Day 20 - Grapefruit Juice

It's been a week of haze, really bad haze and very luckily, our first blue sky in this week...

Even if its for 1/2 a day, it's happiness to see such clear sky... Beauty of nature!

After some researches from web about drinks that help to cleanse our lungs... I learnt that we should cut down on diary intake and focus on anti-oxidant fruits/teas... 

Lemon with water in the morning with empty stomach, some cranberry, grapefruit or carrot juice... Mint tea... Ginger... Blah blah blah... Would help a little...

So I grabbed some grapefruits from supermarket on Friday morning before the haze hit 401 that 'grey and smoky' Friday.

Here's total of 6 grapefruits, peeled and separated into smaller pieces for feeding to the slow juicer...

My first time juicing grapefruit... 

BTW, I tried a new app 'LINE Tools' which I just installed recently... To check on the noise level, not sure how accurate but just to share...

Before juicing (normal noise level in my kitchen with doors and windows closed)

When A*Juicer was turned on but without feeding of fruits

And this was when the grapefruits were fed into the juicer... Somehow ard the similar range...

This portion yielded about 5 Cups of juice. (FYI, I used fine strainer) It was a little bitter and sour... So I added some maple syrup to neutralize the taste... Pretty good!

No video as it's very similar to my post on juicing oranges...

Here's the pulp...

And not forgetting the cleaning part... Nothing much left with the centre screw so cleaning was not too tedious...

Take care, folks! Hope we can all pull through this hazy period... And may all the dengue mosquitoes be eliminated entirely!

Stay safe and healthy!! ^^

Day 18 - Soy Milk from my kitchen!

Soy milk is readily available at many places in Singapore (or SE Asia)... If you prefer to drink it with less sugar, you can always request that to the counter staff/ stall owner.

It was nice and healthy, yet cheap and so available... So it hadn't come to my mind of making it at home until I was much older and more keen to adventure on my favorite food... favorite food? This could be tricky because I love a lot of food... Haa!

Today, I've made it, finally! Thanks to my parents for helping to get the dried soy beans, pandan leaves and rock sugar on behalf as I was pretty stuck at home (yesterday) due to the very unhealthy level of haze condition.

Before I did this adventure on my own, I read up from the web to find the most commonly used recipe/portion, key pointers from pple with years of soy milk experiences...

Plenty of 'written' soy milk recipe was made by blending, followed by straining using cheese cloth... I'm using the slow juicer!!! (Guidance came mainly on YouTube without much tips)...

As mentioned, I did this on my own so I didn't have a model for video. Nevertheless, it's just like how I did the almond milk in my previous post. So to speak, I only have tips and pics to share...

Gathered tips as follow:

1. Try to use non-GMO beans (or organic)

2. If the weather is too hot, replace the soaking water in between the 12 hours or keep the soak in fridge

3. Make sure the soaked beans are soft enough so it doesn't challenge ya tools (be it a blender or a slow juicer)

3. Keep stirring when boiling the milk as residue might get burnt at the bottom of the pot

Before 

1 cup of dried beans swelled into 2.5 cups of cute soy beans after 13 hours (Since I overslept... Oops!)

I use total of 8 cups of water for juicing with the beans (the soaking water was discard), so 2 of the following.

After

I used fine strainer to ensure min. Pulp in the juice... And maximum Okara (the dry part of beans after juicing. This could be recycled onto many other dishes but this was my first time so I wasn't ready...)

Poured the yield of over 8 cups of milk into a big pot, threw in about 4-6 pieces of fresh pandan leaves (folded) and bring it to boil over medium low heat. 

Kept stirring to avoid burnt... After boil, add in a piece of rock sugar for sweetening the milk... Let it cool in the pot or serve immediately when warm. It can be kept for 3-4 days in fridge... But why won't you finish it and make it fresh and warm daily!? Haa ^^

It's really simple when made with slow juicer because the juicing included straining, while using a blender, the mixture had to be strained separately. I wondered if that affect the richness in taste of the milk... So perhaps someone who tried both ways could share a little based on your experience?!

Lastly, here's my cleaning part... Very simple, as usual!

Day 11 - It is Almond Milk!!

I love almond... And I love milk...

Today, I was thrilled! This is the first time I'm making almond milk!

I wanted to try this since the first time I saw the making of almond milk using slow juicer on YouTube... I searched online for recipe and each have a different saying...

Some say 1 cup of almonds to 1 cup of water, others have 1 cup of almonds to 3 to 4 cups of water...

Some say reserve the soaking water to juice it together... Some say do not use the soaking water but fresh new water when juicing...

For me, I started the preparation since last night. I soaked 1.5 cup of almonds in 3 cups of warm drinking water and let it stand overnight...

After 12 hours, the soaking water turned brownish but with a light almond fragrance... Seriously, I was tempted to reuse this water for juicing as I believe there's rich nutrients from the soaked almond... However, I didn't want my first almond milk to turn out brownish, so I replaced it with drinking water.

