make garlic and lime mashed spuds but the end result was inedible because of a really horrible bitter taste.

I had a similar experience when I made really limey Thai green curry.

Does cooking limes do something to their flavour?

I've added lime juice/zest to cooked mash before and there wasn't a problem.
The 2 recent times I've done it I put the limes in with the potatoes when I was cooking them (as I've done with lemons with no problem).

the beer revolu

Gbear wrote: »

I've had mixed results with limes lately.

I tried to make garlic and lime mashed spuds but the end result was inedible because of a really horrible bitter taste.

I had a similar experience when I made really limey Thai green curry.

Does cooking limes do something to their flavour?

I've added lime juice/zest to cooked mash before and there wasn't a problem.
The 2 recent times I've done it I put the limes in with the potatoes when I was cooking them (as I've done with lemons with no problem).

The white part, under the zest of limes can be very bitter. Stick to using the zest and juice and you'll be fine.

sachieauckland

I pour it on the food after cooking,, that tastes good.

Seaneh

Use a microplain or a zester to zest your citrus fruits as that way you will only take the very top layer of zest (called the flavedo) and avoid the bitter pith (white bit) under it.
Also, if I'm using lime I'll almost always throw in a bit of honey/sugar/palm sugar or something to give it a wee bit of sweetness (though, I dunno how that would work with a mash...).

Gbear

Seaneh wrote: »

Use a microplain or a zester to zest your citrus fruits as that way you will only take the very top layer of zest (called the flavedo) and avoid the bitter pith (white bit) under it.
Also, if I'm using lime I'll almost always throw in a bit of honey/sugar/palm sugar or something to give it a wee bit of sweetness (though, I dunno how that would work with a mash...).

I haven't noticed the same sort of problem with lemons as much.
It seems more pronounced in limes.

In mash the lime is used to counter-balance the richness of the cream, butter and potatoes. Sweetening it wouldn't do it any favours I don't think.

Next time I'm going to try adding the zest to the water I'm cooking the spuds in and the lime juice after I've mashed.

Thanks for the replies.

oscarBravo

I'll second Seaneh's suggestion of a microplane. It's a must-have for me; I had to zest a lemon in the US with an old-fashioned grater, and it nearly broke my heart. It's also fantastic for ginger, garlic, hard cheeses, you name it.

Seaneh

Yeah, microplains are a great investment, I use it for everything from garlic to zesting to hard cheese and chocolate.

Gbear

oscarBravo wrote: »

I'll second Seaneh's suggestion of a microplane. It's a must-have for me; I had to zest a lemon in the US with an old-fashioned grater, and it nearly broke my heart. It's also fantastic for ginger, garlic, hard cheeses, you name it.

I have one but I find it's a bit useless for ginger. It just gets tangled up in it.

Easier just to blend garlic and ginger in a little food processor.

Seaneh

Gbear wrote: »

I have one but I find it's a bit useless for ginger. It just gets tangled up in it.

Easier just to blend garlic and ginger in a little food processor.

Are you using a genuine microplane or a generic copy?
I have one of the "real" ones, I paid what seemed like too much for it a few years ago, it's still as good today as it was new and I've never had the problem you described.

When I use mine for ginger, it looks like the ginger in this video.

Gbear

I've one of these ones:


It says "Mircroplane" on it. I assumed that that was the brand.

Seaneh

Gbear wrote: »

I've one of these ones:


It says "Mircroplane" on it. I assumed that that was the brand.

Yeah, it's a trademarked name, so it's probably legit.

I dunno so dude, but honestly, I get that problem of the fibres clogging up normal graters but never with my microplane but sure.

oscarBravo

Yeah, I don't have a clogging problem either, and mine looks like Gbear's (but with a black handle).

Honey-ec

I find that ginger gets a lot more fibrous as it ages, it needs to be very fresh to grate easily.