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Post by auntieannie on Feb 10, 2012 13:59:31 GMT
um... the search engine is playing up. Hoping there wasn't already a thread on the subject!
Anyway, a uni friend recommends vegetable juices or veggie & fruit juices to survive the utter madness of this course, as well as to keep healthy through it.
After our conversation, I rediscovered my juicer and am planning to use it.
I know I will add ginger to it as it is good for the old mushy thing between the ears. thinking carrots or beetroot guessing celery sticks will add some liquid and prevent the juice being too sweet.
what would you add to that? wondering about oranges at this point!
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 10, 2012 16:36:42 GMT
I would love to know more about using juices for detoxing or for vitamin augmentation. I don't have a juicer, but use my very strong blender, so I get all the benefits of the fiber as well.
Annie, your mix sounds great. I didn't know that about ginger! I think oranges would be a lovely addition. Why not carrots and beets? Also, parsley seems like a natural in that mix.
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 10, 2012 20:14:58 GMT
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 11, 2012 10:54:59 GMT
First experiment this morning, with one very small cox apple, a very juicy minneola orange, one smallish carrot, and a little fresh stem ginger. doesn't half wake you up! doesn't half make a mess of the juicer, but I ate what the juicer discarded, bixa, inspired by you.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 11, 2012 12:32:20 GMT
Jugo verde is a popular fresh juice combination in Mexico. Ingredients may vary, but one version I like starts with orange juice or apple juice, a few pieces of nopal (prickly pear) pad, carefully despined, of course; a piece of fresh pineapple, parsley, celery, a few leaves of spinach or even green chard. I have sometimes added fresh ginger root, and it's a good addition. I can't give exact measures, but I will say to go easy on the nopal, as an excess can make the drink look like monster snot. Our jugo verdeSomeone else's jugo verdeI don't often make this at home because it's a lot of ingredients to have on hand. By unplanned coincidence, I have all the necessary stuff except for the pineapple. Maybe I'll get up and make some for breakfast.
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 11, 2012 13:59:34 GMT
thanks for that, Senor! very interesting.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2012 18:31:17 GMT
Sounds tasty, Annie! Question: if you make up a bigger batch & put some in the fridge for later, does it lose some of its health-giving benefits? It sounds good, DonC, although I can't say that the sight of it drooling off the spoon is real appetizing. I've put it into gazpacho before & was quite pleased. People in Mexico believe that nopal can fight diabetes. This appears to be grounded in fact. The wikipedia article is pretty skimpy, but this article goes into more detail. Nopal taken for diabetes control is prepared raw in Mexico, as Don Cuevas shows it. The second article linked above claims that it must be cooked to extract its benefits. This in-depth article mentions broiled nopal, but does not cover raw nopal. It does cover fenugreek and cinnamon, though, as part of a folkloric treatment of diabetes.
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 11, 2012 18:47:46 GMT
yes, bixabella, I believe vitamins will not remain for very long once the juice has been pressed, unless you take serious measures to keep them there. although refrigerating is a good way of slowing the decay of vitamins in food. but maybe I shouldn't speak because I haven't read loads on that subject yet.
Interesting about the health-giving properties of the nopal. I'd need to read more about it. um... would you juice the fruit known as prickly pear for it or the "cactus pad"? just want to make sure I understand. I have yet to try prickly pear, although I have seen them for sale in Europe. gosh I get muddled... better go and cook dinner!
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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 11, 2012 19:12:43 GMT
Bixa; Nora Cris Cecco, a Mexican food blogger of some fame, commented to me that if liquidized long enough, the jugo verde will not be so baboso (slimy, drooly). I made some this morning, and it was fine. www.gustausted.com/
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2012 19:23:43 GMT
The nopal is the cactus pad. The prickly pear is the fruit of the nopal. The word for the fruit here is "tuna", which gives English speakers quite a turn when they see tuna ice cream on a menu. The taste of the nopal/cactus pad is very mild and slightly sour. The texture is pleasantly meaty. I often use them in dishes in which I'd ordinarily use okra if I had any. If I had to compare the taste of the fruit to anything, I'd say mulberry. This is how nopal is usually sold here, already de-spined: The fruit/tuna: At the juice and beverage stands in Oaxaca, you can get a horchata -- rice/cinnamon drink -- with fresh tuna squeezed into it:
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2012 20:36:16 GMT
I love all of these juices, but my own life situation does not permit me to spend much time preparing most of this myself.
