Canning & Preserving For Dummies, 2nd Edition
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1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups mixed dried fruit, your combination choice
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray a muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2 Combine the bran cereal with water in a large mixing bowl. Stir to moisten the cereal. Cool the mixture until it's lukewarm. Stir in the egg, buttermilk, honey, butter, dried fruit, and nuts; mix well. Set aside.
3 Combine the flours, salt, and baking soda in a small mixing bowl. Add this to the wet ingredients, stirring just until the ingredients are evenly moist. Spoon the batter into your prepared muffin pan, filling each cup about 3/4 full.
4 Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the pan; remove them from the pan and place them on a rack to cool completely. Wrap them individually in plastic wrap or store them in an airtight container.
Per 1-muffin serving: Calories 199 (From fat 87); Fat 10g (Saturated 4g); Cholesterol 29mg; Sodium 225mg; Carbohydrates 28g (Dietary fiber 3g); Protein 3g.
Fruit Leather
Fruit leather is dried puréed fruit rolled up in plastic (see Figure 17-2). The result is a chewy, fruity, taffylike treat. Some good choices for fruit leathers are apples, apricots, berries, cherries, nectarines, peaches, pears, pineapple, and plums. If you try drying nothing else, fruit leather is a must have. It is so delicious, your family will never guess how nutritious it actually is.
Preparation time: 20 minutes or longer, depending on the amount and type of fruit
Drying time: Depends on the amount of moisture in your fruit; allow 6 to 8 hours in an electric dehydrator or up to 18 hours in a conventional oven. Sun-drying isn't recommended.
Yield: 4 cups of fruit purée makes 8 to 12 servings; 2 1/2 cups covers an 18-x-14-inch area, 1/4-inch thick
One of any of the following fresh fruits:
2 to 3 pounds apples (about 8 to 12)
3 to 4 pound apricots (about 24)
3 to 4 pound peaches (about 8 to 12)
4 pints strawberries
Water or fruit juice (optional)
Corn syrup or honey (optional)
1/8 teaspoon ground spices (optional): choose from allspice, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, mace, nutmeg, or pumpkin pie spice
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pure extract flavors (optional): choose from almond, lemon, orange, or vanilla
1 Cover your drying trays or baking sheets with a heavy-duty, food-grade plastic wrap. If your dehydrator comes with special sheets for your trays, use those.
2 Wash your fruit and remove any blemishes. Prepare your fruit as directed in the guidelines for preparing fruit in this chapter.
3 Purée the fruit in a blender until smooth. Strain out any small seeds, if desired, with a mesh strainer or a food mill. If your purée is too thick, add water or fruit juice, 1 tablespoon or less at a time. If your purée is too tart, add corn syrup or honey, 1 teaspoon at a time. If you're adding spices or other flavorings, add them now.
4 Spread the purée onto the prepared trays to a thickness of 1/8-inch in the center and 1/4-inch-thick around the edges (you want the edges thicker than the center because the edges dry faster). If you use cooked fruit, it must be completely cool before spreading it on the trays.
5 Dry your fruit leather at a temperature of 135 degrees in a dehydrator or 140 degrees in a conventional oven. Dry the fruit until it's pliable and leatherlike with no stickiness in the center.
6 Roll the warm fruit leather, still attached to the plastic, into a roll. Leave the rolls whole, or cut them into pieces with scissors. Store the rolls in a plastic bag or an airtight container.
Note: The spice flavoring will intensify as this dries. Use a light hand, and no more than 1/8 of a teaspoon total in each batch.
Per 1/2-cup serving of apple purèe: Calories 55 (From fat 3); Fat 0g (Saturated 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 0mg; Carbohydrates 14g (Dietary fiber 2g); Protein 0g.
Per 1/2-cup serving of apricot purèe: Calories 76 (From fat 6); Fat 1g (Saturated 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 2mg; Carbohydrates 18g (Dietary fiber 4g); Protein 2g.
Per 1/2-cup serving of peach purèe: Calories 64 (From fat 1); Fat 0g (Saturated 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 0mg; Carbohydrates 16g (Dietary fiber 3g); Protein 1g.
Per 1/2-cup serving of strawberry purèe: Calories 43 (From fat 5); Fat 1g (Saturated 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 1mg; Carbohydrates 10g (Dietary fiber 3g); Protein 1g.
Figure 17-2: Preparing and rolling fruit leather.
Chapter 18: Drying Vegetables for Snacks and Storage
In This Chapter
Choosing the best vegetables for drying
How to dry vegetables
Creating tasty veggie snacks
Recipes in This Chapter
Dried Shell Beans
Dried Beets
Dried Cabbage
Dried Carrots
Dried Corn
Dried Green Beans
Dried Greens
Dried Onions
Dried Peas
Dried Sweet Peppers
Dried Potatoes
Sweet Potato Crunch Sticks
Dried Pumpkin
Dried Tomatoes
Tomato Two Way
Dried Zucchini
Zucchini Chips
Soup and Stew Mix
Drying foods is a super way to store a large amount of food in a surprisingly small space. If you are short on pantry space or lack more than a small freezer in the kitchen, drying may be the perfect storage solution for you.
