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Kaffir Lime and Curry leaf tree


CHILLIN

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Bought a beautiful 2 year old Kaffir Lime from Cuernavaca ( now called the more poliitically correct Makrut Lime).  What a wonderful lime flavor in the leaves, a very versatile plant, so many uses.

Ordered 50 Curry Leaf Tree seeds from India, they are all in the ground or in germination pots. Nothing has come up so far. Just going to ignore them, other than watering. If they want my attention, they better start to grow. As before, no live plants in Mexico, and impossible to get accross the border. My last hope was Luc Vleekrack, from Puerto Vallarta, but it looks like he has moved back to Belgium.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
10 hours ago, SunFan said:

I have a Kaffir  lime tree about 6 years old. Healthy but still less than two meters tall.

I never considered the leaves. How do you use them?

SunFan

"C. hystrix leaves are used in Southeast Asian cuisines such as Indonesian, Laotian, Cambodian, and Thai.[citation needed] The leaves are the most frequently used part of the plant, fresh, dried, or frozen. The leaves are widely used in Thai[26][27] (for dishes such as tom yum) and Cambodian cuisine (for the base paste "krueng").[28] The leaves are used in Vietnamese cuisine to add fragrance to chicken dishes and to decrease the pungent odor when steaming snails."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_lime#Uses

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Remove the tougher spine at the back of the leaf. grind the leaf into a paste with ginger garlic and tumeric. So good. The fruit also has many uses, just the peel, the juice is too sour and many seeds. One popular use is wash your hair with half a lime. Makes your hair shiny, and smell wonderful. Put some peel in a bottle of vodka, mix with sparkling mineral water.

We ordered a live curry leaf tree from Florida. They say they deliver to Mexico. Shipped USPS, supposed to arrive Sept 7. It will be long dead by then. Mexico customs would never let a potted plant through.  Then we have to go through the Monty Python comedy sketch about dead parrots. Luckily, Paypal is pretty good with this sort of thing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The live tree actually got through customs uninspected! It is a healthy two footer,and thriving. Now I have to wait for seeds or clones before I can give away any plants. Maybe I should try to sell fresh leaves - Makrut lime, Curry leaf, Fenugreek, Rosemary, Mint, Basil. Ever had fresh Fenugreek? It is the smell most people identify as curry. Blanch some small, creamy potatoes, start to fry small cubes with butter or ghee, add salt, then fresh fenugreek leaves. Simple and so delicious.

Edit: If you grow your own fenugreek, be aware that for some reason it is a magnet for Whiteflies. Grow in a mesh crop cover.

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  • 4 weeks later...

You should look at Ushas Pickle Digest on Amazon.com. The kindle version has been marked down from $20.69 to $7.99, delivered in minutes over the internet. I tried to find a way to send it you but it is a big files and would have strip the digital rights protection.

This a real foodies book, and maybe offer many interesting directions for you.

She uses curry leaves a lot and also asafoetida which when cooked smells and tastes like a mix of garlic and leeks. The best place to buy as far as quality and pricing is Rani Foods in Houston. I have ordered from them many times. Even mustard oil which is banned in the USA if sold as a food item, but is legal if sold as a hair tonic.

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21 minutes ago, CHILLIN said:

You should look at Ushas Pickle Digest on Amazon.com. The kindle version has been marked down from $20.69 to $7.99, delivered in minutes over the internet. I tried to find a way to send it you but it is a big files and would have strip the digital rights protection.

This a real foodies book, and maybe offer many interesting directions for you.

She uses curry leaves a lot and also asafoetida which when cooked smells and tastes like a mix of garlic and leeks. The best place to buy as far as quality and pricing is Rani Foods in Houston. I have ordered from them many times. Even mustard oil which is banned in the USA if sold as a food item, but is legal if sold as a hair tonic.

More Liana has worked as a chef and has an extensive blog about Mexican cuisine  of her own in case you haven't bothered to notice and you are a simple googeler[sic] with no real experience.

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