Photo by Laurie Smith www.lauriesmithphoto.com

Mexicans will eat anything with lime and chile –mangoes, potato chips, popcorn, jicama, apples,  oranges, even persimmons and the famous esquites (corn kernels)–you name it.  It is an addictive combination that originally consisted of squeezing a lime on whatever you were eating and sprinkling some dried red chile on it which is what I recommend.  But if that’s too difficult, the combination has been bottled by McCormick and some Mexican companies  in dried form and  is increasing becoming available in the US.  The lime is replaced by citric acid in the McCormick brand but you still get the kick.

At the restaurant we used to rub the powder on a piece of salmon, then we’d pan-sear it and serve it with the Veracruzan sauce called chile limon (see recipe section under sauces.)  It is a low-fat, flavor-packed dish that we will put back on as soon as we ae able to get the mixture  real lime juice wholesale again.