Freeze Every Citrus Peel That Comes Through Your Kitchen
As I pulled a few slivers of frozen grapefruit peel from my freezer, I knew I'd made a smart move. I sliced the zest thinly lengthwise, chopped it across into a small mince, and scraped it all into a bubbling tomato sauce that had already been hit with harissa and white vermouth.
That grapefruit took my tomato sauce a notch above—and all because I am a hoarder when it comes to saving scraps of anything that may prove edible some time in the future.
I started stockpiling citrus peels in earnest near the beginning of the coronavirus quarantine in New York City. Any time I needed the juice, but not the zest, from a lemon or lime—or any time I was having an orange, grapefruit, or tangerine for breakfast or an afternoon snack—I would use my favorite vegetable peeler to help the fruit out of its brightly colored covering. (Don't press too hard while peeling, or you'll take too much of the bitter white pith along with it.) I piled the peels into a half-pint container and stashed them in my freezer (they don't stick together!).
As I drained my water filter into a SodaStream bottle over and over throughout the work-from-home day, I'd pluck two or three pieces of citrus peel from my freezer and drop them into the bottle before carbonating it. Just that quickly, the peels thaw and infuse the sparkling water with their oils, making the homemade water taste just as good as any citrus-flavored seltzer your local store was already sold out of when you went on your last grocery run.
Another benefit of making zest-flavored seltzer at home: you can mix-and-match at will. I'm partial to a grapefruit and lime combo, but a convergence of different varieties of orange peel is also a strong contender.
The flavored sparkling water trick is probably the most obvious way to use up citrus peels, but there are other ways I've found myself using them now that I always have a stash on hand.
First, baking a cake? A pie? A muffin? There are few dessert recipes that wouldn't benefit from very finely diced citrus zest, even if you won't need the coordinating citrus juice. For a cake, add in about 1 teaspoon minced zest when creaming together the butter and sugar. For a pie, toss the zest with fruit or whisk it into the wet ingredients. You could add chopped orange zest to a coffee cake streusel—or any crumb topping, for that matter.
Or, instead of incorporating the zest into the cake, slice the peels into long, thin julienne and candy them to use as a sweet and flavorful garnish.
Beyond dessert, look to savory toppings like gremolata: an Italian mix of parsley, lemon zest, and garlic that's used for garnishing osso bucco but can brighten many more savory dishes. Mix citrus zest with toasted breadcrumbs and chile flakes to sprinkle over roasted vegetables to give them a bright, floral crunch. Combine with Parmesan or Pecorino and toss with croutons, or add some zest to a salad dressing to layer lemon flavor with your vinegar of choice. Toss a whole sliver of zest into your rice cooker to perfume any grain while it steams. And, like I said: that grapefruit and tomato sauce combo is something I will definitely repeat.
Lastly, my cocktail-idealist colleague Maggie Hoffman might balk a little at the idea, but you could also drop a piece of citrus peel into your cocktail for garnish. Because it's been frozen, you won't get that picture perfect moment of twisting the peel over your drink to express the oils. But the aromas will still leap into the glass as the frozen peel thaws—and you won't have to mar an otherwise uncut lemon to get there.
If you’ve got even a small selection of spirits in your home bar, you probably have the makings of a cocktail good enough to take to that (Zoom) party.
Originally Appeared on Epicurious
