cocktails 101: juicing

thirsty thursday
notes from maggie's farm

Something about glamour interested me. All my schoolbooks had drawings of women on terraces with a cocktail and a cigarette.--Bill Blass

Well, my terrace may be the front porch, and that cigarette is replaced by a shovel, but at the end of the day, a special kind of farm glamour is often celebrated, and punctuated, with a cocktail.

Alcohol or none, it does feel so glamorous to sip on a sweet or sour, herbal or unctuous balm from a pretty little glass.

And it seems glamour, and ease, go hand in hand. So let's make easy work of those tasty, fruity little liquid jewels-in-a-glass.

Beyond the easy squeeze of citrus, juicing fruit and some vegetables requires a little more ingenuity.

If you have a fancy schmancy juicer, no need to read further.

But, yikes, those things can be pretty complicated to clean, and occasionally, I'd just like to get the job done without calling in the custodial team. (Okay, I don't have a custodial team.  It just sounded so good in my mind.)

But the blender?  The food processor?  They're right at hand.  So say I want a little kiwi juice for some exotic cocktail I've never had?  Well, the steps are the same with almost any fruit--even tomatoes*.  Yes, tomatoes are a fruit.  Crazy, huh?

1. Peel the any fruits that don't have soft skins.  Kiwi, pineapple, melons?  Peel.  Peaches, Nectarines, Berries, Tomatoes?  Don't peel.
2. Cut it all up.  Doesn't have to be perfect, but the smaller the better--more juice.
3. Fill the blender carafe or processor bowl about half-full.  
4. Whip it real good.  (I was thinking of an 80's song.  Thank you, Devo. Now I'll be singing it all weekend.)
5. Dump the contents into a fine-mesh strainer over a bowl.  Press the contents a little, but not too hard, or you'll have a cloudy juice.  Unless, of course, you're aiming for cloudy juice.

The remaining pulp is great for baked goods, muffins, chickens, or mixologists.  That's you.  You're the mixologist.

A very glamorous mixologist.

*If you're working with tomatoes, salt them lightly, and let sit for about 30 minutes.  You'll yield scads more juice.  Juice for something like, um, oh, one of these, or these?