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Spice up meals with freshly-grated lemon zest

The season for barbecue marinades, salad vinaigrettes, and recipes featuring citrus zest and other grated delicacies is in full swing. And nothing spices up your favorite summertime meal like finely grated citrus in your barbecue rub or chocolate shavings on your crowd-pleasing dessert.

The zest of citrus fruit is far more potent in flavor than the juice alone. To give salads, barbecue rubs, vinaigrettes, lemon muffins and other recipes more kick, grate in a pinch of zest and enjoy maximum flavor.

The first step in adding zest to summertime meals is working with a high-performance grater. When grating citrus, chocolate, peppercorns and other special food enhancements, using traditional food graters can result in additional work to compensate for less than razor sharp blades, larger than desired shavings and scraped knuckles.

There are scores of recipes that require food grating, and grated cheeses, herbs and even sweets make ideal garnishes. For example: You can turn store-bought or homemade desserts into real treats. Simply take a chocolate bar that has been chilled and grate over a cake or pie. The chocolate shavings will impart a gourmet feel without all the fuss.

To reduce meal-preparation frustrations, choose from an extensive collection of graters. The companies offers rotary, rasp, box and hand-held models that allow users to easily grate mountains of citrus zest, cheese and vegetables in just seconds. A handy knuckle-saving “slider attachment” for its popular home and professional series graters also allows cooking enthusiasts to quickly grate the smallest ingredients without scraping their knuckles.

Zesty Vinaigrette

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Pinch of sugar

3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

In a small bowl, whisk together white wine vinegar, lemon zest, Dijon mustard, salt pepper and sugar. Slowly add extra-virgin olive oil, whisking until emulsified, or gently shake ingredients in a carafe.

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