A nice post/recipe over at the All the Marmalade blog:
I was curious and surprised to find a new citrus in my local produce store: sweet lime. Another variation on the citrus theme, sweet lime is a juicy, sweet rather than acidic fruit reminiscent in flavor of grapefruit and mandarin oranges.
In the film Darjeeling Limited, sweet lime was served as a refresher to passengers settling into their cars. I did some checking around (i.e. Wikipedia) and learned that India is one of the largest producers of sweet lime in the world, where it’s both consumed for fun and medicinal purposes.
I’ve never personally had any sweet lime juice there, but a survey of websites suggest that it’s mixed with some honey or sugar similar to lemonade for serving. If anyone has had this drink in India, where it’s called mousabi (musabi / mosabi), please comment and let it be known how it’s typically prepared.
Turning Sweet Lime into a Cocktail
Never one to stand on tradition when it comes to mixology, I juiced a few sweet limes and tried them in traditional citrus cocktails. If you come a across some sweet limes, try substituting some or all of the lemon or lime juice in your favorite recipe with sweet lime. You’ll need about one third of the total sugar than when using lemons, and it delivers an interesting, subtle twist.I’m a gin person, so I tried came up with this recipe. Try it for yourself and see what you think!
The Sweet Lime Limited
2 ounces of gin
3 ounces sweet lime juice
2 Basil Leaves
1 ounce simple syrup (a.k.a. sugar water, a tablespoon of sugar or more to taste dissolved in a little warm water will do if you don’t have simple syrup handy)
Pinch of salt
Splash of Soda WaterCombine and serve over ice in an chilled tumbler.
Now, if we only had a recipe for this Sweet Lime…
