Fruity little numbers

I think if I had citrus trees like the ones in my last post I would have regular gin & tonics and caipirinhas to use up all the fruits. I did try to grow my own lemon and lime trees down the bottom of the garden. The lemon tree refuses point blank to grow and looks exactly the same as the day I bought it one year ago. I think I may need some special fertiliser. The lime tree was a slight mistake. I really should have spent more time choosing the tress. I literally ran into the garden centre and grabbed the first trees I saw. In my hast I didn’t realise that I was actually purchasing a lime kaffir tree. Not much good for making caipirinha’s but the leaves smell divine. I really need to start using the leaves more in my cooking so I don’t feel so bad about buying the wrong tree. [Note to self: try one of these]

I have now used up my little citrus stash. I whipped up some lemon sorbet and chopped up some citrus salsa to have with some steamed salmon. The sorbet was a little too tart for my liking. It tasted very like a Margarita minus the tequila. In fact maybe that was the missing ingredient I should have added. I didn’t want to waste the sorbet so I melted it down and mixed it with some lemonade and vanilla ice-cream to see if I can come up with something a little more palatable. It is freezing as I type so I will have to get back to you with a report on the new version of the sorbet.

The salsa was great with the fish and so easy to make. I was able to use the juices and some of the salsa to flavour the fish as it cooked too. I made little parcels with tin-foil for the salmon and topped each steak with some salsa and juices before sealing up the tin-foil.

Citrus Salsa

2 tomatoes, chopped
1 lemon, chopped
1 orange, chopped
1 tlbsp orange juice
1 tablesp lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
¼ cup coriander leaves, chopped

Chop up everything and mix it all together in a bowl. I left it to stand for a few hours and this made the flavours even more intense. Serve with a salad and some steamed fish.