I got my hands on some Maitake back in October, thanks to D. S was out of town at the time, so I wanted to save some for him. I decided the solution was to dry some in the dehydrator. It dried quite quickly - probably a couple of hours at ~130F. I then transferred it to a resealable plastic bag and kept it in the cupboard. Yesterday I was making pizza and fancied some mushroom on it, remembered the maitake and that we hadn't tried rehydrating any of it yet, so brought it out. I just put it in a small bowl, poured enough boiling water over it to cover generously, and after about 10 min it was rehydrated and honestly almost the same as before dehydrating. When it was tender, I drained the mushroom (saving the liquid to use as mushroom stock in future recipes), then it was ready for whatever. If using the dried maitake for something wet (stew, risotto, whatever),
you wouldn't even need to do the rehydration step: just
throw it straight in. I put it on my pizza along with walnuts, olives, broccoli, capers, rich tomato sauce (with secret ingredient pomegranate molasses), a couple of fresh tomatoes, and some blue cheese on S's bits - always a bit of a random fridge clear-out when we make pizza. The pizza was a great success (good crust, from this recipe) and so was the mushroom!
I had tried drying chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms previously, which also worked well, but had then powdered them as I'd read that they do not rehydrate well, so I had not tried the rehydration step before.
For preservation of chicken of the woods (from the wonderful, huge haul of it I found with D+A in the woods, post-swim, after our day at Drumlin) I have frozen some in a resealable bag, yet to see how it comes out.
I dried some in the conventional manner (in my dehydrator), and tried some just as they were (peeled, cored and sliced ~20 mm thick), and some where I dipped them in ascorbic acid solution aka pineapple juice before drying (both times dried ~140F for ~6 hours). I didn't expect to find a difference, and it is not huge, but I think I do like the juice-dipped ones best.
I also tried out making fruit leather. I filled a pan with chunks of peeled, cored apples (and the juice of half a lemon), covered and simmered, stirring occasionally, until they were soft. Then liquidised using a wand blender. I took the plastic sheets that came with the dehydrator (without holes), and greased them lightly with oil. Then spread the apple puree out across the sheets, to a thickness of about 1/4 inch / 1/2 cm. I did some just as it was, and the rest I mixed in cinnamon before spreading it out. It dried in approx 6 hours @ 140F. It is just like leather, texturally, and tastes quite intense and appley. I think I like the cinnamon one best - adds another flavour dimension, and some sweetness.
Big thumbs up from S - he discovered these a week later on a self-described snack quest when I was out, and made sure to tell me how much he liked them later.
I also tried liquidising raw apples and then drying those. These worked reasonably well, but the texture of the cooked apple version was better - think because the puree was itself smoother and thicker before drying it could be spread out thicker and dried more evenly. Taste-wise both are good. But we did a blind taste test of the two versions and found the uncooked version to have a better, more intense taste. So, need to figure out a way of intensifying the thickness (adding a second layer of apple puree after a hour or two of drying?), but otherwise go with uncooked.
Another mulberry harvest, this time I led it. We went to 4 places on Sunday afternoon. It was hot. The first two were not very productive, but the last two were good. Ended up with about 10lb, but didn't feel like doing anything involving standing over a bubbling cauldron (I was a little off colour). I took maybe a third of them and dried them in the dehydrator (135F for ~48 hours). Ended up with about 450ml of dried berries. They became quite dry and almost crispy, but the flavour is sweet and intense when it hits, after the initial textural surprise.
Another LUrC harvest: this time sour cherries, on a sweltering 4th July afternoon. No equipment (other than plastic bags) this time, and fewer people. Harvesting at one point involved balancing on top of a ~5ft tall / 6 inch wide gatepost. We split the haul between the four of us. I decided to dry mine - and to test with / without sweetening.
~8 cups of sour cherries, after removing stones and splitting in half
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
Wash the sour cherries and put them in a colander over a bowl. Remove the stone and split each cherry in half (I found it easiest to do this with my fingers). Any juice that comes out will be caught in the bowl and saved: make sure to collect all the cherry juice in this way throughout as it is delicious and must be drunk!
Measure the volume of halved cherries. To sweeten, per four cups of cherry halves, put two cups of sugar and two cups of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the cherries and simmer gently for ~20 min. Drain (reserve the syrup), and let the cherries cool.
For the unsweetened cherries, pour boiling water over them, let sit for a minute and then drain.
Arrange the cherry halves on dehydrator racks (line with finer mesh if the cherries are on the small side). 8 cups of cherry halves filled 4/5 racks. Dehydrate at 135F. The sweetened ones took approx. 12 hours; the unsweetened ones took a bit longer.
For cherry syrup, boil the reserved sugar syrup until reduced by about half. It will be a rich cherry red, and very sweet, although with some cherry taste.
