Living through this pandemic has been interesting. Typically I go out to grocery shop once or twice a week depending on what I need and what I'm making. Honestly I prefer to go more often like when I was in France. Those days I was going to the store every few days and the boulangerie daily for some pastry and a baguette. Since we have been dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic though, I have been mostly using pick up options and shopping on websites so that I don't actually go into stores. This is not the best because I love to see and touch what I buy, especially food, but for safety it's what I have to do.
A couple weeks ago somehow there was a mix up and I ordered way more limes than I could use, two bags worth. I put them in the fridge and questioned what I could do while already having things on my plate and eventually they started to turn and get some brown spots. Now the main thing I love is the juice but the zest is also beneficial and useful in baking and cooking so I didn't want to lose and waste all that goodness. What would you do in this situation?
I decided I should do a classic old school technique and freeze as much as I can! With the help of Ben to process all these limes I had, I zested while he juiced and I got a lot to use later on.
Since I'm talking about zesting I want to talk a little more about it and a better technique when zesting. The standard way most people zest is fruit in dominant hand and zest down into a dish, but here's the thing, the zester will hold onto the zest! I do it the opposite way and I tell anyone to do it this way. Treat the zester like a nail file. This way the zest holds above the fruit, the fruit can easily be watched to get the most zest without the pith, and there is less twisting of the wrist to check on how well you are zesting the fruit! When doing it rarely at home this isn't much of an issue but when you work in kitchens and have to zest a lot more, you need to be conscious of repetitive movements that can lead to muscle issues later on in life. The amount of people in my industry that talk about getting carpal tunnel early in life is crazy and I don't want that to happen! Notice your movements now and adjust to be the best for your body! Take care of yourself!
I froze the zest on a sheet pan and once frozen I moved into an airtight container. The juice I put into an ice cube tray and froze like that before removing and moving to an airtight container. This way I can pull out the little bit I need without melting all of it. It's the perfect little system and now all I have to do is figure out what to make with lime! Leave a comment below to help me out and I'll probably post the recipes to share and show you what I make!