COOKING GUIDE

Fruits are always featured in any cuisine, whether Asian or Western, and learning how to prepare fresh fruits is an essential skill to have in the kitchen. The various ways of preparing fresh fruits includes

peeling, trimming, coring, stoning or seeding and cutting.

To peel citrus fruit, cut a slice from the top and from the base.

Set the fruit down on a work surface and using a sharp

knife, cut off the peel lengthwise in thick strips. Take the

colored zest and all the white pith (which has a bitter taste).

Cut following the curve of the fruit. For kiwi fruit, follow the same

technique, taking off the peel in thin lengthwise strips.

To remove the zest, use a vegetable peeler to shave off the zest in wide strips,

taking none of the white pith. Use these strips whole or cut them into fine shreds

with a sharp knife, according to recipe directions. Otherwise, you can rub the

fruit against the fine holes of a metal grater, turning the fruit so you take just

the colored zest and not the white pith. Another is to use a special tool,

called a citrus zester, to take fine threads of zest. Finely chop the threads

as an alternative to grating.