So – I was surfing around the other day looking for cool ideas for garnish and came across this one. All that’s required? A nice handheld zester with fairly sharp blades. This is not the microplane or grater style, these types have five channels and are fairly wide.
Luckily, I bought a nice one from zwilling a while ago, and was all set to go. So with zester and lime in hand I decided to make some Cuba Libres with fancy garnish.
Step 1 – score a row directly around the equator of the lime.
Step 2 – From the rings at the equator, score one row from the middle up to the north pole of the lime. Repeat on the opposite side. Repeat at 90 degrees. Then again on the opposite side. At the end you will have four rows of lines leading from the equator, up to the pole at 90 degree angles all the way around the lime.
Step 3 – Spin lime around and repeat the process on the other side of the equator to the opposite pole. Now repeat the process, but offset the lines.
Step 4 – Cut off the ends of the lime
Step 5 – Cut down the center of the lime between two sets of score lines.
Step 6 – With the lime in half, lay the flat sides down and cut in to four pieces, following the score lines
Now we have some pretty awesome lime slices. All we have to do is attach them to some tasty cocktails. There are a ton of ways to garnish a cocktail, we could easily just cut a slice in the meat of the lime and set it on the rim of the glass. Drop it in the glass, or do something a little extra fancy.
Step 7 – Insert your knife in to the pith of the lime on the tattooed side. Cut it away from the flesh of the line, up to about the half way point of the slice.
Slip the lime on the rim of a glass, skin out, meat in. Enjoy.
