Lemons are a powerhouse of flavor, bringing us everything from shrimp lemon pepper linguini and lemon creme brulee to the lemon-raspberry pound cake muffin recipe in today’s food pages.
“Fresh lemon — including the juice and peel — is one of my all-time favorite ingredients, in part because it’s just so versatile,” says Sara Moulton in her weekly KitchenWise column for the Associated Press. The host of public television’s “Sara’s Weeknight Meals” and former Food Network host was also executive chef at Gourmet magazine for almost 25 years.
Lemons can be the star of the show or a brilliant supporting actor, Moulton points out. It’s indispensable in fish dishes and pairs beautifully with all sorts of vegetables, raw and cooked. She also reaches for it regularly to brighten up soups, stews and sautes. And don’t overlook the lemon peel, also known as the zest. It adds intense lemon flavor to a recipe without all the acid found in the juice.
“I use grated lemon zest in scrambled eggs and creamy pasta dishes and combine it with chopped herbs as a finishing touch for braised meats,” Moulton says.
Go for the squeeze
Whichever parts you use, it’s important to start with the best possible lemons, says Moulton. Prime specimens boast bright yellow color and a thin skin. A thin skin signals more juice and less pith (the bitter-tasting white layer between the peel and the fruit itself). When grating the peel, stop short of the pith. How do you know a lemon has a thin skin? It will give a little when you squeeze it, the chef says.
Cookinglight.com recommends going for a lemon that feels heavy in the hand and which, when gently squeezed, gives nicely and doesn’t seem to have a hard, thick rind (usually indicating less juice).
At home, scrub each lemon lightly under water to remove the edible wax with which it was covered to protect the fruit on its journey to market, Moulton recommends.
If your recipe calls for zest and juice, grate the zest before juicing the lemon, she adds. But don’t grate the zest until just before you’re ready to add it to the recipe. Zest quickly dries out if it sits around very long.
“My favorite tool for grating zest is a wand-style grater. Once upon a time, the tool of choice was the fine-side of a four-sided grater,” says Moulton. Unfortunately, this gadget often grabbed too much of the pith — not to mention fingertips. Moulton grates over a piece of kitchen parchment. The yield is roughly 1 tablespoon of zest per large lemon.
Max the juice
Moulton notes there are several ways to make sure you squeeze the maximum amount of juice from a lemon. First, soften up the fruit by rolling it on the counter and pressing down as you do. Second, heat it, either by microwaving it for 20 seconds or so or by stashing it in the oven at 350 F for 10 to 12 minutes. Finally, cut the lemon in half crosswise and juice it.
“I like to juice using an old-fashioned and brightly-colored Mexican hand press. But there’s also a more unorthodox, if equally effective, way to do it,” she says. You can place the cut lemon half in between the two arms of a set of tongs, right at the top where the arms are joined. Then squeeze the bottom ends together.
“I learned this little trick from Ming Tsai, who picked it up from Jasper White, two of my favorite chefs. One large lemon will give up about 1/4 cup of juice,” the chef notes.
And what about those cute little plastic “lemons” of bottled juice at the store? Cookinglight.com says the juice inside has been reconstituted and mixed with preservatives, so the taste can’t compare to fresh.
Did you know?
Lemons’ uses extend beyond the taste buds. They can be a versatile household cleaner, too. Dip a halved lemon in salt for a bit of gentle abrasive power. Use it to scour brass, copper or stainless steel pots, pans and sinks, says cookinglight.com. You can rub a cut of lemon (no salt) on aluminum to brighten it. Toss used lemons in the disposal to deodorize it.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac (almanac.com) recommends mixing one part lemon and two parts olive oil to make furniture polish, or mixing a few drops of lemon juice in outdoor house paint to keep insects away while you paint and until the paint dries. Shine your hair after shampooing by rinsing with the strained juice of a lemon mixed in an 8-ounce glass of warm water. Settle upset tummies, deter squirrels and cats from digging in the garden, renew hardened paintbrushes — the list goes on. Now that’s a versatile fruit.
LEMON RASPBERRY POUND CAKE MUFFINS
Start to finish: 45 minutes (15 minutes active)
Servings: 8
1 cup (4 1/2 ounces) cake flour (not self-rising)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 cup grated lemon zest
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons plus 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice, divided
1 pint raspberries
1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons powdered sugar
(Source: Sara Moulton)
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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