Sunday, October 02, 2011

VeganMoFo: Persian Powdered Omani Limes

Today's spice is Dried Persian Lime Powder (aka Powdered Omani Limes). It's a dark, coursely-textured powder made from limes that are dried whole and then ground to little bits! The texture looks sort of like ground-up coffee beans. Persian food is famous for its love of complex flavor combinations, and they especially love to have a little hit of something tart in many dishes. Enter the powdered limes. The taste of the powder, all on its own, was a little bit familiar and little bit unfamiliar. Mr. Vegan Eats & Treats described it as "like lemon plus tobacco," and that seemed pretty right on. Definitely lemony, but darker, a bit toasted... a little bitter. Interesting!

For my dish featuring powdered limes, I made Persian Polow with Green Beans and Tomatoes from Silk Road Cooking. This made a ton of food. Mr. VE&T and I are both pretty piggy, and this was easily 3 nights worth of food... or at least it would have been if Mr. VE&T had liked it. Personally, I liked it quite a bit. I loved the rich flavors in the rice with the crisp little pieces of green beans in there, and the powdered limes were definitely present in the final dish. The rice had a bit of a tartness, which I thought sharpened the other flavors very nicely. Mr. VE&T wasn't feeling adventurous, so he said he didn't like it. Also, though, he had just eaten an entire box of Barbara's Puffins while waiting for me to make dinner. Just straight out the box, folks. So, I suspect that might be why he wasn't that into the rice, because - really now - it was good!

16 comments:

  1. I just bought some whole dried lemons - I was looking for limes but they only had lemons. I threw some in some tomatoe sauce yesterday... do you have any other ideas for their use?

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  2. It looks like there is some crispiness to the rice--I am all for rice crusts, and tanginess too! I want to make this.

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  3. Did I ever tell you what happened with Silk road cooking? My mom told me I left a cookbook at her house, and then mailed that book to me! I have no idea how the heck that book got to my mom's, but i never had a copy of it before. We think someone must have brought it to her, for me and then she forgot who? So yea, I have the awesome book now, too!
    xo
    kittee

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  4. What an interesting spice! I wonder how it would be in Thai or Mexican cooking--like in black beans?

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  5. Anonymous2:26 PM

    31 days of spices! I love the idea! I just want to pick out the crunchy looking bits of the rice... looks delicious!

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  6. Yum. And that meal looks delicious... What time can we all come over?

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  7. Lime powder! How fascinating! I've never even seen that before and my spice drawers (and racks and cabinet shelf and...) are pretty overflowing too. Coooool!

    Looks and sounds delightful, and once again, you've made me really want to get my hands on Silk Road Cooking.

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  8. This is totally gorgeous. Thanks for introducing me to a fabulous new spice!

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  9. You have such a cool MoFo theme, Amey! I already found out about two new spices so I think I'm gonna learn so much from your blog this month :) this dish looks very yummy.
    Happy MoFoing!

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  10. what a brilliant theme. Never heard of this spice before but liking the sound of lemon and tobacco!

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  11. I've never heard of this but it sounds interesting and the meal you made looks delicious!

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  12. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this theme? Amazing.

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  13. That pulao does look really yum!

    I had never heard of these powdered limes before. Now I gotta try them! I love tart flavors. *slurp*

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  14. I have never heard of this spice before. Although, I find myself oddly intrigued by the thought of lemony tabacco.

    And a whole box of Puffins?! ::applause::

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  15. Anonymous4:04 PM

    OK, why do I *still* not have this book?! this looks like it has a lot of great texture.

    made the hindu kush flatbread for the second time recently, but I only have that recipe because of your cookbooklet. must get the book soon.

    jen e.

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  16. I've never heard of dried lime powder, but it sounds so interesting! The rice dish looks fantastic. How funny about Mr. VE&T eating a whole box of puffins, I wouldn't like anything either after eating that!

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