Before we moved here I only knew lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) from powdered leaves I bought at the supermarket, but here we have a few trees, so I’ve been using the fresh herb.
Growing lemon myrtle
It’s a nicely shaped, compact tree, growing tall and thin in the shaded spots here. Ours have all grown so high that only a few of the bottom branches are reachable by hand, but they could probably be trimmed from sapling stage to keep them easier to harvest.
The aroma of the leaves is reminiscent to me of lemon verbena. It would be interesting to compare them side by side with lemon verbena and lemon grass.
Lemon myrtle is good for all the usual lemon sweet and savoury recipes, but an Australian classic is kangaroo with lemon myrtle and native pepper. I picked up some kangaroo fillets from the supermarket and figured it was time to try out my own lemon myrtle.
The native pepper (also a local-ish plant) is next to the lemon myrtle leaves on the plate in the main photo. It’s certainly hot, but the aroma is completely different to black pepper. To me it has the same scent as the coastal dune vegetation south of Perth in Western Australia, but that would be no help to most people. It’s a sage -ey scent, maybe a little rosemary there…
The prep was to marinate in a drizzle of olive oil over the fillets, with the thinly sliced lemon myrtle and the pounded pepper berries. Let that sit for a couple of hours, then sear the fillets, slice and serve. It went well with pumpkin and green beans.
I’m always too busy serving up and eating to remember to take a photo of the completed plate. It looked as good as it tasted, though.
I made ginger beer the next day, Mum’s recipe with fresh ginger and lemon, and put a lemon myrtle leaf in the boiling concoction. I like the result; I tend to brew my ginger beer until the sugar has fermented away, and the myrtle gives a nice bitter beery character. I think I’ll make it a regular addition, cold even try leaving out the lemon fruit.
It’s also a good addition to real beer. Bill has made a great light summer beer that was steeped with lemon myrtle leaves in the brew.