All about ginger biscuits

This recipe featuring a ginger biscuit base is a favourite with dinner guests

Next week I celebrate five great years in Dubai. Where has all that time gone? I often ask myself. Okay, I’ve done loads of things during these years here — I’ve visited all seven emirates, kayaked in Hatta dam, visited the Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque in the capital, ballooned over the desert at some unearthly hour… I can also boast that I pretty much know my way around the city.

My first few months here were like, for many, hectic — new job, flat hunting, trying to figure out where everything is including grocery stores and easily accessible malls.

This all seems so long ago now, but as a keen cook even while I was back in London, I was used to dropping by my local stores where I would pick up pretty much all the ingredients I needed.

Spices, meats and fresh herbs were stocked in every corner shop, in every neighbourhood. So shopping for the first time in Dubai was a fun challenge. While most of the items on my list were available, some were in different packaging while some familiar brands I was used to weren’t available. A few key ingredients I just couldn’t find.

So when I returned from the UK after my first holiday, my suitcase was full of those missing ingredients — coconut block (solid concentrated coconut butter used in Caribbean cooking), Oxo cubes (a brand of meat stock cubes), Jamaican ginger cake and ginger biscuits… The good news is that I have discovered many of the missing items or have found replacements.

These may seem strange things to miss, but they are all things I’ve grown up with. A ginger cake, thickly sliced with hot vanilla custard poured over the top was a delicious weekend treat; crushed ginger biscuits were the perfect base for a cheesecake or key lime pie. Most recipes use digestive biscuits, but in my recipe, ginger biscuits work really with lime.

Key lime pie gets its name from the small Floridian limes traditionally used in the recipe. You can use any small limes; they don’t have to have arrived from the Florida Keys.

A chemical reaction between the proteins of the egg yolks and condensed milk plus the lime juice causes the filling to thicken. This dessert is best served chilled, so I try to make it the day before so it has plenty of time to set.

This recipe is a favourite with my dinner guests — and looks pretty impressive too.