When limes are ripening and they're beauty has faded, faded to the point that they are on sale at the greengrocer's, or better yet, on the reduced counter, buy them! That's when they are the juiciest and tastiest; that's when we plan ahead for adding to soups, making fresh lime-ade or even substituting for lemon juice when making lemon squares! Forget the lemon squares! Make lime squares!
The trick is to squeeze them and freeze them,
or rather squeeze them and freeze the lime juice in PLASTIC (not aluminum, PLEASE, or you'll have aluminumized lime juice), yes, PLASTIC ice cube trays. When frozen, remove the lime cubes from the trays and place the frozen cubes in a freezer bag. They're ready to use whenever you need them!
Last summer, in Wilbraham, Marash Girl's granddaughter, Aline, was so disappointed to see Marash Girl opening a can of frozen lemonade and adding water. "Why don't you make lemonade from freshly squeezed lemons and sugar and water?" she asked. It was difficult to tell a 7 year old girl that at 79 cents apiece, lemons were too expensive to do that , and even at that price, each lemon had hardly a tablespoon of juice! So I didn't tell her. But when she arrives later today, I'll have her help me make limeade from scratch, or rather, from frozen lime cubes! Oh, and when you add sugar, you'll get an idea of how much sugar is added to the store bought variety. In fact, rather than add sugar, you may want to add the sugar syrup left over from making your last batch of paklava!
And speaking of paklava, (here's a non-sequitor if I ever wrote one,) the best marinade for chicken shish kebab is Fresh Lime Juice, Tamari, Crushed Garlic, Finely Chopped Chives, Aintab Red Pepper and Olive Oil!
P.S. Lime juice is also delicious squeezed on a fresh quarter of canteloupe, or over a fresh fruit salad!
I squeezed a bunch of the limes you gave me into the chicken soup I made. Very zingy...and healing!
ReplyDeleteI tried your lime-ade. It's delicious! And YOU even made it from scratch!
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