The Red Shaker

If you read the post talking about our friend Simon’s birthday party, you might have caught the part about Shaker One coming up with the brilliant idea for making “tape worms” from citrus zest. A citrus zester is a handy tool to have around.

A rather odd looking gadget, it does a wonderful job of removing just the colored portion of the citrus rind and excluding the pith, which can add bitterness to the recipe, rather then the flavorful part of the rind.  You can also create decorative patterns on the fruit skin and then use the  slices or wedges as garnish.

Zest is used not only in giving a light essence of lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit to a martini (or other cocktail) but it is also used in many desserts, sauces, cookies and salads.

This Oxo Good Grips Lemon Zester is a good one to add to your collection of gadgets.  Shaker One picked her’s up at Surfas, but the Oxo one is great, too.  Citrus “confetti streamers” in different colors would be a great garnish for dessert, fruit salads, even fish dishes.  It takes a bit of practice to get the really long threads, and of course the larger the fruit the longer the strands you can achieve.  A fun garnish can really make a drink or dish feel special.  Now get to zesting!