Please help...zest??

Hello all;  thanks in advance for your help.  I recently moved into our new place with an amazing kitchen and definitley want to start up the cooking again.  However; I am clueless as to how you getr a zest from a lemon or organge.  What part of the fruit is that?  How to I grate that?  Any helpful websites that actually demosntrate this?  And other simple procedures for normal cooking?  I have my core dishes that I love to cook; but want to branch out.  Thank you!!

The zest is the outside part of the fruit.  It is the peel so all you have to do is use a cheese grater or any grater and run it along the outside over the pan or dish that you are adding to it.  You only need a little to make a lot of flavor.  Rachel Ray uses zest all the time so if you just watch any of her shows on Food Network or her talk show in the afternoon you will see her demonstrate this.

Here's a video:

http://www.cooking.com/techniques/vidtech.asp ?id=35

grate off only the colored part of the peel!  You don't want any of the white under peel because it's bitter.  The colored part has wonderful flavor.

I like to grate lime zest into my chili at the last minute, then I squeeze the juice out of that lime and stir.  It gives an unexpected kick to the dish.

I use zest all the time now that I have my microplane grater. It is so much easier to use than a box grater and it gives you really fine zest with none of the white.

I add orange zest to pretty much everything when they are in season (pancakes, chocolate chip cookies, etc). Yum.

 

A microplane grater works best for zesting, but I find that one of these guys: http://www.tabletools.com/ttools/images/std_i mg/49027.jpg works great too, especially if you want long fancy strips to go on top of a salad or chilli or...well, anything you'd want long fancy strips for. It makes whatever you're eating look really nice, and remember, we eat with our eyes first, so presentation is important even if you're just cooking for yourself.

When zesting, use light strokes over the grater/zester and make sure you only take off the colored part of the peel. The white part, or the pith, is really bitter and the opposite of tasty.

Try adding some lemon or lime zest to an oil and vinegar salad dressing. The flavor is unbelievable.