lemon
If you ask most cooks which fruit they use most in the kitchen, it would probably be the lemon. The juice and zest of the astringent fruit can be used in sweet and savoury dishes.
Season: lemons are easy to find year-round.
How to choose: pick lemons that are heavy for their size, with thin, taut skins - they'll have more juice than their shrivelled, thicker-skinned cousins.
Storage: they can be kept for several days at room temperature as long as they're out of the sun, but for longer storage, refrigerate them.
Fresh or bottled? No question at all - fresh, all the way. Bottled lemon juice doesn't have anywhere near the flavour or nutritional value of fresh juice.
What else? The skin - at least the coloured part known as the zest - is just as useful as the juice; it has a lovely, refreshing aroma and flavour because it is full of aromatic oils. The pith - the thick layer beneath the zest - has a spongy texture and bitter flavour. To remove just the thin layer of zest, use a vegetable peeler, a zester (which has five holes that shave off the zest in long, thin strips), a grater, or - even better - a razor-sharp microplane. Before removing the zest, scrub the lemons to rid them of pesticides or wax.
To get the maximum amount of juice from a lemon, heat it briefly - zap it for a few seconds in the microwave or dunk it in boiling water, then roll it between the palms of your hand to break down the membranes before proceeding as usual.
Fresh lemon juice can curdle milk, cream and other dairy products. This can be good if you're making soured milk with which to activate baking soda in baked goods, but isn't so good if you're trying to make a smoothly textured cream sauce. If you want a lemon-flavoured cream sauce, use zest rather than juice.
Lemon juice can be used to prevent sliced fruits and vegetables from discolouring when they're exposed to air. Squeeze the juice into a bowl of cool water and drop in the fruit/vegetables as they're cut.
How to use: in vinaigrettes, marinades, sauces, pastries, cakes and desserts. If you're making
pound cake, fold finely grated zest into the batter. While the cake is baking, mix freshly squeezed lemon juice with sifted icing sugar so it has a thin consistency and sweet-tart flavour. Use a skewer to poke holes in the hot cake, brush the lemon/sugar mixture liberally over the top and sides, then let it cool completely. Lemon is frequently served with fried seafood (see recipe, left) because the acidity cuts through the grease and makes it seem less heavy.
