GOT MY DEHYDRATOR YAY!!!!!!!!

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GOT MY DEHYDRATOR YAY!!!!!!!!
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ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:20 pm Post subject:

you may well have, remember, everything that goes in the dehydrator becomes more intense in flavour

i found this out the hard way with my soy soaked veg crisps. the soy mixture was fine but i topped them with a mix of dried and ground veg to which i had added some crushed black pepper. if you pour some of this mix on your hand and eat it it's lovely, slighty spicy and sweet. BUT the pepper really intensified in the dryer and they were almost too hot to eat

next time i'll just give them a light sprinkling

my next lot i'm planning on doing is yogurt covered sultanas and yogurt covered peanuts. i'm planning on using a nice fruit yogurt for extra flavour mmmmmmm

i did a banana puree and yogurt leather (passion fruit and peach yogurt) and it was so good we ate the entire sheet (the 3 of us) in on sitting!!! mmmmmmmmmm

i have just been laying a piece of baking paper across the tray and adding the yogurt or puree on that. then i make a few holes in the centre to make sure the air gets through and that's fine. i try not to get the puree too close to the centre to make sure nothing drips and it works well. also, a light spray of fry light or similar helps the leather come off easier when it's dried

tonight i'm going to juice some granny smith apples and use the pulp of the apples mixed with a few tablespoons of lidl's 100% mix exotic fruit juice (apple, orange, passionfruit, mango, peach, nectarin, imbu and something else, tastes like passionfruit) i'll make some leathers from this which will probably be a little piece of heaven

plus, it makes me feel better about using the juicer, we're still gettin the fibre eventually

i've really been enjoying the powdered mixes from various veg. they're great to add to the breadmaker. or to use vs expensive spice mixes for cooking

i also love veg crisps, beetroot and parnsip are my favourites, followed closely by light fried onion dried mmmmmm

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:26 pm Post subject:

i just had an idea, i'll have to give this a go

in the states jelly mix is always a powder (i thought jelly cubes were so strange when i moved to scotland

)

the thought occured to me that i can do a powder mix of any fruit and veg i dry, add to the liquid used in the plain gelatine i buy and perhaps even use some type of juice instead of water to make some healthy and really tasty jelly

apple, beetroot, carrot and kiwi could be really nice. i know it sounds like a weird mixture but i know from experience with both juicing and dehydrating that these flavours blend very well. if i used orange juice for part of the liquid (i could use hot water to disolve the gelatin) then i would have an amazingly healthy jelly with an intense flavour.

it'd take a bit of playing around to get the right amount of powder but i think it would be worth it. i think i'll have a look at tesco's online and find out how many grams of powder are in the sugar free variety since they are powdered... then i can use that as a baseline i suppose and work from there

anyone else up for this challenge?

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:30 pm Post subject:
Bit advanced for me at this stage.

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 6:12 pm Post subject:

aww well jema, i'd be happy to 'hold your hand' if you decide to brave it

actually, i've got great incentive. we're desperately trying to give up junk food. for the last month it's been banished during the week so only on weekends can we eat it. eventually i want to ban any junk other than what can be purchased within our pocket money allowance

dd gets 50p a week so that is a small amount of junk she can buy

right now we're really broke so dh and i only give ourselves �2.50 each to spend as we please. even when things are better financially i think that i'd prefer to keep ourselves to that limit.

anyway, i digress

we've looked into all sorts of healthy alternatives to junk, thus my enthusiasm for the dehydrator and my juicer.

when i crave savoury stuff i can oddly enough be satisfied 99% of the time by eating a tin of mackeral from lidl

it's just sooooo nice! what's really weird is that i didn't grow up eating much fish at all, maybe 3 or 4 times a YEAR (not that uncommon in US if you don't leave near the sea) but i love it

alternatives for sweets are harder though. i'm thinking of adding some powder to my ice lolly mixes as well. that way i can give these 'sweets' to dd more frequently and she doesn't have to know she's getting loads of good vitamins from the carrot/apple/kiwi etc that's been powdered and mixed into the juice that makes them up! the yogurt and cream based ice lollies work a treat about 75% of the time when i'm craving chocolate

whilst cream isn't the healthiest food in respect to the fat, it satisfies that craving for fatty food in about the healthiest way i can manage and at least it's got calcium, those fatty chips don't do so much for you!

