A Tender Turkey Breast

The Microplane, that ubiquitous favorite of TV chefs and professional cooks across America made it into my cooking drawer a couple of months ago. I usually resist those trends, fearful that their use is all about a cut of the profits for the chef and not the utility of the tool, but I finally gave in and bought one a couple of months ago on sale at the aforementioned Sur La Table. Now I confess that I get an instant thrill every time I use it to zest a lemon or to pulverise a garlic clove so that the natural oils and juices are carried out into the dish in the most conservative and efficient way. I use the zester model, which is a fairly fine grater but there are many many variations and grades to meet your personal needs. Obviously developed from the common or garden woodworking file but with gleaming steel in place of cast iron, I do worry sometimes that I might zest some finger as it is extremely sharp, and I use it with extreme caution in the same careful way I do my mandoline.

I have taken to brining fowl and pork before cooking and it makes a remarkable difference to the tenderness and flavor of the meat, adding garlic and lemon peel to the brine using a microplane. A turkey breast with star anise in a 5% brine with sage and oregano and dry white wine is perfect and imparts a subtle tang to the turkey. What is a brine? We swim in it when submerged in The Pacific, sea salt evenly dissolved in clean cold water.