I ended up with about 400ml of cherry juice (one glassful).
2014 cherry season: This time I dried without boiling water or sweetening. Just took the stones out of the cherries and laid them out in the dehydrator. They came out just fine, whether laid face down or face up. Took a bit longer - maybe 16 hours.
The dried cherries came out great. They are little: look like dried cranberries, and with a similar texture. Both sweetened and unsweetened are delicious. The sweetened ones are more easily munchable, and taste just like the bought kind (except more intense). The unsweetened ones have more of a sharpness, but not uncomfortably so: perhaps this is more exciting. Not sure why unsweetened took longer to dry, but they did.
Another granola variation: theones I've been making in the oven come out very toasty, which is nice, but I wondered about trying it in the dehydrator. This version is following the same super simple formula as the othergranolas I have tried recently, but drying in the dehydrator instead of the oven. Could be good for those sweltering Summer days when turning on the oven seems like the worst idea ever (we're not quite there yet).
Mix the oats, seeds, coconut, ground linseed and spices in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix the honey, coconut oil, grape molasses, brown sugar and almond milk until they are well combined and any lumps of sugar are gone. Add the wet stuff to the oat mixture and mix until everything is coated. Transfer the mixture to dehydrator sheets (the ones with no holes; I used two sheets for this quantity). Spread it out evenly and put it in the dehydrator at 115F. Dry for ~20 hours, until completely crunchy, with no remaining softness.
Nicest thing about this version is that it clumps really well. However, it never goes really crunchy and is not very toasty. One thing to try would be toasting the oats/seeds/coconut separately in pan or oven before dehydrating (would kinda defeat the point of granola-making, as it makes it much more complicated). Another would be a higher temperature in the dehydrator - perhaps that's next...
2 cups flour
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
pinch baking soda
2 tbsp oil (used veg)
2 tbsp fake milk
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 cup warm water
Mix warm water, sugar and yeast and leave somewhere warm for 10min. Sift flour, salt and soda. Add oil and milk/lemon juice mix and combine. Then add yeast mix and combine to a dough. Knead 5 min then cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place for at least an hour, until doubled in size. Knock down and knead for 5 min then separate into 6 pieces and roll out to about 5mm thick. Heat oven to 500F and put a baking tray in to heat up. Switch oven to 'broil' (=grill, I think) and then put naans in. Do 2 min on each side. They didn't puff up much - perhaps better to do 4 min on 1 side. Can add garlic, veg butter, kalonji seeds to taste. Eat straight after cooking - had them with baba.
Veg chips update:
Sliced peeled sweet potato and beet thinly with a peeler. Steamed for 2min then tossed in a little oil and salt. Put in dehydrator at 57C. They didn't crisp up for a while: did about 6h at 57C then left overnight at 43C. Did notice that they crisped up as they cooled. These were pretty good, actually.
We had a mixture of traditional and not so traditional stuff for christmas lunch. It was just me and seb so it was pretty easygoing.
For pre-snacks we had some dehydrated veg chips that had been dehydrating overnight in our new dehydrator...
Some root veg: carrot, beetroot, sweet potato. Peeled and then either sliced v thinly with peeler or slightly thicker with knife. Blanched some in the steamer and put others out raw - trying out different treatments. Also did some tomatoes, some kale and some apple and banana, just laying them out as they were.
The apple, banana and tomato probably came out best. The other stuff dried out ok but didn't taste so amazing. Think that blanching was a good move. And it would prob be good to toss the slices / kale pieces in a little oil and salt before drying.
After presents and family phone calls we went to work in the kitchen...
First up was a celeriac and apple salad - followed Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe here:
Could add a handful of chopped walnuts and a few baby leaves. Serves four to six. 120g quinoa 3 tbsp white-wine vinegar 2 tbsp caster sugar 1 tsp salt 1 red onion, peeled and sliced very thinly (used half a large one) 60ml rapeseed oil (used olive) ¼ head celeriac (250g after peeling and slicing) (used half a small one) 60ml lemon juice 2-3 granny smith apples (350g after coring and slicing) (used 2 1/2 gala) 2 tsp poppy seeds 1 red chilli, sliced thinly on an angle 15g coriander leaves, roughly chopped (didn't have any so left them out)
Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil, add the quinoa and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain into a fine sieve, run under cold water and then shake well to remove all the water. Leave to cool down.
While the quinoa is on the go, put the vinegar, sugar and salt in a medium mixing bowl and whisk to dissolve. Add the onion and, using your hands, rub the liquid into it. Add the rapeseed oil, stir and set aside to marinate.
