Steamer & Juicer Tutorial

My Auntie Bonnie has been bugging me to post pictures of the steamer I have so I decided to make a "tomato-veggie blend" juice today and blog about it. After making the juice I used the pulp to make tomato paste and tomorrow I'll can it. Here goes:

Tomato Veggie Juice & Tomato Paste

Quarter up 12 lbs of fresh tomatoes. Core them but leave the peels on.
1 small bunch of carrots, unpeeled and cut into pieces.
4 onions, sliced.
1 bunch of celery, cut into 1 inch pieces.
3 green peppers, cut in pieces.
1 teaspoon of coarse salt.
1 tablespoon of sugar.
1/2 gallon jug of Motts Clamato Juice.
2 tablespoons per jar of lemon juice.
Optional: Whatever spices/seasonings you prefer, although I didn't add any.

Sliced, chopped, quartered, and ready to go!

After getting all your veggies done grab your steamer.

It has three main pieces; the top where the veggies go, the middle where the juice collects, and the bottom where you add the water. I put a marble in the bottom to warn me if it goes dry (never let it go dry!)

Somewhat layer your veggies in there. I mean really heap it up, it doesn't matter if you can't get them all to fit, when things settle you can add more.

Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of coarse salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar over the whole works. This is where you could add your optional spices.

Place the lid on... even if it just sits on top for now :)

Depending on what I'm juicing I set either jars or a large pot on a tv table to collect the juice, today it was a pot. I let the veggies steam hard for about an hour and then begin to tap it off. During the first hour try to limit how many times you lift the lid. I never did have to add any extra water to the bottom of the pot.

This is what the juice looks like when it first comes out.

I like to see it red so I stirred up the veggies in the top and after a few minutes it looks like this:

At this point a bit of the seeds were starting to come through so after I finished tapping off all the juice I strained it through a jelly bag. I love clamato juice but I didn't have any clam broth so I added a jug of Mott's Clamato Juice, this helped darken it up even more and gave it a wonderful flavour. Just before processing I also added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to each 2 quart jar for safety's sake. I then processed in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. I got three 2 quart jars and one 1 quart jar for a total of 7 quarts. Here's the results:

The juice has a wonderful flavour and the vegetables blend together rather nice. After I finished bottling up the juice I ran the veggie pulp through a press and will use that for tomato paste. Tomorrow I'll can it in 1/2 pint jars and add them to my pantry room shelf. I just bought the steamer this year and I've been having a blast with it. Not only can you do juice and jellies but you can use it for roasting, steaming, and cooking of all sorts. I juiced some plums the other day and I'm going to make syrup for pancakes and waffles. The possibilities are endless and I think the steamer/juicer is well worth the money.