Limes
California limes are harvested from late summer through winter, and early fall is when they are heaviest with juice and cheapest at the register. Every other ingredient in this basket is sharpened by one. In September a lime is not a garnish — it is a seasoning you buy by the bag.
How to choose it
- Heavy for its size — that is juice
- Thin, smooth skin rather than thick and pebbled
- A little yellow at the blossom end is fine and often means riper and juicier
- Give it a gentle squeeze; it should have some give
- Skip hard, light, dark-green ones — they are dry inside
Buy this much: 5–6 for the week. One goes into the salsa, one into the drink, and the rest get squeezed over whatever you made.
Cheapest in late summer and fall. Bagged limes are usually a better deal than loose ones and are fine for juicing, if not for wedges.
During the week
- Squeezed over tacos and rice bowls
- Into salsa verde at the end, to taste
- In the paste for the fish
- In the apple slaw
On a weekend
In the chile paste, in the slaw, and in wedges on the table.
One thing worth learning
Acid is a seasoning, and it does a job salt cannot. When a bowl of beans or a pot of salsa tastes finished but somehow flat, the missing thing is almost never more salt — it is a squeeze of lime. Learn to reach for that first, and half the food you cook gets better without a single new ingredient.