Two fruit drinks that I have sometimes found worth the extra effort to make myself are.
1. kiwi/lime juice drinks
2. avocado/sweetened condensed milk with crushed ice
This second one was a major discovery from my first trip to Vietnam, and it actually wasn't I who discovered it but my friend Ali, who, having travelled less at that time, was actually more adventurous in not feeling wary about the weird concoctions of foreign lands.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Feb 11, 2012 23:02:24 GMT
"If I had to compare the taste of the fruit to anything, I'd say mulberry."
What's the local word for the red ripe fruit of the nopal plant? I had that once in the state of Morelos as a flavoring for pulque. It was delicious.
I may have mentioned, in my post on Zihua dining, that at one meal I had an agua fresca of cucumber and lime, a delightful combination.
K2; I'm surprised that the avocado and condensed milk shake has not been discovered around her in Michoacán. We have plenty of condensed milk (from condensed cows ;D), who live on the steep slopes of the avocado groves, just to the south and west of us.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2012 23:35:19 GMT
What's the local word for the red ripe fruit of the nopal plant? Esweety-pie ~~ you didn't read the whole post? I'm surprised that the avocado and condensed milk shake has not been discovered around her in Michoacán. It was discovered. Then they put chocolate into the mixture & all died of delight. Trust me when I tell you that if you mix avocado, chocolate, maybe some cinnamon or ginger, perhaps a dash o'hooch, a little vanilla, sugar, & milk just right, you'll get something that will make you throw rocks at the best chocolate mousse you ever had.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2012 5:58:53 GMT
The Vietnamese add a bit of chocolate syrup to it as well, but that is where I part ways with them.
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 13, 2012 11:51:46 GMT
today's offering was a triumph! celeriac and apple. I might have to have a juice with my lunch. am I over doing it?
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 14, 2012 16:34:15 GMT
decided to try celeriac and minneola, with ginger, but it wasn't as delicious as yesterday's offering. still drinkable and still woke me up proper!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2012 18:38:42 GMT
Celeriac and apple sounds good to me. The celeriac would subdue the apple, which overwhelms just about everything in mixtures using apple juice.
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 15, 2012 14:55:17 GMT
Kerouac, I knew celeriac and apple in salad form as well as in soups. both are excellent so it was just a question of luck!
back to beetroot and minneola with ginger this morning. I enjoyed it more than last time.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 15, 2012 22:31:43 GMT
Minneola -- ? Some kind of citrus?
Hey DonC -- sorry, I am only now seeing your hint about extra blending to tame the green slime. Thanks!
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 15, 2012 22:41:00 GMT
yes, bixa! but it looks very much like a tangerine - the stem is minimal and seemingly empty in the ones I bought. and these ones are acidic like clementines. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangelo
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 16, 2012 22:45:49 GMT
Thanks! I actually knew about tangelos. Minneola is a prettier name.
I just had an early supper of vegetable juice. Well, I made it pretty thick, so it was more of a gazpacho:
water + cabbage, carrot, plum tomatoes, a couple of those long skinny pickled Italian peppers, onion, garlic, a bunch of fresh sage & basil, pinch of sea salt and ............. yum!
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 16, 2012 23:37:31 GMT
gosh! you might be awake a while with that! but it must be absolutely delicious. I started drooling as I was reading the list of ingredients.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 17, 2012 0:51:46 GMT
Well, remember that it was only quarter to five in the afternoon when I wrote that. I do feel energized!
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 17, 2012 13:02:55 GMT
ah... true! xxx
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Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2012 20:58:31 GMT
I bought three kiwis today. I wonder what I will do with them.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 17, 2012 22:09:29 GMT
You cook them like chicken as far as I know.
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 17, 2012 22:49:12 GMT
Mark... you so crack me up!
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 17, 2012 22:50:46 GMT
K2, apparently, juiced kiwi looked rather sickly. I have no intention of trying, so can't tell you if it is true, though!
are there other ways of eating them beside either eating them as is or putting them in a fruit salad?
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 18, 2012 3:54:04 GMT
Some people feel compelled to stick them atop custardy pastry items, the way that's often done with strawberries. I don't see it.
I googled kiwi recipes. There are actually savory recipes utilizing kiwis, such as poached chicken breast on a bed of kiwi. Naaaaaah.
Apparently kiwi & orange makes a nice juice.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2012 6:55:37 GMT
I very much like kiwi juice, even though it is obscenely green.
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