After soaking overnight, the almonds had grown in size... It's 2 cups of almond in the morning, so I used 7 cups of water to juice for almond milk... (Maybe its too diluted? I didn't know until I try but I didn't want to spoil my juicer when it's merely 11 days old with me... So let's just try!!

Here's the video of the 'grounding' of soaked almonds, using A*Juicer. The noise level was acceptable (at least my girl was still sleeping, while we were happily trying to juice almond milk).



I didn't managed to measure the exact amount if milk made from this batch of almonds as simple maths could tell that 7 cups of water + 2 cups of almonds would easily exceed the 4 cup capacity of the container... Wahahaha! Here's the huge amount of milk yielded from this proportion of 'recipe' (with extremely dry pulp). It's not very rich taste of almond but with a light fragrance of it. In terms of its texture, it's just like fresh milk. I'd probably cut down the proportion of drinking water for juicing during the next batch to see if it could taste richer  :)

And don't forget about the cleaning up! Nothing much was left inside the juicer so cleaning was a breeze today! *Clap Clap*

I was getting happier with this juicer the moment it passed the almond milk test... Wahahaha!! Next on my trial list would be soy milk... If you are longing for a good slow juicer, my humble advise to you would be, why not try this A*Juicer ^^

Day 9 - NZ red apple juice

5 small crunchy red apples, with seeds removed, yielded about 2 cups of apple juice. I had used fine strainer this time as I want the juice more than the flesh...

Turned out? Very rich and sweet, real, pure apple juice! I love it ^,^

In my post abt green apple juice, there were quite an amount of pulp retained on the squeezing screw. This time, there's not much of it inside the juicer... Most of the fruit had come off from the outlet dry.

I placed the parts into a mixing bowl, not to mix them but to reuse the rinsing water, instead of brushing everything user running water. At the end of the cleaning, I used about a mixing bowl of water for cleaning... Guess I'm getting quicker and quicker ^,^

To wrap it up, I find that this juicer (perhaps generally the same for all slow juicer?) juice apples, oranges and carrots pretty well. So-So for high and long fibre item like celery as it got stuck easily if not chopped to smaller pieces.. And soft and tiny fruits like tomatoes or grapes, the pulp didn't come out as dry... So I usually run a second squeeze for soft and tiny items... Anyway, I had only tried so few items, so this is really based on my limited experience (but commonly juiced fruits/vege)... Next on my bucket list would be almond nuts!!! Till then, folks!

Day 8 - The Remainders

After fridging the fruits be vege for a few days, I finally decided to finish them off before they went to waste...

The remaining seedless red grapes, yielded 1/2 cup of very sweet juice. I didn't wait to finish then off!

The whole packet of celery which had been refrigerated for almost a week, yup this sounded very dry, yielded 2 cups of juice (mixed with the 1/2 packet of almost drying carrots). This would be set aside for my parents.

I'm done for this batch!!! Till I have time to juice... And till it's the right season, I'd get more fresh fruits to squeeze them dry! Wahahahaha ^^ 

Day 6 - Orange Juice

Peeled oranges, about 6 of these yielded more than 3 cups of orange juice with pulp.

As they were juiced with the fibre and seeds... The juice turned out v thick and slightly bitter or sour... A v rich taste...

Before

After

The wash up

Enjoy ^,^

Day 3 - Green Apple Juice

It was getting late... Little did I expect my husband to ask for juice... Haa! So he shall be my model for juicing!

5 small-medium green apples yielded about 2 cups of juices, I used coarse strainer to retain more pulp in the drink.

Firstly, rinsed the apples, removed the stickers on skin, if any, removed the core and seeds (Did you know that seeds of apples and pears are toxic and should not be used when juicing? I learnt from an auntie when she did demo at Taka...)

A large bowl of cut apples, gentle reminder that the feeder is of a moderate size so cutting apples into quarter would not be sufficient, you'll need to half it further.)

So by force, my husband had to put aside his PS3 controller and got over to the kitchen for his first hands-on... When quite well as he just need to turn on the juicer and start throwing sliced apples into the feeder. How hard can that be? ;p

So my girl watched as he happily juiced... We tried to video it but my girl got too excited and wanted to get off her high chair... You'll find out what I meant when you catch this clip... So it's just a very short clip with some background noise (not from the juicer...)! ~,~

Here's the juice, about 2 Cups... With quite an amount of foam.

Good news was that the juicer did not move this time, I meant didn't shake but say firmly on the base... Relived!! Also, the pulp that came out from the outlet was relatively dry... We were satisfied!

Here came the washing part... The pulp got stuck inside the strainer, on the rotating angular... Not too sure why but I got my juice!

We chilled the juice in the fridge for about 30mins or longer... The juice didn't become separated like those from traditional centrifugal juicer. Nevertheless, it's just a comment, we usually drink it right away so it didn't matter that much.

Conclusion, the pulp often got stuck when I tried juicing today... Need to try out more to find out how it could be avoided. Bottom line from today's juicing experience: it's quiet, juice well and budget (reasonable price), easy to clean up... Met all my criteria!

