Calamansi: Everything You Need to Know About Calamondin Citrus Fruit
Photography by Marie Viljoen. Watch out, yuzu: Calamansi is coming for you. There, it is often harvested when mature but still green, with an interior that is already bright orange. Here, ripe yellow-skinned calamansi is available seasonally from a handful of specialty growers, and the trees are available to buy from some growers. These fruit are about an inch in diameter. Calamansi-slash-calamondin has many other common names, including must lime and Philippine lime. The seeds of calamansi are large and numerous. Calamansi has a thin skin and minimal pith, like a Meyer lemon. My calamansi tree overwintering indoors, with its myoga ginger neighbor. My own tree was inherited last year from a friend who left Brooklyn to travel the world... ...and in her apartment it spent its green, lush life facing a very bright exterior wall, with no direct sun at all. In our south-facing bedroom lives the citrus flock. Never allow the pot to sit in a pool of water. The ideal spot for a citrus tree is in the sunniest window you have. Calamansi grown in temperate climates develop a yellow-orange skin when ripe. The trees are available from Four Winds Growers, where an 18-36-inch tall calamansi is $60. Small, but mighty juicy. Certainly, it is all about the juice (this is not true of skin-centric yuzu). Beautiful juice, many seeds. A fresh batch of calamansi ponzu. One of the easiest ways to make the most of the sour, aromatic citrus juice is in a pared-down, ponzu-style sauce. A dipping sauce of calamansi ponzu, sugar, scallions, pickled ramps, mustard seed, and wasabi. Calamansi ponzu with sesame oil, on avocado, blood orange, chile, and peanuts. Chilled silken tofu and field garlic with ponzu. Preserve the emptied calamansi skins in salt. Deploy them sparingly in salads, where their flavor can sing, or use them to create foundational depth in the dishes where preserved lemons usually play. A month after being layered in salt, the calamansi skins are read to be used. Watermelon radish surrounding whipped tahini, with highlights of salt-preserved calamansi skin.