Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Hurom Slow Juicer

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am with the Hurom Slow Juicer. I literally have 4 other juicers in my cabinets right now: one vintage aluminum citrus press, one electric rotating citrus juicer, one super heavy duty Champion Wheatgrass juicer, and one Breville Juice Fountain. I actually adore the vintage aluminum citrus press, even though it takes a lot of arm strength when I am squeezing lots of lemons. If friends come over, they might chose to use the electric citrus juicer, but it’s too slow and awkward for my taste. The Champion was my Mom’s and I don’t think she has taken it out of the cabinet for over a decade- it’s just too heavy! The Breville came in handy before I really got serious about juicing, but it was always a mess to clean and left me with a glass of only half juice with a thick foamy layer over the top.

I’m proud to say that I have entered the new millennium of juicing. The Hurom Slow Juicer is the first of its kind: an upright masticating juicer. It presses the juice from the produce (like a mortar and pestle) rather that using centrifugal force to spin and chop the produce into minuscule pieces and then separate the juice from the pulp. You can see in the Demo Video how different it is from the typical high-speed juicer.

So here’s why I like it so much better. Firstly, it’s quiet. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit but I have always been scared by loud appliances (like vacuums for instance). It really does make a difference by lowering my state of agitation. Secondly, I don’t end up with a glass full of foam! I get well-integrated whole juice that looks and tastes better. Thirdly, it’s much easier to disassemble and clean than my Breville. And lastly, I can make any kind of juice- including citrus juices!

You may have inferred that I like my citrus juices (since I have 2 citrus juicers). The reason I have to have separate citrus juicers is that the Breville, or any similar centrifugal-force juicers, can’t juice citrus. Well, I guess it could, but you end up with chopped up bits of seeds making the juice very bitter. As long as you peel the citrus, the Hurom Slow Juicer is a whiz!

I haven’t tried it yet, but it can also make nut and soy milks, so for anyone who is lactose intolerant, this would be a huge benefit. And this is super cool: you can then take that natural soy milk and press it through a cheese-cloth to make tofu! How cool is that? The Hurom Slow Juicer is really like a multi-use kitchen appliance for making sauces, ketchup, marinates and whatever else you think of. I just made a marinade for baked tofu using primarily soy sauce and sesame oil, but for added flavor I juiced some ginger and onions, and for a gorgeous color I added fresh beet juice.

One of my most stunning discoveries is that the Hurom Slow Juicer can juice pulpy fruits like papaya and strawberries. The old Breville would make a total mess of papaya and it would gum up the juicer so much that it was a nightmare to clean. Also I could tell that it wasn’t really working because the pulp was so watery that very little juice was actually produced. Now with my Slow Juicer I can drink all the healthy digestive enzymes that a papaya has to offer.


This brings me to the next point that I really should have included in the why I like it so much. It’s not as tangible as my other points but it’s pretty significant. The Slow Juicer is so named because it uses far fewer RPMs than the Breville-style juicers. That means you save energy. Also, the produce doesn’t become heated (and thereby pasteurized) which kills important healthy enzymes. In nutritional tests, the Slow Juicer was statistically significantly higher in vitamins A and C. This also means that it’s the best juicer for raw foodists.

I’ll have to blog about my baked tofu once it’s actually baked (it is marinating overnight right now), but I would like to finish with a few of my all-time favorite healthy juice recipes:

1. Equal parts carrot and papaya (it’s really that simple and delicious!) In the photo I added beet juice to give it a lovely color.

2.

½ lb carrots

1 large Fuji apple

About ¼ cup beets for color

1 Tbs ginger

3.

1 Fuji apple

6 strawberries (you can leave the green top on!)

Whatever greens you have in the garden in about the same quantities as the strawberries

1 small peeled lemon

4.

¼ fennel bulb

1 Fuji apple

¼ lb carrots

5.

2 Meyer’s lemons (peeled)

2 Tbs agave syrup

2 oz Crown Royal whiskey

Serve over ice

…ok, maybe it’s not the most healthy recipe but what a great use of citrus!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Free Pressure Cooking Events in Downtown Seattle on Saturday, June 18th!



Hey Seattle Foodies! Learn from pressure cooking expert Laura Pazzaglia of HipPressureCooking.com as she prepares four fabulous recipes in Fissler BluePoint pressure cookers on June 18th in Seattle. Events will be held at the headquarters of the popular cooking website Allrecipes.com. Two sessions will be offered, at 12:00 noon until 2:00pm and 3:00pm until 5:00pm on Saturday, June 18th. Events are free and open to the public but preregistration is requested by contacting Kerry at City Kitchens at Kerry@citykitchens.biz by Friday the 17th. Attendees will meet at City Kitchensgourmet cookware store at 1527 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101, which is adjacent to the headquarters of Allrecipes.com. All event attendees will be eligible for a special discount at City Kitchens.  

Laura will demonstrate the following recipes, using Fissler Blue Point pressure cookers. The Fissler Blue Point, available in six sizes, provides incredible cooking versatility for a wide range of cooking applications, while ensuring total safety:
Caramelized Apple Crumb Cake:
Ligurian Lemon Chicken 
Prosciutto Asparagus Canes
Zucchini cups on Tomato Bed

About Laura Pazzaglia and HipPressureCooking.com:
Laura Pazzaglia, comes from a career of directing technology projects at large software and new-media companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. Five years ago she chose to stay home with her newborn and eventually moved to Austria where she discovered pressure cooking, and then Italy where she now resides.
When she couldn't find the recipes she wanted to cook she started to develop her own. Her website, www.hippressurecooking.com, is a campaign for fast, modern, healthy, energy-efficient recipes. With clear directions and vivid step-by-step photos www.hippressurecooking.com takes the fear out of pressure cooking and injects it with inspiration.
Laura’s personal goal is to get those who are just cooking, pressure cooking!

About Allrecipes.com:
Allrecipes, the world’s largest social network of food and entertaining enthusiasts, receives more than 35 million annual unique visits from users who share and download recipes, reviews, photos, personal profiles, and meal ideas.
For more than 10 years, the Seattle-based site has served as a dynamic, indispensable resource for cooks of all skill levels seeking trusted recipes, entertaining ideas, everyday and holiday meal solutions, practical cooking tips and food advice. As the fastest-growing independent food Internet site, and part of the Reader’s Digest Association, Inc. Food & Entertaining Division, Allrecipes provides insights into the kitchens and cooking passions of home cooks everywhere. For additional information regarding Allrecipes, please visit www.Allrecipes.com 

About City Kitchens:
City Kitchens is known as the “one-of-a-kind store for cooks, since 1988”. It is one of the finest independent cookware retailers in the country, featuring the very best housewares, kitchen gadgets and cooking tools in a beautiful store in the heart of downtown Seattle. Visit http://citykitchensseattle.com/ for more information.

About Fissler cookware:
Fissler is Germany’s finest manufacturer of quality cookware, with a specialization in pressure cookers since the turn-of-the-century. A constant innovator in the field, Fissler’s expertise in pressure cookers has led to the Fissler Blue Point line which contains the safest and easiest to use pressure cookers on the market. For more about Fissler, visit www.fisslerusa.com.