Limes are an in­te­gral part of our cui­sine. We tend to use them on an al­most dai­ly ba­sis for our meat and fish, we use them when mak­ing pep­per sauces as much as we in­clude them in lip puck­er­ing sous­es.

Fresh lime juice is what gives the "zing" to a Rum Punch, and the cool­ness to a lime cool­er. Lime juice is in­deed re­fresh­ing, flavour­ful and very de­li­cious and this makes them an ex­cel­lent choice as the star in­gre­di­ent in desserts. There are af­ford­able limes at the mar­kets these days, so buy an am­ple sup­ply and en­joy them in your cook­ing!

KEY LIME PIE

2 cups gra­ham crack­ers or gin­ger­snaps

2 tb­sp melt­ed but­ter

4 eggs, sep­a­rat­ed, (use the whites for the meringue)

11/2 cups con­densed milk

1 tb­sp lime zest

1/2 cup lime juice

1/2 tsp cream of tar­tar

1/4 cup gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar (for the meringue)

Pre­heat oven to 325F

Method

�2 In a food proces­sor, process gin­ger­snaps to fine crumbs, add melt­ed but­ter and process.

Press mix­ture in­to the bot­tom of a 9-inch pie plate.�2 Bake for five min­utes un­til set.�2 Pre­heat oven to 350F�2 With an elec­tric mix­er beat yolks un­til light and fluffy.

�2 Add con­densed milk, lime zest and mix on low speed un­til com­bined.�2 Add lime juice and mix well.�2 Pour mix­ture in­to pre-baked cook­ie shell and bake for 20 to 30 min­utes un­til the cen­tre of the pie is firm and dry to the touch.�2 Chill thor­ough­ly un­til ready for use.

Make the meringue

�2 Beat the egg whites un­til frothy, add the cream of tar­tar, add the sug­ar grad­u­al­ly and beat un­til stiff peaks form. �2 Top the pie and bake un­til gold­en, about 10 to 15 min­utes, freeze un­til ready for use. �2 Serves 6 to 8

TRI­NI RUM PUNCH

2 cups gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar

4 cups wa­ter

3 cups Trinidad dark rum

1 cup fresh­ly squeezed lime juice

1 tsp Aro­mat­ic bit­ters

1 tsp fresh­ly grat­ed nut­meg (less or to taste)

Maraschi­no cher­ries to taste

Method

�2 Place sug­ar with wa­ter in a small saucepan, stir to dis­solve, boil for about six to eight min­utes on low heat and leave to cool. �2 Com­bine cooled syrup with rum, lime­juice and bit­ters, stir in nut­meg.�2 Re­frig­er­ate in a glass jug or bot­tles un­til ready for use.�2 To serve pour over gloss­es filled with cracked ice.

�2 Gar­nish with cher­ries and more grat­ed nut­meg is need­ed.

�2 Makes about ten cups

CHICK­EN FOOT SOUSE

2 lbs chick­en feet

2 small cu­cum­bers, peeled and thin­ly sliced

2 large onions, thin­ly sliced

1 hot pep­per, thin­ly sliced with seeds

1 cup lime juice

2 cups wa­ter

1 cup fine­ly chopped chadon beni

1/4 cup fine­ly chopped chives

Method

�2 Wash chick­en feet; boil in light­ly salt­ed wa­ter un­til ten­der, about 30 min­utes.�2 Drain and cool.

�2 Place in a large glass bowl.

�2 Add onions, pep­per, lime juice, wa­ter and chadon beni and chives.�2 Stir well to cov­er with mari­nade.

�2 Cov­er and let stand at room tem­per­a­ture for three to four hours, stir­ring to keep all pieces ex­posed to mari­nade. �2 (This recipe can al­so be used to souse oth­er meats, like pigs' trot­ters, and cow skin).

KEY LIME CAKE

3 tb­sp but­ter

1 cup gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar

3 eggs, sep­a­rat­ed

1/4 cup flour

2 tsp lime zest

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

11/2 cups milk

1/4 tea­spoon salt

1/4 tsp cream of tar­tar

Method

�2 Pre­heat oven to 350 F

�2 Grease and flour a 9-inch x 9-inch bak­ing pan.

�2 Cream the but­ter with sug­ar un­til fluffy, add the egg yolks and blend un­til smooth.

�2 Stir in the lime zest, lime juice, and milk.

�2 Beat the egg whites un­til stiff with the salt and cream of tar­tar

�2 Fold the whites in­to the cake mix­ture.

�2 Pour mix­ture in­to the pre­pared bak­ing pan; place in a shal­low pan with about 2 inch­es of wa­ter and bake for about 1 hour.

�2 Cool and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.