In this chapter, you find out how to choose the bestvegetables for drying, what they look like, and how they appear when fully dried. You will be able to mix and match your family's favorite vegetables and create easy to store and use vegetables for your pantry.
Note: The per serving nutrition analyses in this chapter represent the nutrition information for the food before it's been rehydrated. Once rehydrated, the vegetables plump up again and the quantity at least doubles.
Your Vegetable-Drying At-a-Glance Guide
Traditionally, drying meant using the sun's warmth and a lot of time. You would bring in the screen-covered trays at night, before the cool night air could cause condensation. Flies and other wildlife were a cause for concern, and you had no way to know whether airborne bacteria were present until you ate the food and got sick because of it. Of course, you can still dry foods that way, but there are easier ways: in an oven or with a dehydrator (refer to Chapter 16 for a basic explanation of these drying methods).
For vegetables, a food dehydrator is your best bet because a controlled, clean heat combined with constantly moving air results in a completely dried vegetable. To use a dehydrator, you simply layer your vegetables onto stacked trays and turn on the unit. Some dehydrators have fans that blow the warmed air over the drying food. Other units have a heating element at the bottom, and as the warm air rises, it filters through all the trays, drying the produce in the process. If you're serious about drying vegetables, look for one that has both a fan and heating element, as well as a thermostat that you can set at just the right temperature.
Drying know-how
Although drying seems pretty, well, cut and dried (pick the freshest vegetables you can find, prepare them as necessary, and put them in a food dehydrator for the required time and temperature), you can ensure that you'll end up with a tasty, edible veggie by following some basic rules:
Not all vegetables need to be peeled before drying. Leaving on clean, washed skin increases the final nutritional content. Peels often contain fiber and other nutrients that only add to the overall benefit of the vegetable. You can find the best prep method in the drying instructions.
While your vegetables are drying, switch the trays around to ensure they all get even heat. For best results, be sure to cut all the food into evenly sized pieces and spread the pieces in a thin layer on the drying trays.
Some vegetables dry faster than others due to the water content of the vegetable while fresh. When setting up your trays, don't mix juicy vegetables with those that are drier.
Vegetables with different water content can have much different drying times. If you dry them all together, you can end up with mildew because some may not get completely dehydrated.
Make sure the vegetables are completely dried before sealing. To know that, you need to know what a properly dried vegetable looks and feels like. Not all are crispy when dried. Often, a vegetable is dried properly and yet remains pliable. (You can find out how to tell whether a vegetable is properly dried in the vegetable-specific sections that appear later in the chapter.)
The drying process involves many factors: moisture in the food that is being dried, the accuracy of the thermostat in the dehydrator, how full the trays are, and the humidity on the day you are drying. You may have to experiment a bit to figure out what works best. The drying process is not as accurate as other methods in this book, like canning and freezing. The final goal is to remove enough moisture so that organisms that spoil food cannot grow.
Storing and using your dried produce
When you take the vegetables from the dehydrator, they're ready to be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight.
For best results, store batches of vegetables together, but keep them in separate containers. For example, keep all dried tomatoes in a gallon jar, but inside the jar, divide them into separate storage bags, with each bag holding tomatoes dried on different days. This way, if something isn't quite right about a particular batch of vegetables, your entire season's storage isn't ruined.
You can store dried vegetables for up to a year as long as they are kept dry and out of sunlight.
Dried vegetables can be used for snacking and adding to soups and stews in the last few minutes of cooking. To rehydrate your dried vegetables add 1 1/2 cups boiling water to 1 cup of dried vegetables. Let them stand for 20 to 30 minutes to absorb the water. If all the water is absorbed and they're not as plump as you'd like, add about 2 cups additional water and let them stand until most of the water is absorbed. Use the vegetables as you would raw ones; cook them or add them to a soup or stew. A good rule of thumb is 1 cup of dried vegetables equals two cups of reconstituted vegetables.
Avoid pouring or sprinkling vegetables over a steaming pot, straight from the storage container. Doing so can cause the moisture from the steam to condense in the container and promote mold. Always pour dried vegetables into a separate dish or your hand before adding to your recipe.
Signs of trouble: Good vegetables gone bad
Although it doesn't happen often — especially if you follow instructions carefully — sometimes your vegetables don't dry properly. Or maybe they dried all right, but something happened during storage. Here are the warning signs for dried vegetables that aren't safe to eat:
Black or brown specks suddenly showing up on food. This is mildew on the surface that can make you sick.
Moisture building up inside the storage container. Whether you store your dried produce in a bag or glass jar, no moisture should ever be inside the container, even when the food's been stored for a long time.
An off odor to the vegetables. You can detect this when first opening the storage container or by holding a handful of vegetables up to your nose and sniffing. This is a sign of mildew, due to moisture being present.
Vegetables sticking together after being stored. There should not be any stickiness to the vegetable pieces when stored; they should remain loose and easily separated throughout the storage life.
Drying Common Vegetables
Having dried vegetables in your pantry makes good sense. They are quick to fix, and they let you keep that summer-fresh flavor year round. Dried vegetables take up much less room, too, than their nondried counterparts. Your family will marvel at these fresh-tasting foods when the snow is flying!
