What is it? It’s a Buddha’s hand!

The golden fruit is especially popular at New Year’s, for it is believed to bestow good fortune on a household. At year’s end–the Japanese who call it bushukan, also buy it. They use it as a decorative ornament and place it on top of specially pounded rice cakes, or they use it in lieu of flowers in the home’s sacred tokonomo alcove.

This fingered citron grows on a small spreading evergreen tree that reaches heights of three to five feet. It bears its main crop in winter, though it may produce a few fruits from “off blooms” throughout the year. American gardeners coddle the frost-sensitive tree as an ornamental and there are a few small-scale commercial growers in California who sell to flower shops and fancy food stores.

Some varieties of Buddha’s Hand Citron have a sour pulp. some none at all, but cooks interested in exotica value the fruit for its aromatic peel. In the United States it has curried favor with western chefs. Gary Palm of The Mission Inn in Riverside, California chops up pieces of rind to add a slightly bitter citrus tinge to fish marinades. Lindsey Shere, pastry chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California uses the candied peel in Italian desserts, such as pane forte. Allan Susser of Chef Allen’s in Adventura, Florida bakes pieces of candied rind in biscotti. It adds flavor that he describes as “kumquat-tangerine” which is distinct from the more lemony flavor of regular citrus.

Once again, we were tooling around the produce section of our hometown grocery store and found ourselves standing in front of a small display. The nearby greens looked wonderful. The radicchio looked like purple and brown death warmed over. Nestled on a lower shelf, we found four Buddha’s hands with little stickers identifying them but no price placard overhead, so checkout was going to be a blast. Checkout was even blastier when the sticker had fallen off, teenagers were running the registers unsupervised and no one could find Buddha’s hand anywhere in the price list. Though online sources suggest this should be expensive, we got it for 62 cents.

What would you do with it?