Day 3 - Celery Juice

(Sorry, no pic or video for this as I didn't have a model during juicing)

I made some celery juice for my in law today to help with controlling her HBP.

I removed the fiber and chopped up the celery into smaller pieces of about 4cm or so...

During the juicing, the juicing unit didn't seem to move too obviously as compared to what I had seen when doing grapes with seed the first time. I should monitor further to see if the unit was shaking at all when juicing.

Back to celery juicing, the pulp didn't managed to come off from the outlet as smoothly, I knew something was wrong, then more and more pulp (tiny ones) came through the coarse strainer and out from the juice outlet... That's fine for me but I didn't think that's meant to be so...

As it wasn't a whole lot of celery to juice, I only got 3/4 cup of juice for my in law. I quickly dismantled the juicer to check and, as expected, the pulp outlet was congested with squashed celery, causing the pulp outlet to be jammed, and some smaller pulp came out from the juicing outlet during the dripping of final few drops of juice.

This didn't happen when I did the vege combo yesterday. Perhaps the celery needs to be cut into even smaller portion to avoid this from happening. I cut the celery into about 2-3cm when I tried yesterday and it worked fine, just that the pulp outlet seemed to be a little bit jammed by the carrots, instead.

Have to take note of the length of high fiber food/ vege that we fed the juicer... Will take note!!

It is Grape Juice (again!)

Did you know that after grapes had been rinsed with tap water, they need to be thoroughly pat dry before re-refrigerating? If not, probably, the water will expedite the ripping process causing your grapes to turn bad very soon...

It was just last morning that I rinsed the grapes, last night that I did the pilot juicing (without clip)... 2 of the grapes were starting to turn soft... Mom, who had been eyeing at these very sweet and juicy Indian red grapes warned me to consume them before it's too late...

So, I did it, again... Haa! This time, I took a landscape video, so you got to see my miserably tiny workspace in the kitchen... Nevermind, that's not the key... I picked the coarser strainer so that more pulp could be consumed, as well. No waste to sweet fruit like grapes!

Here's the video (taken as landscape so nobody has to tilt their heads again)...

And here's the juice with pulp that it yielded... Slightly more than 1/2 Cup ^,^

Sneak preview of what's coming up next... The 'missing' oranges and green apples had been 'found' and more celery to come... Stay tuned >,<

Day 2 Juicing

As mentioned, my very first juicing experience (on grapes with small seeds) was not captured as my girl was roaming in the kitchen and fighting for the grapes...

The next day (today!) I managed to properly try the juicer on pear and vegetables, without washing the parts under the tap... just using the so-called quick rinse method and it worked pretty okay.

Firstly, let me apologize for posting portrait videos as it became locked as landscape... so you'll probably become giddy after watching these 3 clips... Nevertheless, no harm checking out them out if you were keen since I kept them as originals, with the real noise captured... Anyway, I would take note and try to make landscape video for future juicing, just bear with my tiny workspace...

Here's how they went... Juicing Pear... I did not have time to weigh them before and after... I was only keen to see if the juicer was stable as it moved a little during juicing of grapes last night...




Here's the dry pulp from juicing pear

After the rinse with warm drinkable water, I tried juicing Celery, Tomato and Carrots. The pulp came out pretty dry. I was satisfied with it...

Here's the amount of juice from the vegetables combo... and the dry pulp

Alright, done with juicing for the day... Here's how it looked like inside after the 2 juicing... some pulp was caught up inside but its not a lot...

The rinsing of parts under running water with a simple brushing of the strainer was almost effortless, just need to ensure that we don't waste too much water.

Alright, till I test it again (with proper landscape video... Haa!!!)

Stay tuned...

The Arrival

After a long long wait since 2pm, the juicer arrived at the last 5 mins before the clock stroke at 6pm...

The delivery guy was caught up in traffic jam due to the heavy downpour. He was friendly and gentle with the items.

Good timing that my girl fell asleep during the wait so I had some time to myself to enbox! Haha!

I gently opened up the box, which wasn't sealed... took a few snap shots and 'stock-take' the items. Seemed fine...

I carefully read up the user manual before touching anything else... This was a budget version of slow juicer but still an investment to me...

Once everything was ready, I carefully and slowly assembled the parts together... To be honest, it took me sometime to manage to get the top cover secured before I could turn on the power to test if its working...

As the motor was turned on, there was no shaking (which was supposed to be the case) but the noise level of motor was louder than what I heard during the demo  at metro... Probably it was dry and my kitchen was super quiet...

After which, I washed the parts and wiped them dry to get ready for real juicing...

"What would you like to try?"

"How about grapes?"

I shared the same thought as my husband. Grape is soft and tiny. No need to cut them up. On top of that, the seeds are good anti-oxidant, so with all the pros, it made its way to be our beginner gentle and quick start choice of fruit.

As my girl was around, I didn't manage to take picture or video of my very first juicing experience but I'll quickly do it up tomorrow with some pictures and simple layman's review comments!

Stay tuned...

(Updated: I totally forgot about the wonderful perk that came with this promotion - a set of 3 ceramic knives with stand!!)