Zester like a pro
Have you heard of the microplane? It's an extraordinary tool that allows you to grate very, very finely, and therefore zest with disconcerting ease.
Here's some information about it.
Here's some information about it.
8,994 4.9/5 (15 reviews)
Keywords for this post:ZestToolGraterPeelCitrusFineLast modified on: December 25th 2020
Zester like a pro
I'm not telling you anything new, but a lot of recipes use the zest of a fruit, citrus fruits in particular, and removing it is not as easy as you might think.
In fact, you may have already seen this tool here:
It's a zester or a zester knife, which has the advantage of making nice long zests, but which are almost totally exuded, i.e. a little crushed, squeezed, and so the essence of the fruit you're trying to get is more on your fingers or the zester than in the recipe, too bad.
It's more a tool of the past, now there's something much better, and that's the zester grater, it looks like a big file, and as the main brand, the one that launched the tool is Microplane, all the professionals now say one or the microplane.
It doesn't sound like a revolutionary tool, and yet it is. It looks like a large file, as I said, and it's more or less the same principle: tiny teeth in highly resistant stainless steel, and it allows you to zest any fruit you want with extreme finesse, producing a kind of fine powder that blends easily into any recipe, and contains all the essences and flavors of the fruit worked on.
How do you use it? Well, that's the trick: intuitively, you'd use it just like a file: you hold the fruit in one hand, the microplane in the other, and grate the surface, passing it all around the fruit.
Not a good idea, though, as you're going to get zest everywhere but where it needs to be - I'm exaggerating.
No, in fact it's the other way round: your hand holding the microplane doesn't move, it's the one holding the fruit that moves, from the handle to the tip.
And you do this without going back and forth, just one way and then you rotate the fruit a little on itself to zest a new part, and so on.
Well, when you put it like that, it sounds very complicated, and at first it's a bit confusing, this tool that doesn't move while the fruit does, but once you get the hang of it, you'll see. What's more, the amazing quality of the zest harvested is well worth this little change of habit.
The microplane can also be used to grate a whole host of other things, including Parmesan cheese.
Pastry chefs also use it, like a file for that matter, to smooth out their tart, tartelette or cookie bases after baking, for a near-perfect final appearance.
To sum up: to zest a fruit, nothing beats a grater (microplane or other), in which case the tool remains fixed, it's the fruit that moves.
In fact, you may have already seen this tool here:
It's a zester or a zester knife, which has the advantage of making nice long zests, but which are almost totally exuded, i.e. a little crushed, squeezed, and so the essence of the fruit you're trying to get is more on your fingers or the zester than in the recipe, too bad.
It's more a tool of the past, now there's something much better, and that's the zester grater, it looks like a big file, and as the main brand, the one that launched the tool is Microplane, all the professionals now say one or the microplane.
It doesn't sound like a revolutionary tool, and yet it is. It looks like a large file, as I said, and it's more or less the same principle: tiny teeth in highly resistant stainless steel, and it allows you to zest any fruit you want with extreme finesse, producing a kind of fine powder that blends easily into any recipe, and contains all the essences and flavors of the fruit worked on.
How do you use it? Well, that's the trick: intuitively, you'd use it just like a file: you hold the fruit in one hand, the microplane in the other, and grate the surface, passing it all around the fruit.
Not a good idea, though, as you're going to get zest everywhere but where it needs to be - I'm exaggerating.
No, in fact it's the other way round: your hand holding the microplane doesn't move, it's the one holding the fruit that moves, from the handle to the tip.
And you do this without going back and forth, just one way and then you rotate the fruit a little on itself to zest a new part, and so on.
Well, when you put it like that, it sounds very complicated, and at first it's a bit confusing, this tool that doesn't move while the fruit does, but once you get the hang of it, you'll see. What's more, the amazing quality of the zest harvested is well worth this little change of habit.
The microplane can also be used to grate a whole host of other things, including Parmesan cheese.
Pastry chefs also use it, like a file for that matter, to smooth out their tart, tartelette or cookie bases after baking, for a near-perfect final appearance.
To sum up: to zest a fruit, nothing beats a grater (microplane or other), in which case the tool remains fixed, it's the fruit that moves.
Lasts posts
A tablet holder
Perhaps you too cook by consulting your recipe on a tablet or phone, and putting it down on your worktop? It's practical, but not the best solution. Here's a look at how you can make an inexpensive, almost universal stand.March 14th 20262055
Pre-calibrated pastry dough
When making pie dough (shortbread, shortcrust, sweet...), it's always a good idea to make a lot at once, and then divide it into pieces, which you can freeze. I've already pointed out the mistake not to make, which is to form a ball before freezing. It's difficult to roll out afterwards because...March 9th 20268015
Butter vs. grease
We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?December 1st 20252,9015
Getting out of the fridge early
Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?November 24th 20251,8695
Who's making the croissants?
When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...November 23th 20251,690
Other pages you may also like
A little sugar anyway
I'm coming back to something I've already told you about, but which focused on brioche dough, so I'll try to generalize about these doughs, which are generally sweet, but can also be used in savory recipes.November 14th 20207,6075
The dissociation of a preparation
It may have already happened to you: You prepare a sauce, a cream, a ganache etc. and then suddenly or almost, the whole thing dissociates, and from a smooth mixture that you were preparing with love, you end up with a horrible thing with a more or less solid part and another liquid part. It's...January 22th 202213 K4.9
Should I believe my oven?
Can you really trust your oven? This is an important question as we are always tempted to take the temperature indicated as gospel truth and, unfortunately, this is rarely very precise. .July 4th 201133 K4.6
Making the most of seeds: Dry roasting
In cooking, and particularly in baking, there are a lot of seeds we can use, such as linseed, sesame, poppy, etc. Usually, recipes simply say to add them just as they are to the mixture or dough. To make a seeded loaf, for example, prepare a plain bread dough as usual, then, towards the end of...January 30th 201563 K4.0
Salt and yeast
Let's take a look at an old baker's legend: You may have already read that somewhere in a recipe that uses baker's yeast(bread, pastries, leavened doughs in general) it is often specified "Don't put salt in contact with the yeast, you'll kill it (the yeast)"! Well, that's a belief, and there are...March 15th 201974 K4.3
Post a comment or question
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.