Peel the celeriac, cut it into 3mm thick slices and then cut the slices into long, 3mm-wide strips. Place these at once in a large mixing bowl, along with the lemon juice, and stir well – this will help prevent discoloration. Quarter the apples, remove and discard the cores, and cut the fruit into matchstick-shaped pieces similar to the celeriac. Add the apple to the celeriac bowl and stir well, so it, too, gets a protective coat of lemon juice. (The apples and celeriac can also be cut using a mandolin or a food processor.)
To finish, add the onion and any juices from its bowl to the apple and celeriac mix, then stir in the cooked quinoa, poppy seeds, chilli and coriander. Taste and add extra salt, sugar or vinegar, if you need them – you're aiming for a pungent, sweet and sour flavour.
Next parsnips - did a version of Delia's mustard and maple glazed ones (from Delia Smith vegetarian collection):
1lb parsnips
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp maple syrup and 2 tsp wholegrain mustard, mixed.
Heat oven to 475F (might use a little less hot next time). Put baking tin with oil in it in to pre heat.
Top, tail and peel parsnips and chop into wedges 1-2 cm square and 4-5cm long. Try and err on the chunky side. Put in steamer and sprinkle with salt. Steam for 6min.
Take tray from oven and put over a direct heat. Add the parsnips (careful, they spit). Baste them with the hot oil, then put pepper on top and put in oven for 25min.
Coat parsnip pieces with mustard and maple mix and put back in oven for 5-10 min. Serve immediately.
Two versions of brussels sprouts - first (and best) was the roasted with maple syrup classic - did them with hazelnuts this time, though they were just as good without. The other was with chestnuts and panfried (cross 4oz chestnuts and roast at 400F for 10min and peel straightaway; peel and halve 8oz sprouts and cook in a little olive oil for 17min; add chestnuts and cook 20min; add 2tsp veg stock, 2 tsp sugar, 2tsp cider vinegar and cook 10min), but the chestnuts were hard and not good - the panfried sprouts were pretty good though - similar texture to the roasted ones.
Also had bean stuff I made yesterday, and cranberry sauce, which had gelled amazingly well and tasted wonderful (note, tasted a bit like rose - perhaps contaminated bowl - which was interesting - in future could do this on purpose) - impressed with how quick and easy yet tasty that one was.
Can't really see anything, but L-R there's celeriac salad, brussels sprouts with maple, brussels sprouts with chestnuts, parsnips, bean stuff and cranberry sauce. We had it with water as we'd run out of juice. I realised at the end that everything (except the beans) had some sweetness added to some extent - I guess I like the sweet-sour / sweet-earthy playoffs, but perhaps should have gone for a bit more variety and less sugar? The celeriac salad was really good, and a half quantity would be plenty for the two of us (which would halve the time spent slicing). The parsnips were good but a little burnt - need to make sure pieces are chunky, and I'm not sure the glaze really added anything. The bad chestnuts were a shame, and generally that dish was good but the roasted ones were similar and better (hazelnuts definitely optional). The beans didn't really fit that well (and were better warm), although I guess it was good to have something less sweet.
For pudding the main option was Christmas cake, which I decorated last night (alternatives being clementines and mince pies) - see here for recipe:
We went to Prana cafe in Newton, having tried some of their very tasty raw food at the Boston Vegetarian Food Fest. A major discovery while there was kale chips. So good. To make really good ones a dehydrator is best. But you can also make them in the oven.
1 bunch kale
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
pepper
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Wash the kale thoroughly. Remove the stems and discard / keep for stir-fry or stock. Tear the leafy bits into pieces. Dry as much as poss. Then...
either...
Oven method:
Mix through about a teaspoon of olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet (or two - no piling up), sprinkle with sesame seeds and put in oven ~400F / 200C for about ten min / til looking crispy.
or...
Dehydrator method:
Steam the kale pieces for a few minutes, just until tender. Toss with oil, salt+pepper, sesame seeds. Spread out flat on dehydrator racks in a single layer. Dehydrate at 57C for about 2 hours, until completely crisp.
Can't really see anything, but L-R there's celeriac salad, brussels sprouts with maple, brussels sprouts with chestnuts, parsnips, bean stuff and cranberry sauce. We had it with water as we'd run out of juice. I realised at the end that everything (except the beans) had some sweetness added to some extent - I guess I like the sweet-sour / sweet-earthy playoffs, but perhaps should have gone for a bit more variety and less sugar? The celeriac salad was really good, and a half quantity would be plenty for the two of us (which would halve the time spent slicing). The parsnips were good but a little burnt - need to make sure pieces are chunky, and I'm not sure the glaze really added anything. The bad chestnuts were a shame, and generally that dish was good but the roasted ones were similar and better (hazelnuts definitely optional). The beans didn't really fit that well (and were better warm), although I guess it was good to have something less sweet.
