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Mincing About in the Kitchen
Having worked for months designing Steve Charter’s book, Eat More Raw – A Guide to Health and Sustainability, it’s perhaps only natural that I find myself drawn to kitchen equipment for processing raw fruit and vegetables. Steve argues that a high proportion of our diet should consist of raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds as these are the types of foods our bodies are naturally adapted to deal with and therefore the most healthy choice. I was obviously subconsciously influenced as I found myself eating more and more of these foods as the book progressed.
If you increase the amount of raw food you eat, you also need to process it into new forms, if it is not to become boring to the mind and pallet. I reviewed high quality powered juicers in PM37 and very amazing bits of equipment they are, but they don’t really fit the bill for the occasional user or someone who just wants a single glass of carrot juice first thing in the morning. Enter the Easy Health Juicer, just what the doctor ordered, a simple, rugged hand juicer which performs well and is very easy and quick to clean. Made of practically indestructible polycarbonate (Lexan) and fitted with a stainless steel auger cap this is a much more robust unit than it at first appears. It locks firmly to any flat surface by means of a suction base. This works really well and is a welcome innovation as modern kitchens don’t have the overhanging edges required by many traditional designs.
So how did I get on with it? Very well really, though initially I wasn’t so impressed as I tried juicing oranges first and oranges just aren’t its forte. If I wanted quick simple orange juice I would use a traditional orange squeezer. Harder materials though were a different matter: apples, carrots, ginger and celery juiced wonderfully, with high yield and quite dry pulp. My editor also tested one and reported similar results. It must be good as she insists on keeping it! I haven’t tried them yet but I’m told it works really well with leaves such as wheat grass, lettuce etc. For anyone just getting into juicing or who wants a compact juicer they can travel with or just requires manual operation, this is a great little device at a sensible price.
In the last few days before this issue went to press a companion product was launch-ed, the Easy Health Mincer. Same sort of construction as the juicer but with a choice of mincing screens. I don’t think I have anything else in my kitchen that so easily and cleanly grinds up every-thing I put into it as this amazing little mincer. I tried sunflower seeds (soaked and unsoaked), pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, figs, dates and half a lemon. The results where loosely mixed together and put back though the mincer again to give a finely textured mix firm enough to roll into balls, and simply delicious. Easy to use and just as easy to clean, very highly recommended. It would of course mince meat just as well!
For a long while now I have been troubled by the way many fruit and vegetables go off almost as soon as you put them in the refrigerator. I have always meant to try and find out if paper bags are better than plastic or whether I shouldn’t use bags at all. Now all is revealed! The real problem seems to be ethylene gas given off by some fruits and vegetables which causes over-ripening and rotting in others. There is an answer, natural zeolite absorbs ethylene gas and can therefore be used to prolong the life of your vegetables. Ethylene Gas Guardian Eggs do just that, each one contains a small quantity of zeolite in a Tyvek bag, which is itself inside a perforated plastic egg. Just placing these in with your fruit and vegetables will give three months protection, after which the spent zeolite can be added to the soil in your plant pots.
John Adams
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Eat More Raw
Easy Health Juicer
Easy Health Mincer
Ethylene Gas Guardian Egg
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