Not many stories that begin with a flat tire have a happy ending, but this one does. I pulled into my parking space at home last night after a solid day’s work and the apartment maintenance guys were driving by in their golf cart. I waved to them, as usual, but they stopped as I was getting my computer bag out of the trunk and said something I didn’t hear at first. The one guy said it again and I looked at my left rear tire and it looked okay. Then he pointed at the right one and, sure enough, it was nearly flat. I thanked them and went in the house.
I needed gas anyway, so about half an hour later I went to the station, filled up, and put an additional 50 cents in the air machine. All the other tires were at normal pressure. This morning, I called in saying I’d be late and stopped by the dealer to get an oil change and check the tire. It had a nail in it and that cost 17 dollars. “Better than standing by the side of the road,” I told the mechanic.
So I was on a part of the road I rarely travel, Route 54, not on the interstate, heading back to work and I thought it might be fun to shop at the Kroger store out there. I took my time, feeling very satisfied at having prevented changing a tire God only knows where, and looked at all the produce. That’s where I found the pictiured object. I had now idea what it was, there with the baby pineapples and other exotic fruit. There were just 5 of them and none of them had a sticker. There were no signs in the whole produce bin, so I decided to buy one so the cashier would have to figure it out. Then I’d know too.
Well, the cashier was clueless too. She called the produce manager and tried to describe it on the phone, “Yellow, like a lemon, buts it’s got these long things sticking out of it…” Another employee, at the front desk, volunteered that it looked like a chicken foot. Then the manager’s decision came over the phone: it had to be a horned melon. It cost $3.49.
Somehow, that didn’t seem right, so when I got to work I Googled in a spare moment and found the real answer: It was a Buddha’s Hand, sometime called some variation of “fingered lime.” An ancient fruit, related to citron, probably originated in northern India, used by the Japanese as a room deodorizer and as presents for Buddha throughout Asia during religious ceremonies. Not many recipes for them, but descriptions say it is used for zest, because it is especially tart and the white part is not bitter. There is no flesh to speak of.
I decided to make lemon preserves, like those used in Moroccan cuisine, but without quartering it. On the way home today, I stopped by and bought another. This cashier was more savvy, she said it didn’t have a UPC because it was a “specialty fruit.” She made a trip to the main desk and came back with the decision that this one would cost me $6.99 – closer to what I’d read on the web, but I think I liked it better as a horned melon (which looks like this). I’ll probably use something like this recipe:
|
http://funkymunky.co.za/preserves.html
Lemon preserve
1 kg medium-;sized, thin-;skinned lemons
500 g coarse salt
3 l water
paprika
125 ml sunflower oil
1. Scrub lemons well and cut into quarters without cutting through the stalk end, keeping it attached to the lemons.
2. Dissolve half the salt in 1,5 litres water. Pour over the lemons and leave in a cool place for 4 days. Drain and rinse the lemons and pack into sterilised preserving jars, sprinkling each layer with paprika.
3. Dissolve the remaining salt in 1,5 litres water and pour into the jars, to about 2 cm from the rim. Top up with oil, seal and leave for 6 to 8 weeks.
4. When the lemons soften, simply rinse, scrape away the flesh and slice thinly.
5. Serve as an accompaniment to casseroles or cold meats. The juice can be used instead of vinegar in a salad dressing or marinade.
|
6:32:02 PM 
|
|
