Iris wrote:
> Hello everybody!
>
> I am introducing Asian dishes into our mostly
> Mediterranean diet. I purchased a nice book called "The
> Practical Encyclopedia of Asian Cooking" by Sallie
> Morries and Deh-Ta Hsiung which I find very helpful and
> easy to follow. There's one thing, however, that I'm not
> quite sure what to do about.
>
> The curried dishes I've been making call for Kaffir lime
> leaves. It took a while for me to find them and when I
> finally did, they were frozen (a couple of dozen or so
> pairs of leaves in a plastic tray, wrapped in plastic).
>
> I bought the leaves and they were half defrosted when I
> got home. Not sure what to do, I put them in the freezer
> right away hoping they'd be fine.
>
> Well, later that week, I used 4 leaves to make a Thai red
> chicken curry with bamboo shoots (recipe from the book).
> One leave went into the curry and the other three were
> added, together with the bamboo shoots, a few minutes
> before removing the dish from the heat.
>
> Everything was going fine up until I added the torn
> Kaffir lime leaves and the bamboo shoots to the pan.
> Suddenly my wonderful curry dish starting smelling like
> soap. I thought it was just me, but my husband noticed it
> too.
>
> This was the first time I used bamboo shoots and Kaffir
> leaves. The leaves looked fine though I didn't think of
> checking their smell before I put them in the pan.
>
> So, please help me understand this. I hear wonderful
> things about the taste and smell of Kaffir lime leaves so
> what went wrong?
>
> What are they supposed to smell like? And why do these
> ones I bought smell like soap?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Iris

If you think they were spoiled or that the frozen ones were the problem,
send me your address )off-line) and I'll send you a few fresh ones to
compare against.

--
Pete Romfh, Telecom Geek & Amateur Gourmet.

email me at: promfh (at) Texas (dot) net