Exotic Foods (3): Buddha's Hand

Not your Grandma's citrus. Strange to look at, challenging to use.

If you have ever watched the current opening sequence of Iron Chef America, you have probably seen a chef grating a strange looking object, a yellow thing with a narrow base and yellow fingerlike projections. It turns out that the strange-looking critter is a Buddha's Hand fruit.

According to one food blogger, the Buddha's Hand is "a lemon that's all rind" Another article calls it "a fragrant curiosity." Apparently, in Asia people hang it up and use it as an air freshener. In fact, it is given as a house-warming gift.

As far as cooking is concerned, it is mainly used as a flavoring. For example, I found a great illustrated recipe for using it to flavor vodka. You can do it yourself, or buy a buddha's hand vodka, such as that made by Hangar One distillery in California. Similarly, you can use the fruit to make the italian liqueur limoncello. Other people use it to flavor tea. Not surprisingly, you can also use it to flavor ice cream.

There is also a recipe that involves slicing the fingers thinly on a mandolin, blanching them, then cooking them in a sugar syrup. Obviously, this won't work with fruits that basically don't have anything inside, that is, are all rind and no pulp. You can also make candied fruit (or more accurately, fruit rind) with it. As far as I can tell, you can use Buddha's hand citron in place of lemon zest in practically anything. "All rind, no juice" seems to be the prevailing rule of thumb as far as using it as concerned.

Most people who write about it say that the intense, floral aroma is its greatest characteristic. So you can cook with it, or you can use it instead of Glade. Enjoy!