How to use lime leaves in a Thai fried chicken dish your friends will love
Seldom used by home cooks, citrus leaves flavour curries and Cantonese snake soup. Here’s a chicken dish that uses them to delicious effect
When people use citrus to cook with, they rarely consider using the fragrant leaves as well. Most are too tough to eat, but they can still be useful, as long as they have not been sprayed with pesticides.
When I was a pastry chef, we used fresh lemon leaves to make decorative chocolate versions: we would paint tempered chocolate on the shiny side of the leaf and then chill it.
The leaf was tough but flexible enough to peel away, leaving its imprint on the hardened chocolate. You can use other types of citrus leaves, but the ones from the lemon tree are easily available.
One type of citrus leaf that is commonly used in Asia is that of the makrut lime tree. Used whole in Thai cuisine, the small leaves give a delicate citrus flavour and fragrance to stir-fries, soups and curries.