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Hello
I have several recipes that require lemons as an definate ingredient…not just the juice which is easily available in concentrate.
Limes do not accomplish the same taste at all..in fact ruin the flvour of the original recipe.
As I am a serious cook I am trying to get as many resources as possible here.
It may seem a small point but I was hoping to find a good produce place to stock up on hard to find produce.
Thanks for any help anyone can render.
MichaelCheck out at a local veggie market for either Limón criollo’s or Limón mesina. Although smaller that the ones seen in North America the flavor is ‘the same’ as far as I am concerned and I use them all the time. Others may feel different…. Possibly the imported ones may be found in PriceSmart or similar supermarket, but give these local species a try.
[quote=”costaricafinca”]Check out at a local veggie market for either Limón criollo’s or Limón mesina. Although smaller that the ones seen in North America the flavor is ‘the same’ as far as I am concerned and I use them all the time. Others may feel different…. Possibly the imported ones may be found in PriceSmart or similar supermarket, but give these local species a try.[/quote]
Thanks for your suggestion…I have tried both of them, however they are not quite right for the more delicate recipes. But your suggestion on price mart is a good one..I’ll call them today.
Thanks again.
Michaelmy husband and i are both chefs and we don’t have any problem substituting yellow lemon juice for what’s available here, namely the sour mandarins, green on the outside orange on the inside, that are ubiquitous and about as close as you will get to the yellow lemon flavor. criollos and messinas are too limey for me. the sour mandarin is dynamite in chicken picatta, or a citronette dressing. one of the big adjustments for food fascists like us was to find a reasonable substitute for the things we can’t get here and/or alter recipes to accommodate what is readily available.
[quote=”maravilla”]my husband and i are both chefs and we don’t have any problem substituting yellow lemon juice for what’s available here, namely the sour mandarins, green on the outside orange on the inside, that are ubiquitous and about as close as you will get to the yellow lemon flavor. criollos and messinas are too limey for me. the sour mandarin is dynamite in chicken picatta, or a citronette dressing. one of the big adjustments for food fascists like us was to find a reasonable substitute for the things we can’t get here and/or alter recipes to accommodate what is readily available.[/quote]
Thanks so much for your suggestions. The other problem I have is the zest…I’ve tried to get that lemon flavour from a variety of citrus here but just cannot achieve it.
However I will try your suggestion and let you know if the rind works or not…it’s great to know there are still many people so interested in cooking just for the pleasure of it.
Thanks again.
Michaelthe zest is a problem with the lemons, as is the zest from an orange here, which is usually pretty scruffy looking. truth be told, the zest doesn’t really add that much flavor and in some dessert recipes that call for it, i find adding a couple of drops of pure orange oil extract to the batter does the trick. survival here is all about finding reasonable substitutes for things.
Well, this may be a really silly question, but why doesn’t anyone GROW “real” lemons in Costa Rica? Just wondering.
actually, there are real lemons somewhere in this country, but i haven’t been able to find them at a vivero. i keep looking and every once in a while there is a real lemon siting. but nobody i know grows them in my neck of the woods.
My husband just returned to the house with lemons! Two different varieties, one much larger than the other. We did plant these three years ago, but alas, no tag! This is the first fruits from both. One variety he had picked off the ground, the other off of the tree. Also brought home some pink grapefruit!
Maybe an ‘expert’ can tell what they are by looking at them. [url=http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y136/costaricafinca/Lemonscr.jpg]Lemons[/url]
The smaller one on the left of the plate, definitely tastes more like a lime…the one that tastes more like a lime is probably a criollo, or key lime. but it definitely looks like you have a REAL lemon in the bunch. how did it taste? i just checked my trees and i have a lot of limon dulces, but no real lemons although i could swear i planted a tree 4 years ago. like you, i have no markers so until it produces fruit i have no way of knowing what’s what. and just what are we supposed to do with the sweet lemons? i put them in water with ice, but they sure don’t have much flavor.
Maravilla, possibly the one on the left may be a criollo but it is larger than they normally are. We have real limes, limon dulces and limon manderinas as well, though they weren’t in the photo.
I was told you are supposed to boil the peel of the sweet lemons, for a ‘while’ and that is where the taste is…
The large lemons, actually tasted like lemons! I have to do a lot of thinking on what to ‘do’ with them….
Maybe set up a stall at the local ferria![quote=”maravilla”]the one that tastes more like a lime is probably a criollo, or key lime. but it definitely looks like you have a REAL lemon in the bunch. how did it taste? i just checked my trees and i have a lot of limon dulces, but no real lemons although i could swear i planted a tree 4 years ago. like you, i have no markers so until it produces fruit i have no way of knowing what’s what. and just what are we supposed to do with the sweet lemons? i put them in water with ice, but they sure don’t have much flavor.[/quote]
HI Maravilla,
The trick with sweet lemons is that you must squeeze them and drink them straight away. If you wait for more than a few minutes they will lose their sweetness as the air hits them. So Squeeze and drink. No added water or anything. A real nice treat. Enjoy.
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