Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Zesting and Juicing Lemon (or Orange)


The first requirement for me when zesting is to use an organically grown lemon or orange.  Do not zest a conventional piece of fruit, whose peel contains man-made chemicals and pesticides.

A zesting tool is an inexpensive tool worth having in your kitchen.  I like this OXO zester.  It is very easy to use and very easy to clean.  Hold the lemon or orange and scrape the zester along the surface shaving off curls of peel.  Don't zest into the white pith which is bitter.


After you have zested the surface (I zest around discolored spots on the peel), gather the zest into a pile, and chop finely with a knife.  If I need lemon juice for a recipe without the zest, or I'm eating an orange, I often zest it first anyway.  The zest can always be used in another recipe.  Adding lemon and orange zest to recipes adds a great flavor dimension.  For example, I added orange zest to our French toast batter last week - it was really good.  If not don't use the zest immediately, place the zest in the refrigerator or freezer until you are ready to use it.


I have an inexpensive juicer that I use as shown in the photo below.  Cut the zested lemon or orange in half for juicing.  You can also use a spoon or just squeeze the fruit filtering the juice through your fingers to juice, but it is harder to keep the seeds out of the juice. 


When I zest and juice lemons or oranges for recipes, I do not measure out the quantities carefully.  To not be wasteful, I use all the zest or juice that I get from the piece of fruit, whether it is a little less or a little more than called for in the recipe.

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