Secret ingredient: citrus
Are you getting the best from your zest? Here’s how to work with citrus to add zing and balance to your cooking
In your fruit bowl
Limes: Get the seedless variety from Woolworths. They’re essential for Asian dishes. LemonGold: Juicy and seedless with a zesty flavour. Add to your gin and tonic, squeeze over avocado and add to casseroles and soups. ClemenGold: These easypeelers are sweet, juicy and virtually seedless. We love them straight from the fruit bowl and in cakes and puddings.
Seedless star ruby grapefruit: Semi-sweet and juicy with deep red flesh.
Great in cocktails, and added to salads and breakfast bowls. Sweet Sunrise grapefruit: Sweeter than a normal grapefruit, and exclusive to Woolworths. Delicious on their own, or with yoghurt and nuts for breakfast or a light pudding. Oranges: They may be harder to peel, but these juicy giants are one of our favourites. Juice them, make marmalade or eat them as is.
Citrus flavour matches
Almonds, avocado, basil, beetroot, carrots, chilli, coconut, coriander, chocolate, ginger, granadilla, soya sauce.
Zest feast
“Cook”: Ceviche uses lime juice to “cook” raw fish. Heat
2 T vinegar over a medium heat, then add ½ thinly sliced red onion. Cook until soft, then cool. Add the juice of 2 limes, 1 chopped chilli, 1 T chopped coriander, salt to taste and
350 g chopped hake and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Curd: In a saucepan over a medium-low heat, whisk 4 free-range eggs and 1 egg yolk. Add 350 g sugar, 225 g butter and the juice and zest of 4 citrus fruit. Whisk for 10–15 minutes, or until smooth and thick. Allow to cool to thicken. Dress: You can use any citrus fruit juice instead of vinegar. Combine ½ cup ClemenGold juice with 1½ t caster sugar,
½ t salt, 1 ½ t mustard and
2 T olive oil.
Juice: No juicer? No problem! You can make juice in a blender. Remove all the pith, add a little water and, if your blender can handle it, some ice. Try a mix of lime, carrot and ginger, or grapefruit, apple and carrot.
Macerate: Soaking berries in citrus juice intensifies their flavour. Add caster sugar and leave for 1 hour. Serve with Woolies’ coconut yoghurt. Marinade: Citric acid acts as a tenderiser for meat. Combine 2 T lemon or orange juice,
4 T olive oil, 2 T brown sugar or honey, 4 T Worcester sauce, 4 crushed garlic cloves, 2 rosemary sprigs and 1 t smoked paprika. Marinate meat for at least an hour.
Zest: Packed with aromatic oils, zest makes a great garnish, and it’s the key ingredient in gremolata. Combine 30 g chopped parsley, 2 g crushed garlic and the zest of 1 lemon.