FINGER LIMES (Citrus australasica)

finger lime-citrus australascia

Finger Limes are another favourite of mine but its not always easy to know what to do with them because of their weird structure. I have scoured the Internet for recipes and they are endless but mostly they are used for decoration not actually in the mix. When baking they are used for on top of the cake or tart, on seafood they are used on top of the oyster or fish, so what I want is to use this flavoursome citrus IN a recipe..

Sooooo, I found that if I used it the same way I would any other citrus it works beautifully and has the added bonus of being decorative as well as having an amazing tart flavour.. Here are two that are really easy and spectacular taste..

FINGER LIME NO PEEL MARMALADE

Finger Lime No Peel Marmalade

Whats in it

500g          Finger limes
1 cup         Sugar
3                Oranges, grapefruit or mandarin

What to do

Go and get your finger limes, the riper the better and wash under cold water. Place them in a saucepan and pour boiling water over them to cover, leave to stand until water cools.

Once the water has cooled use this to wash the fruit, then pour out water and repeat this process.
*What this does is sterilise the fruit and takes out some of the bitter oils that is in the skin.
Roughly chop the drained fruit and place it all back in the saucepan, add the juice of your choice of citrus (I use 2 oranges & 2 Ruby grapefruit) and poach until the skin has softened, around 30mins.

Place it all in a food processor or use a wand and process until the fruit is finely chopped, then push through a sieve. You will have quite a lot of pulp left in sieve, that's fine as long as you get most of it through you will be fine.

Return the sieved mix back to the saucepan and add 1 cup sugar for each cup of pulp. Stir in and dissolve the sugar over a high heat then turn to medium and let boil for 5-10 mins or until it covers the back of the wooden spoon.

*I always put a plate in the freezer before I start so I can test the jam for setting. Put a drop on cold plate and push your finger through it and if it keeps separated and wrinkles its ready, if not boil for another 5 mins and check again.

 Add hot marmalade to sterilise jars and seal. Will make 2-4 jars depending on size.

FINGER LIME TART

Whats in it

160ml               Lime Juice
3/4 cup             Caster sugar
1/2 cup             Thickened cream
4                       Eggs
8                       Finger limes, 4 pearls removed and 4 pearls squeezed through sieve for juice
PASTRY
1/2 cup             Almonds
1/2 cup             Pistachios
1 1/2cups         Plain flour
1/3 cup            Icing sugar
120g                Unsalted butter
1                      Egg

What to do

Preheat oven to 190c. Grease loose-bottomed tart tin.

For the pastry, whiz almonds and pistachios until finely ground then add flour, icing sugar and a pinch of salt and whiz until combined.
Add the butter slowly while processor going until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Add the egg and when mixture comes together to make a dough remove and wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30mins.

Now this pastry is very short so rolling out is quite sticky so have some extra flour on hand. I rolled out on a floured surface until about 3mm thick now the tricky part. Mine always cracks so I take bits at a time and hand mould into the tin as best as I can. Make sure you still keep it around 3mm thick, then chill for another 30mins.

Line pastry with baking paper and fill with pastry weights or rice and bake for 10mins, remove weights and paper and bake for another 10mins or until golden.

Reduce temp to 170c. Now put half the pearls in a sieve and push through to juice into a bowl add other juices, sugar and cream into bowl and whisk until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time whisking well between each.

Strain cream mixture into a jug and pour carefully into pastry case. Bake for 20mins until filling is set. I always just slightly under cook it, when it still has a slight wobble, because it will firm up when out of the oven.

Cool completely, then remove from pan. Garnish with extra Finger lime pearls and sifted icing sugar..