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THE OMANI LIME

written by ROB ARNHEM

“Dried limes can be popped whole into stews
and soups, stuffed into a roast chicken,
or pounded and crushed as a spice�/span>

LIMES ARE BETTER

Why Omanis love their laymoon

Ever wondered what those shrivelled dried dwarf things you see in the spice souq of every town are? Or wondered why on earth people buy bagfuls of those tiny green or golden limes, only 3� cm across? They look like so much trouble to squeeze. Why not just buy some good old-fashioned glossy yellow lemons instead? Yes, lemons may be juicier and bigger, but they’re also much more acidic, imported and more expensive. If you don’t know about quality coming in small concentrated doses, read on. Meet the Omani lime. Discover its fragrant essence and hidden delights. It’s sweeter and more fragrant than its acidic bigger cousin. Limes are cheap and readily available too. The citrus family is well represented in Oman, with about 12 or so species, from the tiny lime to the giant shaddock and pomelo. Without a doubt, though, the smallest of them all is the most sought-after, and for good reason. Citrus trees were first developed from wild varieties somewhere between India and China. The words lime and lemon both have Arabic roots, but orange is Persian, deriving from the Sanskrit naranj. All are evergreen trees. Generally they don’t require too much water and can put up with quite an arid climate. The typical common one in Oman is Citrus aurantifolia, or laymoon locally. Citrus aurantium is the seville or sour orange, not a commercial crop, but found on most farms in Oman. It has a good root stock, and it’s disease resistant, so it takes easily to grafting. Then there’s the balinj, or sweet lemon, (C. limetta); the shamum, or citron (C. medica); the mandarin (yusufi); and both varieties of lemon Westerners are more used to, the smooth and the rough-skinned. When you drive through the Sharqiyah on the inland route from Muscat you often pass roadside vendors at Wadi Seigani selling a rather unfamiliar fruit. This is the sweet lime, or safargal. They are pale and look a little insipid, perhaps, but to locals all over northern Oman they are a delicacy. One is round, the yahmadi, and the oval one is burqab. Without limes, Omanis would be distraught. They’re part of the culture and it’s worth learning to enjoy them as much as Omanis do.

LIMEY

Wherever salted mariners went

Scurvy, or Vitamin C deficiency, was the scourge of sailors until it was discovered that drinking lime juice solved the problem. Ascorbic acid is the active component, essential for maintaining healthy connective tissue in the body. Scurvy was a terrible affliction, causing gums to rot and teeth to fall out, while wounds that had begun healing would burst open. But long before Europeans began sailing the high seas, limes fuelled the vitamin requirements of Oman’s intrepid sailors as they plied the sea lanes down to East Africa and up the Gulf to Basra and across to India and further east. Wherever these salted mariners went, they planted lime trees too. That humane and wise fellow Captain Cook first made it compulsory for his crews, in their epic 18th century voyages in the Pacific. Seeing how successfully he had reduced the incidence of scurvy on his ships, the British Navy made it a standard item on board. So now you know why Englishmen got the nickname ‘limeys,�and why Britannia ruled the waves for so long, and also why some folk still like their regular tipple with a dash of lime juice or a slice of fresh lime. It washes countless concoctions down a parched gullet. It’s no accident that the Mexicans, Brazilians and Cubans came up with the smart idea of inviting a twist of lime to join in the strong rhythms of their local drinks. Lime makes the world go round with a dash more zing. Appropriately, the name of one popular cultivar is Bartender’s Lime. Rose’s Lime Marmalade is an iconic item on breakfast tables across the world wherever British tastes were established. The lime tree spread in much the same way across the globe from the West Indies to the Pacific (The lime as a member of the citrus family is not to be confused with the European lime tree, also known as the linden). Citrus trees belong to the family of the humble rue, an unpleasantly pungent plant, but all the citrus cultivars are pleasantly scented.

