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DCL
The lemon. It may be a classic but it's never boring. Such an exciting and intense fruit! Lemons really wake things up with their acidic juice, making an incredible addition to drinks and salad dressings and drizzled on top of finished dishes. The zest and oils are amazing and versatile too in heaps of sweet and savory recipes. The fleshy cells of the interior are soft and delectable. Limitless options and uses!
On the health front, it's pretty much all about Vitamin C. Sure there's some other stuff in there too, like folate and potassium, but really we only care about that delicious, bracing acidity!
I love all my citrus and I love 'em ORGANIC. Citrus fruit is so popular; millions of tons are grown worldwide yearly and millions of pounds of chemicals are used in their production--serious amounts of fertilizer and pesticide. Yuck! The debate may still rage about whether or not organics produce better nutritional components, but I've personally always gotten tastier, more concentrated and sweeter flavors from organic citrus. If you are not sure or not able to do the OG thing with your citrus, give that skin a good scrubbing under water--especially if you are using the zest or skins in your dishes.
It just occurred to me that this episode is a bit equipment intensive. First I bust out my rasper and then my old mandolin. I was so grateful when my mother-in-law gave me that mandolin, but man...it was a piece of crap. I've since replaced it with a small, hand-held Japanese model that works 1,000 times better. When you go to look for a mandolin of your own, I highly recommend getting one that doesn't necessitate the use of the safety guard. But be careful, mandolins are extremely sharp and extremely dangerous!!! The other piece of equipment is my rasper, aka the Microplane. I can't live without this gadget! I use it all the time for super fine shredding. It's great for nutmeg, chocolate, hard cheeses and ZEST! This is the best tool I've ever used for getting the zest off the skins of citrus. Awesome.
I use lemon juice as my finishing acid on tons of dishes. This helps to bring out flavors and balance things out. It's amazing how even just a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice can pump up the flavor in all sorts of dishes. Even a huge pot of soup can be dramatically changed with just a small squeeze of lemon! I'm also a big fan of adding lemon juice to cocktails and salad dressings. My mother's classic dressing was simply lemon juice, olive oil, smashed garlic and salt-n-pepper. Really sharp, really fresh!
I love that there are different varieties of lemons and love to taste them when available. The Meyer Lemon is probably my favorite; it's less acidic and almost sweet, with a tender thin skin that you can easily gobble up. Meyers are actually a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange. I love adding slices of Meyers to pizzas and salads. Growing up in Florida I was exposed to another variety, the Bearss, but I rarely ate it 'coz my parents had this GIANT Ponderosa Lemon tree in their yard--this thing constantly pumped out ENORMOUS, softball sized fruits that were acidic as hell! Your standard Eureka and Lisbon varieties are the ones most likely seen at the grocery store. Definitely ask your local citrus gurus about other varieties; see if you can find YUZU, a distinct, powerfully acidic Japanese lemon that makes THE BEST ponzu!
The pie recipe I highlight on this episode is really interesting and fun. I love using the whole lemon (remove the seeds though) but recommend finding a less acidic variety if you can. A Meyer or a Pomona Sweet would be great...but any lemon will work. This is definitely more of an "adult' dessert, I remember hating candied peel when I was a kid, but now as an adult I enjoy that bitter flavor and you will too!
So go snag some OG lemons, get a rasper and start playing with zest and start using more lemons in your food! Brighten up your palate and your kitchen with this killer fruit.
