LEMON OR ORANGE ZEST

LEMON OR ORANGE ZEST

The zest of a lemon/orange is the outer most layer of the peel (skin) of the lemon without any white part that is found underneath the peel (the pith). If you have a very sharp potato peeler, you can peel the zest off with that, if not, use a sharp knife and peel as you would an apple into broad strips.

Place each peel yellow/orange side down on board, then using a sharp, wide knife run knife horizontally between the white part (pith) and the yellow/orange part (peel), removing all of the white part.

Trim the rough edges of the peel, cutting into a rectangular shape. Now cut from end to end into 1/16th inch wide strips.

If you want chopped zest, then chop into the size you want. If you want grated or shredded, use your grater for that. You can also purchase a lemon zester found in most kitchen supply stores. It’s a tool that has a few small sharp holes on the end of it, that when drawn over the lemon, orange, etc. it produces tiny shavings of the zest, or longer tiny strips, depending upon the force you apply to the fruit.

I recently bought one of these long graters/zesters (microplane zester) that I see all the chefs on T.V. use, and wow does it work easily. If the outside of the fruit is soft, however, it won’t work well, so don’t throw away your old zester. On the other hand, if the fruit is firm it works effortlessly. To be used when you want small rind particles.