Using freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice provides an incredible flavour boost. Although you can always squeeze by hand, there are a few tools that I love to use.
I have enough strain on my wrists from typing all day, the last thing I want to do is squeeze lemons and more so, limes to add to the issue. A handheld citrus juice press enables you to cut the lemon or lime in half, place it straight into the device, and squeeze all the juice out into a little bowl enabling you to use however much you require. By using a juice press, the freshly squeezed juice will actually go into the right direction as opposed to splattering everywhere else! The other tool that I like using to extract juice is a handheld lemon reamer. I squeeze out a little juice first and then insert the device and apply pressure to squeeze out the juice as I glide the reamer around the interior of the lemon or lime. An added bonus is that both the handheld juice press and reamer are manual devices that are easy to clean and relatively cheap to purchase.
Not only do I make use of the fresh juice, but I also use the rind of lemons and limes to increase flavour in certain recipes. I either use a fine grater or a zester. My husband has thrown away squeezed out lemons that I saved so I could use the rind and he most certainly had to hear it from me because wasting food is a pet peeve of mine. He now asks if I’m done with them when he sees the squeezed out lemons in our kitchen which I’m usually not, but at least he now asks.
If limes are a little too hard to squeeze, particularly if they have been sitting and appear dried out on the outside or if you don’t have a helpful device for extracting the juice, stick it in the microwave for 15 seconds and that should do the trick. Something else my husband had to learn after he threw away limes that he thought were dried out and unusable. Not the case! Cut through the middle to determine if they are good or not as the exterior of the lime doesn’t necessarily provide you with an accurate portrayal of the situation.
There are so many fun kitchen citrus fruit tools that are decently priced which you can explore online. If you don’t love squeezing out citrus fruit by hand then gone are the days of being forced to as you have options!
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xo Jasmine
