Can you guess what this is? My latest find at the grocery store this morning – too cool and it made me smile 🙂 I just had to have one!
If you guessed lemon, you are right! It’s a lemon gone wild and is a member of the citron family. It has a sweet lemon aroma without juice or pulp. The pith is not bitter, so you can zest the fruit or use it whole.
What to do with this wonderfully intriguing fruit? The following information I found at thekitchn.com where the site provides a lot more detail.
1) the lack of bitterness makes this fruit perfect for making candied citrus peel (see below)
2) the complex aroma is great for making infused vodka (see below), limoncello (Buddhacello – I love it), or flavoring simple syrup
3) shave thin slices and add to a salad or garnish your freshly grilled fish – how about a salad dressing (see below for a recipe)
4) use the zest or a whole finger to make scented sugar and flavored salt – lovely gift for the holidays
5) how about a seasonal centerpiece or just a conversation starter
I will enjoy this unusual but actually beautiful fruit this weekend with friends. Then I shall play with it – see below as I have done just that 🙂
I know the partygoers over at The Novice Gardener enjoy “fun” things to use in their kitchens. Angie, Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake and MB @ Bourbon & Brown Sugar will love this special fruit.
To use your Buddha’s Hand cut it in half, then cut off the individual fingers. The variety I bought was an “open-hand” type with outward splayed segments to a “closed-hand” type which the fingers are kept together
Candied Citron
- 1/2 Buddha’s Hand
- 2 cup water
- 1 cup sugar
I made only half of the original recipe as I wanted to make a couple of things with this fragrant fruit. I prepared the fingers as mentioned above, leaving a lot of the pith as it is not bitter. I first boiled the fingers briefly to soften and then drained them. Then I combined all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan and cooked slowly until the fruit was translucent, about an hour. Watch towards the end of the cooking time as it could burn.
I decided to keep it in the syrup and refrigerated it for later use. You could finely chop them and add to cakes and cookies, breads – the possibilities are endless.
Recipe by cookingwithauntjuju.com
Infused Budda's Hand Citron Vodka
- good quality vodka
- lemon fingers, sliced
- pretty bottles
Fill your bottle with Buddha Hand fingers leaving some of the pith. Add your vodka and place in a cool, dark place for up to a month.
Recipe by cookingwithauntjuju.com
Buddha's Hand Salad Dressing
- 4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- kosher salt to taste – start with 1/4 tsp.
- 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 2 tbsp. zest from Buddha’s Hand
- 1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tsp. dried thyme or to taste
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
Combine above ingredients and refrigerate overnight. Serve over your favorite salad ingredients. This is a light and refreshing salad, especially with the lemon.
Recipe by cookingwithauntjuju.com
Really cool looking.
It sure is 🙂
How cool! I want some Buddhacello…sounds like a religious experience. 😉 I’ll look forward to see how you end up putting this “hand” to use!
Buddhacello – I had to laugh at that! Should be fun to start using it, but part of me wants to not touch it so I can enjoy it longer. As we know, lemons do not last forever 🙂
Oh my goodness you were so right! Thanks so much for sharing this at Fiesta Friday! I’ve never seen anything quite like it! I vote for using it for the scented sugar and salt 🙂
Thanks – I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw them and I knew I had to take one home. Thank goodness for the internet to see what to do with it! Most definitely the sugar and salt will be tops on my list 🙂
You are right! I absolutely love The Thing! I’m not sure I’ve seen it in person this Buddha’s hand but I’ve seen it featured in magazines, etc. I think I saw Emeril once cooking with it, and I really thought he was pulling our leg with a fake fruit! 😀
Angie, this is a fruit that just makes me smile 🙂 every time I look at it. I never saw it before so it was quite a thrill for me!
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Oh, how interesting. My cousin’s old house’s lemon tree made these, and we all thought the tree had gone bad. I love all the use for this interesting piece of fruit called, Buddha’s hand.
Your cousin did not even know what a treasure he/she had 🙂 I plan to take it apart this week and make some things!
So fun and interesting! 🙂
Thanks – I am having fun with it – great conversation piece for now and then I will probably make some flavored salt and sugar and who knows maybe some infused vodka 🙂
Ooh, I’ve never seen one of these before! I wonder why it’s called Buddha’s Hand? It looks like tentacles trying to come out of the ground, or like something Buffy the Vampire Slayer would need to kill haha!
An awesome find though, I love that it doesn’t have the bitterness a regular lemon has so you don’t have to worry about over zesting and getting pith in your dish!
Thanks so much for sharing with us at Fiesta Friday, you can learn new things even at parties!
LOL – I agree with you Michelle – they do look like tentacles or something evil instead of fingers on a hand. Why weren’t these available on Halloween? I have made a salad dressing so far and plan to look for some bottles to make some other things. It really is a fun fruit and I am happy to share it with everyone 🙂
Never heard of lemon fingers, sounds great Aunt juju… 🙂
It was a fun fruit to display and then I made a few things using the “fingers” 🙂
Gotta get me one of these!! NEVER seen one in person, though…I’ll keep my eyes peeled! 🙂
Julianna – You definitely need one of these. I am so amazed at how things grow and this Buddha’s Hand is a show stopper 🙂