THIN SKIN

What makes them special

If you crush any leaf of the citrus family between the palms of your hands, a rich fresh scent is released. Orange blossom is a source of essential oils in perfumery and aromatherapy. In fact all citrus trees bear scented waxy white flowers with a heady sensual fragrance, especially noticeable at night. The fruit’s structure is ingenious. Nature has done a really good packaging job here. Generally all citrus fruit have a thick waxy protective skin containing globules of aromatic oils to delay dehydration, and below that is a white fibrous layer which ensures that the segments inside remain full of liquid-filled cells packed with vitamins. So what makes the little Omani lime special? It has a thin skin. This means that it can be dried quickly.

And even if they do dry out after a few days, unless refrigerated in a plastic bag, they take on new enhanced qualities, so don’t throw out any that have become hard and brown skinned, please! They are now at a stage when they reveal other untried delights. Dried limes can be popped whole into stews and soups, stuffed into a roast chicken, or pounded and crushed as a spice. It is this that gives Omani dishes, especially biriyani, a unique flavour. The dried skin and pulp release subtly different flavours. Every grocery shopping list for an Omani family will include a large packet of fresh limes. Spice souqs are stacked with sacks of dried limes. They’re also an element in traditional herbal medicine. In the past, dates and these dried Omani limes were staple exports from Oman’s fertile gardens. These two cash crops literally kept a country afloat in the days before oil. Zanzibar benefited from cloves, another aromatic, but Oman’s climate isn’t suited to clove cultivation. Little wonder then that Omani limes and dates are still staples of local diet, and the unique flavour of the humble lime has tickled Omani palates ever since. The so-called ’black lime� the limo Omani, was a convenient light dry cargo. Fresh Omani limes would be boiled in salt water and sun-dried. In this form, they were already preserved and not easily spoiled on long sea voyages, and if they got a bit damp in the sea air it didn’t matter, because they could be easily dried again.

The sharpness is in the citric acid common to all citrus fruit, and gives limes their characteristic bite. Eighty-eight of every 100g of lime is just water, and 11g carbohydrates in the form of sugars, but the Vitamin C content is impressive for such a small fruit. As a calorie cutter, it’s unrivalled too.

Some Omanis might tell you that over-indulgence in the fruit of the lime �for men, that is �will have certain unexpectedly negative results. A popular belief is that while limes are full of vitamins and good for your health, too much consumption can affect performance. But don’t believe a word of it. Limes are never too much of a good thing!

NEAR EAST

Lime in the kitchen

Limes or lemons are integral ingredients of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking, while Thai and Malaysian cooks, especially if they’re making soups, often throw in what’s known as a ’kaffir lime�leaf. South Indian and Sri Lankan food use limes in quantity. All over the Gulf, limes, fresh or dried, alert the palate to the taste of yet more good things to come. In Iraqi and Persian kitchens they are always present. Here in Oman, the little lime is indispensable and every house that can nurtures at least one tree. Fresh limes are halved and squeezed over meat to tenderise it before cooking, and again when cooked; onto any fish dish, such as awal, the typical dish containing dried shark; over a salad, and even into soups. Somehow it lends legume dishes, in particular beans and lentils, an added dimension. As a marinade before cooking or as a complement before serving, fresh lime juice is equally versatile. An ordinary humble lentil soup, for example, with a squeeze of fresh lime, is a meal transformed. Lime juice enhances the flavour of almost anything and lowers high cholesterol levels by reducing the negative effects of fats, especially in fried foods. Even fresh sweet fruit, say a slice of papaya or a fat mango, benefits from a dash of lime juice. And if you go for spicy stimulation, you haven’t lived until you’ve swooned over lime pickle, glowing in red chilli sauce. Morocco is famous for its whole pickled lemons. Limeade, made like lemonade, is a healthy and refreshing drink. Pop in to most Arabic restaurants in Muscat on a warm day and order a lime and mint cocktail. In India nimbu pani, fresh lime juice and water, can be sweet or salty, according to taste. It’s also a great pick-me-up in hot climates and replaces all those essential sugars and salts lost through perspiration.

The traditional Omani lime industry hit a low some years ago. An outbreak of Witches’s Broom disease, a virus spread by leafhopper insects, which attacked the trees, almost wiped them out completely. Citrus trees graft well, fortunately, and Tahitian limes (Citrus latifolia) have replaced the original population. Now Oman needs to import its needs, as a growing population demands a greater supply. Add a dash of lime, please!