Let’s talk about zest.
Bit of a confession here to make. As a home cook, I’ve largely ignored the power of a good citrus zest to top off a dish. It’s not because I didn’t realize it makes a difference, and it’s not because I didn’t want my food to be the best, but rather it’s because of that one ever-nagging nemesis of cooking and of pretty much all things creative – pure laziness.
I never really quite got the hang of how to even do it properly, so for me every time I tried to zest something it was somewhat of a struggle. And then there’s the fruit you just wasted. And the fact that you barely even got anything out of it to begin with, other than maybe a few small strips of hard-to-chew, oversized pithy pieces of zest. Every once in awhile I’d find some fancy new zester at a store and feel inspired to try it again for a little while, but inevitably if I saw a recipe calling for zest? It got skipped.
That’s all in the past now. I have conquered the citrus zest thanks to two tricks that I’ve learned in the past month or so. And, on the assumption that I’m not the only one out there who felt this way about zesting, I’m going to share those two simple things with you here.
First, use a microplane. Don’t even bother with “zesters” – for one thing, a zester is a single-user tool, which is a no-no for any kitchen – and for another, they just don’t really ever work all that well. A microplane, on the other hand, can be used for grating citrus zest, sea salt, chocolate, ginger, garlic, and all manner of things.
Next, instead of trying to grate the fruit over the microplane, instead hold the fruit in your hand and lightly drag the microplane over the fruit – top facing up. This will collect far more zest, and it’s much easier to keep from grating too deep into the peel, which will wind up giving you a chewy and bitter zest.
The zested fruit should still have a somewhat thick skin of pith around the whole of it, even after you’ve fully zested it. It will look something like this –
Zesting your fruit this way is absolutely so much easier. It was like a light bulb went off in my head and angels started singing.
Next up, tip number two.
To prevent waste, any time you zest a fruit – zest the whole thing. Even if your recipe only calls for a little pinch of zest (which is usually the case). Instead, zest the whole fruit, and put the extra zest into single portion sized clumps on a plate. Then put the plate into the freezer.
It helps if there is just a little bit of water on your fingers as you clump the zest. Once it’s in the freezer for about thirty minutes, you can take it out, and put all the portion sized frozen clumps into a zip loc back. Then it will keep in the freezer for three weeks to a month.
And all of a sudden, zest has become totally easy.
