[Sca-cooks] Question about Citron Leaves

[Johnna Holloway]

Looking at the recipe, it says: "and place them in a dish spread with 
citron leaves." Later it says:
"separate eggyolks and garnish the dish with them as well as with "eyes" 
of rue, mint, and citron [leaves]. Sprinkle over this what you wish of 
fine spices and present it. It is made the same way with gourd, down to 
the letter, except that the saffron is omitted and sticks of thyme are 
added, God willing."

So this seems to be something to lay the eggplants on and a garnish 
before one uses the fine spices. Are you using rue, mint and citron?
Or just citron and mint and omitting the rue?
Books that have adapted these recipes that call for citron leaves seem 
to use lemon in place of the citron leaves in the cooking.
I don't find that they garnish with citron leaves. (Some call for 
garnishing with lemon peel.)

I suppose the question is how many kaffir lime leaves would you need and 
their cost at the end of February. That might help with the
decision.

Johnnae


Elaine Koogler wrote:
> Hi folks,
> I'm working on figuring out dishes for my Middle Eastern feast at the end of
> February.  I'm looking at an Andalusian recipe, "A Dish of Eggplants with
> Saffron" that calls for, among other things, citron leaves.  I have googled
> them and can only find a description of them, but no one seems to carry
> them!  So...I was wondering.  I can get hold of kaffir lime leaves...would
> these be a reasonable substitute for the citron leaves?  They are both
> citrus fruits, and the Wikipedia article indicates that citron, pomelo and
> mandarin orange were the original citrus fruits...and that citron is the
> name used in several countries for lemon.  So they appear to be closely
> related.
>
> Any opinions??
>
> Kiri
>