Pemberton Finger Limes

After seeing the hype surrounding the quick season of Australian Finger Limes a few weeks ago, I contacted WA local Supplier, Pemberton FingerLimes and asked where North of the River can I find their lovely finger limes for me to purchase and have a play around with in the Kitchen.

I was so surprised and thought it was lovely to have Jacquie ask for my address and show up on my door step a few days later with a very small cardboard box in her hand for me!

I don’t know what I was expecting, as I’ve never seen a finger lime in the flesh, and was amazed at these sausage shaped, dark reddish-brown citrus fruit.

I spoke with Jacquie for a bit about the weird shape and what recipes I could incorporate them in. She quickly handed me over a little booklet with a few amazing looking recipes for me to follow or use as a guide. Jacquie also said some people use them in drinks like gin and tonics too!

 

 The best way to get the caviar-like pearls out, is to cut them in half cross-ways (not lengthways) and use a rolling pin to roll from the bottom all the way slowly to the open end onto a chopping board. The little pearls will slide out very easily then with a sharp knife scrape the small seeds (yes they have seeds but not many) to the side to discard.

As mentioned before, the Finger Lime season is a quick one, only lasting from roughly early April till the end of May each year; and as Pemberton Finger limes have a shelf life of about 4 weeks, they are one of those special Products like fresh Truffles, that you can only get at certain times of the year.

I only had time to try out 2 of the recipes featured in the booklet given to me, because as soon as I got these I was chosen as 1 of 4 finalists for WA’s Signature Dish cook-off for the Great Southern Region in Denmark, WA. So as I was busy planning my trip down to Denmark for a few days, I had just enough time to re-create the Scallops with Chorizo and Pemberton Finger Limes recipe before I left.

 

 

 

This recipe calls for the chorizo to be cooked first in the pan then the scallops seared in the leftover tasty oil. I bought only a few scallops in their shells from Kailis, but wish I had bought more. They certainly looked very fancy, tasted great and it’s only when you start to chew that you get the little bursts of the citrus-y lime flavour.

 

 

The next recipe was a No Bake Lemon Cheesecake with Pemberton Finger Limes. For this one, I used vanilla instead of lemon for the cheesecake. I love cheesecakes so this was a winner also! Plus I made up 4 glasses, so we had this 2 nights in a row for dessert!

 

 

I wish I’d had longer to experiment more with this awesome product, in particular the Salmon Recipe. I can see why chefs across WA love to use these on their menu’s at the right time of the year.

Pemberton Finger Limes is a family owned and run company operating in Pemberton, Western Australia by Rob, Jill & Jacquie Baker and family. Sadly, this years season has finished, but Jacquie and her family will be back in full swing early 2015! Visit their website or follow their Facebook page for more info.