The recipes in this section assume you have an electric dehydrator with an adjustable temperature gauge. If your dehydrator doesn't have a thermostat, check your vegetables periodically for doneness and evaluate their appearance, using the information in the recipes as a guide.
Beans, shelled
Shell beans are those that grow all season and are picked at the same time. The beans in this category can include soybeans, navy beans, kidney beans, lentils, and more. All require the same drying process.
Dried beans are a wonderful addition to the pantry. They add protein and bulk to many types of foods and make recipes go farther with little change in the overall taste. Once cooked, dried beans can be made into thick, creamy dips and sandwich spreads.
Leave these beans on the vine until the pods are dry and shriveled. When you can hear the beans rattling inside the dry pods, it's time to pick them. Many times, dried beans in the pod are available at your local farmer's market, where you can buy them inexpensively by the pound.
Dried Shell Beans
Dried shell beans take up little room on the pantry shelf. Store yours in quart-sized jars because they look so pretty and are easy to pour from.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Drying time: 6 to 8 hours
Yield: 11/2 cups
1 pound of shell beans of your choice
1 Remove the pods and collect the beans. Place the beans on the dehydrator tray(s) in a single layer, adding enough to fill, but be sure that the beans are in a single layer on the trays.
2 Set your dehydrator temperature to 120 degrees and dry the beans for 6 to 8 hours, or until you can break a bean in half by hitting it with a hammer or other heavy object. Rotate the trays occasionally to facilitate even drying.
3 Remove your dried beans from the trays, place them in a tightly sealed container, and freeze them overnight to kill any tiny bug eggs that may be hiding in them.
4 Store your dried beans for up to one year.
Per 1/2-cup serving: Calories 129 (From fat 10); Fat 1g (Saturated 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 37mg; Carbohydrates 26g (Dietary fiber 6g); Protein 12g.
Beets
Beets are naturally sweet and even more so when dried. They are great to eat out of hand, or dipped in a vegetable dip. Beets are also wonderful when reconstituted in boiling water.
Dried Beets
For drying beets, choose young, firm beets. Avoid large ones that can be fibrous. To use dried slices, eat them as-is or boil for 30 minutes in plain water, until soft once again.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Drying time: 8 to 10 hours
Yield: 2 cups
2 pounds of beets
1 Cut off the leaf and root ends of your beets and cook the beets in boiling water just long enough to slip the skins off easily (this may take from 5 to 15 minutes). Thinly slice the beats and arrange them in a single layer on your dehydrator trays.
2 Set your dehydrator temperature to 120 degrees and dry the beets for 8 to 10 hours, or until the slices are hard. Rotate the trays occasionally to facilitate even drying.
3 Place the dried beets in an airtight container and store for six months in a cool dry place, out of direct sunlight.
Tip: An easy way to get the skin off a beet is to drop each boiled beet into ice water for a few seconds before pulling off the skins.
Per 1/2-cup serving: Calories 65 (From fat 2); Fat 0g (Saturated 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 119mg; Carbohydrates 15g (Dietary fiber 4g); Protein 2g.
Cabbage
Dried cabbage is a great way to add bulk and flavor to soups and stews. You can use cabbage in everything from tomato-based to clear broth soups. Your family probably won't know what that filler in the soup is, but they'll know that it tastes great.
Dried Cabbage
Select the brightest and heaviest cabb
age heads to dry. To use the dried cabbage, measure out the amount desired and sprinkle it directly into boiling soups or stews.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Drying time: 6 to 10 hours
Yield: 2 cups
11/2 pounds fresh cabbage
1 Remove any tough outer leaves; then core and shred the cabbage. Blanch the shredded cabbage for 2 minutes in boiling water and cool immediately in ice water. Drain well. Place the cabbage shreds in a thin layer on the dehydrator trays.
2 Set your dehydrator temperature to 120 degrees and dry the cabbage shreds for 6 to 10 hours, stirring every few hours to keep them from sticking together and rotating the trays occasionally to facilitate even drying. Start checking for doneness after 4 hours. Completely dried cabbage will shrink quite a bit and feel brittle.
3 Store the dried cabbage in glass jars or plastic bags, in a cool, dry place.
Per 1/2-cup serving: Calories 43 (From fat 4); Fat 0g (Saturated 0g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 31mg; Carbohydrates 9g (Dietary fiber 4g); Protein 2g.
Carrots
Carrots are a well-known vegetable, loved by everyone. They are also prolific in the garden and easy to find at farmer's markets. If you're lucky enough to buy or grow bunches of them, drying carrots is easy and works very well.
Dried Carrots
The best carrots for drying are young and tender. You can add dried, shredded carrots as-is to sweetbreads and cakes for added fiber and natural sweetness; they'll absorb moisture and become delicious during the cooking process. You can also add dried slices to any soup or stew and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Or try sprinkling shredded carrot directly into eggs when making omelets. They'll cook as the eggs do and add a colorful look to the dish.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Drying time: 8 to 10 hours
Yield: 1 cup
1 pound fresh carrots