I tried another recipe from my Galician cookery book yesterday – Galletas de nata. Galletas means biscuits but I was surprised when the first translation tool I used returned “1 taza de nata” as “1 cup of scum”. I think “cream” is a better choice of word for a culinary context!

I didn’t have cream anyway, so I used milk. Another ingredient was lemon zest. This is a great ingredient but I always find it a pain to get the zest off the lemon. Our old zester broke some time ago so I normally use either a fine grater or just peel the outer skin and chop it but neither technique is ideal.

The inspiration struck me to try scraping the zest off with a sharp knife and that worked perfectly. Forget the other methods and the dream of finding a fancy gadget that will do the job. A small, sharp knife, angled and dragged across the skin, does an excellent job and is the only gadget you need.

Ps. After that success, the biscuits weren’t as brilliant as I had hoped – I think I left them too thick. Still, at least I know how to get the zest I need when I try again.

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