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totientWith a heat wave on, it's gazpacho season again. I can't get the really good tomatoes from the farmer's markets yet, but Baldor has some pretty good ones. The tedious part is prepping the tomatoes. I like them without peel or seeds, which means either canned or a lot of work separating those out. The recipe also calls for tomato juice, which I separate from the pulp, tops, and other less tasty bits. I've been doing this with a strainer but it's the wrong tool. One time at an airbnb I did it with the fine side of a cheese grater which was *really* the wrong tool.
Now I have the right tool: an electric juicer. I got a low end one, the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth, because it got good reviews and was in stock at a brick and mortar retailer near me. The bits of pulp and whatnot go in as I process the tomatoes, and every once in a while I hit the little button and juice comes out. It's not especially efficient at this so at the end I took the discard bin and tipped it back into the input and got a bunch more juice. It is pretty easy to clean, though, and so far I like it a fair amount.
All in all, tomato prep took a little more than half as long as the last time I did it. Some of that is probably improvement in my knife skills in the meantime, but a whole lot of it is not having to fuss around trying to force tomato pulp through a strainer with my fingers.
Now I have the right tool: an electric juicer. I got a low end one, the Hamilton Beach Big Mouth, because it got good reviews and was in stock at a brick and mortar retailer near me. The bits of pulp and whatnot go in as I process the tomatoes, and every once in a while I hit the little button and juice comes out. It's not especially efficient at this so at the end I took the discard bin and tipped it back into the input and got a bunch more juice. It is pretty easy to clean, though, and so far I like it a fair amount.
All in all, tomato prep took a little more than half as long as the last time I did it. Some of that is probably improvement in my knife skills in the meantime, but a whole lot of it is not having to fuss around trying to force tomato pulp through a strainer with my fingers.
