Lemon Peel Powder
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This is an excellent stand in for those days when you don’t have time,
nor the lemons, to impart a bright, vibrant lemony flavour to soup, sautés,
stews, teas and seafood.
Lemon peel powder is a variation on an earlier post here: Orange PeelPowder. As with the orange peel equivalent, lemon peel powder has a range of
applications limited only by the cook’s intrepid imagination. My inspiration
for lemon peel powder came almost as a necessity: I had some lovely, thin
skinned lemons on hand that were slowly deteriorating in their blue bowl. They
were fast approaching the point of no return and presto! ... Lemon Peel Powder
was born.
Maybe a quick confession is appropriate at this point? I am a lazy cook.
Yes, I admit, it is a ghastly character flaw, very bad old boy, and all that. But
sometimes, only sometimes, I redeem myself with a clever idea or two. Generally,
I tend to have a small, tightly sealed container in the deep freeze with
previously prepared grated lemon peel as I don’t use fresh lemons on a
sufficiently frequent basis to constantly keep a few fresh ones around. The
frozen, grated lemon peel is ideal for many baking and cooking projects. 4 – 5
Fresh lemons provide enough grated peel to keep me “in business” for quite a
while. Modern deep freezers go down to –22°C which is more than adequate to
retain freshly grated lemon peel’s sparkle and vibrancy on frozen storage.
But ... ever tried to scrape frozen, grated lemon peel from a solidly
frozen block when in a hurry? You tend to bend measuring spoon handles and
grind off dental crowns. Thus yet another raison
d’être for lemon peel powder.
Lemon peel powder works very well for the preparation of teas, tisanes
and infusions – amongst other things. The powder has a vastly larger surface
area compared to grated lemon peel. The increased surface area significantly
improves the extraction of the essential oils from the peel when preparing the
afore mentioned beverages or used in other culinary applications. The same
large surface area unfortunately demands frozen storage in a tightly sealed
container as oxygen is the heartless enemy of lemon peel powder (and all ground
spices and herbs for that matter).
Lemons generally tend to have a denser peel than oranges. Primarily
because oranges are intended to be peeled by hand, consequently fruit with an
easily removed peel is desirable. Lemons, however, are not cultivated to be peeled,
thus the denser, tougher peel structure is allowed. This extends the air drying
time required to fully dry the lemon peel prior to grinding. Arranging the
lemon peel wedges semi upright in empty egg cartons exposes more surface area
than when laid out on parchment paper, resulting in quicker drying from improved
air circulation.
Microwave the egg cartons at full power for 3 – 4 minutes if concerned
about hygiene.
Recipe yields:
± 50 Gram / ±
½ Cup
|
Preparation time:
3 – 4 Days
|
Processing time:
15 min
|
Difficulty level:
Easy peasy!
|
Special Equipment Required:
1
x Electrical coffee grinder, blade type.
Ingredients:
Thin skinned lemons
|
3
|
Corn flour
|
2.5ml
|
Method:
- Wash the lemons with warm soapy water to remove the outer wax layer. Rinse well and dry. Simply wipe with a clean, moist cloth if using organically produced lemons.
- Cut each lemon into 8 sections lengthwise. Carefully slice the fruit segments away from the peel with a sharp, thin bladed kitchen knife. Avoid including some of the fruit cells onto the white pith section. Trim excessive pith away – if deemed necessary.
- Freeze the lemon fruit segments for later use in stews, casseroles and desserts.
- Lay the peel wedges, skin side down, in a single layer on waxed paper or use old egg cartons for faster drying. Leave the peels for three days or so in a quiet, warm spot until dried and brittle. Dry one day longer if the peel is still leathery.
- Collect the dried peels and break them into shards. Using short pulses (to avoid burning out the grinder motor), grind batch wise to a fine powder in a blade type coffee grinder. Use a fine sieve to sift the ground peel from the grinder when it appears to be done. Return any residue to the grinder along with the a batch of broken peel. Repeat until all the peel is ground.
- Add the corn flour to the ground peel, mix thoroughly, transfer to a sealable container and store in the deep freeze for maximum, extended freshness.
Comments:
- If experiencing rainy or cold weather, dry the peels in a stove’s warming drawer or an oven at it’s lowest setting. If drying by oven, check the peel every 30 minutes. Remove the peel when dry and brittle before it becomes discolored. Heat, oxygen and residual moisture are the enemies of the essential oils in the dried peel. Avoid exposing the dried peel to excessive quantities of heat and oxygen.
- Use a moist cloth to wipe out the grinder’s interior chamber after use. Beware the blade.
- Grind an equal measure of uncooked rice and white sugar in the grinder if any lemon aroma remains after cleaning.
- Do not use a burr (or opposing roller) type coffee grinder to prepare the powder. Your Wiener Mischung and Italian blends will forever after have an undertone of lemon that may be distressing to get used to.
- Corn flour is added to prevent the ground lemon peel from clumping on storage and to collect any residual moisture.
© RS Young,
2018
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