What method should be used for caramelizing chopped lime

caramelizationlime

I was making this recipe from Andrei Lussman the other day, but I was having some issues with one part of it:

Finely chop the remaining half of lime and cook gently in a separate pan to release the fruit sugars, until caramelised.

However, after having chopped the lime it mostly resembled lime juice with some chunks in it, and leaving it on the heat it just reduced until it was a very sour mix. Turning up the heat a bit, it looked like it might start to caramelize a bit, but mostly just in a thin film which stuck to the bottom of the pan. Adding a little bit of water and vigorously stirring made it release from the pan, but it still didn't have any sweet taste, just condensed lime-flavor.

I ended up with a very sour glob of semi-solid lime remains, which really didn't work well with the rest of the recipe.

Does anyone have some experience with caramelizing lime, and if so could you explain in some more detail than Lussman how to do this in order to achieve the desired result?

Best Answer

Use a sharp knife that can chop the lime without squeezing and drawing any juice from it.

Sprinkle a tiny bit of honey or sugar if the lime decides it doesn't want to caramelize at all. It will balance the sourness of the lime as well.