TIP OF THE DAY: Gourmet Lemonade & An Electric Citrus Press (Juicer)

June 16, 2012 at 8:15 am · Filed under Kitchenware-Tabletop

The easiest way to juice citrus. Photo
courtesy Krups. Information about the juicer.

We had dinner at a friend’s house the other night and found her juicing lemons with an old-fashioned citrus reamer (a ridged cone set on a handle). If you rarely juice a lemon, it works just fine.

But if you regularly use citrus juice—or would like to have fresh grapefruit juice or orange juice every now and then—it can get tiring. Plus, a citrus reamer does not strain out pulp and seeds, so you have to sieve the juice.

Consider an electric juicer, officially called a citrus press. It doesn’t take up much space; this model, from Krups (in the photo), is just seven inches wide. You can find an affordable model, or spring for the Krups deluxe stainless steel juicer ($127.48).

Then, instead of working out your arm to juice the citrus, you simply hold the halved fruit against the juicing cone (with the Krups juicer, you can use the lever); the machine does the work.

Now that it’s summer, when life gives you a citrus press, make fresh lemonade.

FRESH LEMONADE RECIPE

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups sugar (or equivalent agave, honey or non-caloric sweetener)

1/2 cup boiling water

1 tablespoon grated lemon rind

1-1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (8 large lemons)

5 cups cold water (40 ounces)

Preparation

1. In a 64-ounce pitcher,* bottle or other storage device, stir together sugar and cup boiling water until sugar dissolves.

2. Stir in lemon rind, lemon juice and 5 cups cold water. Chill. Serve over ice.
*If you don’t have a large pitcher (or room for one in the fridge), you can divide the batch into two quart bottles. We save the bottles from store-bought juice for this purpose.

LEMONADE TRICKS

Fancy Ice

Freeze lemonade into ice cubes: Melting lemonade “ice” won’t dilute the drink.

Add a garnish to each ice cube compartment: a piece of citrus peel, a mint leaf, a cherry (dried, fresh or marascino).

Crack the ice cubes into smaller pieces with an ice crusher. Some people own ice crushers or blenders that crush ice; we use a manual tool like this. Hold the ice cube in your hand and hit it with the crusher end. (NOTE: Smaller pieces of ice melt faster than whole cubes, so if your lemonade is at room temperature, you’ll want to keep the ice cubes whole)

Gourmet Lemonade Flavors

You can flavor the lemonade or set out a “flavor bar” so guests can add their own:

Fruit Juice: cherry juice, lime juice, pomegranate juice.

Fruit Purée: berry purée, mango purée, peach purée.

Wild Card: hot sauce.

Spirits: Gin, tequila and/or vodka.

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