Going green

To get an idea of the kaffir lime leaf’s emblematic status in Thai cuisine, just Google the citrus fruit and you’ll see countless Thai restaurants worldwide that have incorporated the fruit somewhere into their names. The kaffir lime leaf shares a symbiotic relationship with Thai cooking: the dark green leaf is loved for the herbaceous, citrusy fragrance it lends to Thai soups and salads, such as tom yam and yam neua (beef salad). It also works well with seafood, where its zesty flavour dovetails effortlessly with the freshness of fish and scallops.

While the kaffir lime is deeply entrenched in Thai food, its widespread cultivation in Southeast Asia means its usage is also be found in Cambodian dishes like samlaa kaeng phet (spicy chicken stew), and Laotian treats like lap kai pa (minced wild chicken). Rich in vitamin C and beta-carotene, the fruit, with its pockmarked, wrinkled skin, resembles a large, green golf ball.

The leaves, on the other hand, are smooth and appear deceptively fragile: they are actually thick and feel strangely artificial and plastic-like, which is why, unlike many other leaves used in Thai cooking, they are rarely eaten whole. “The leaves are too tough—they must be finely chopped or shredded,” says Thiti Thammanatr, executive chef of Tamarind Hill, a modern Thai restaurant. “When used whole, their aroma can be overpowering.” The leaves must first be carefully removed from the thorny stem, before tearing each double-sided leaf away from the centre vein, and rolling or stacking them up to slice them into fine or ultra-thin pieces. Thammanatr cautions against using the blender as a fuss-free shortcut: “It’s ineffective, as the blades aren’t small enough to create the micro-cuts.”

Excerpt from the March 2013 issue of epicure.