so, if i can do really healthy ice lollies AND really healthy jelly, both which are adored by dd then i think i'll be well on the way to kicking the cravings for nasty chemical laden junk food and be teaching my dd such an excellent lesson

besides, one thing i have really noticed since we've been doing this... that stuff doesn't taste so nice anymore

a few bites of chocolate and i'm good. chips in restaurants

anything that i thought tasted slightly chemical now is so revolting i don't even want to smell it

but a really ripe cherry tomato...now THAT tastes better than most sweets mmmmmmmmmm

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 05 10:27 pm Post subject:
tried the biltong and too far gone in 1.5 days let alone the 3 day recommendation

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28251
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun May 01, 05 6:03 am Post subject:
I figure 20 hours max in this sort of dehyrdrator.

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Sun May 01, 05 10:49 am Post subject:

i agree that his dehydrator dries faster than anticipated, even by it's own book

my old one took days but it didn't give off much heat or have a fan so i shouldn't be surprised

i tried yogurt covered peanuts and sultanas the other day. they tasted lovely but i didn't coat them heavily enough. i've got fromage fraid (cherry mmmm) covered sultanas in now, heavily coated.

i also have strawberry as well as pineapple yogurt and cherry fromage frais 'drops' in just a dollop here and there to dry. these should be really nice and sweet.

i think i'll do banana puree and ff drops next as well as trying a smidgen of chocolate in the middle of a good dollop of ff (fromage frais seems to taste nicer dry than yogurt so far)

maybe after i've tried a few more items i'll write an article about my findings

Deedee

Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 250
Location: Surrey

Posted: Tue May 17, 05 8:15 am Post subject:

AW BUGS!!!! I am sooo sorry Tchibo messed you around on your surprise for Treacy

What a shame... I have had great fun tinkering with mine as time permits and reading some of the things Buttery has been up to has inspired me! Not had a lot of time to play (been away to Great Yarmouth with the boys and am now awaiting 3rd skip to finish the garden AT LAST!!!!!!) Plus all the usual chaos this time of year,and appointments galore you get the picture

but will report on any more success I have as the crops become ready

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Tue May 17, 05 10:20 am Post subject:

i recently dried some vine ripened tomatoes i managed to get for only 25p per package. i soaked them in a marinade honey vinagrette, garlic and parsley and then laid them out. i had some kiwis that were going to go off and not so nice for just eating so i marinated those in the same marinade and those were nice too!

i've recently done a yogurt and banana leather and it's just brilliant. i highly recommend pureed bananas as a base for any leather mmmm

i just got some more cheap tomatoes so i'll be doing another batch and i got 3 huge sticks of rhubarb so i'm going to try making some candied rhubarb as well as candied satsuma and lemon peels (got these for a pittance as well)

i may even try candied carrot since i love glazed carrots so much... i'll let you know how it turns out

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Tue May 17, 05 10:24 am Post subject:

jema wrote:

tried the biltong and too far gone in 1.5 days let alone the 3 day recommendation

i made some chicken jerky last week, soaked it in the remainder of a bottle of red wine, a splash of balsamic vinegar, garlic and herbs de provence. i let it soak for 24 hours and it only took about 6 hours to dehydrate.. it lasted all of 3 hours!

since you have to used cooked chicken for jerky i figured reusing the remaining marinade would be fine so i put a chunk of lean mince in and let it soak for about 4 hours. i made burger shapes and put them in the dehydrator. about 3 hours later i took them out, tasted them and decided to skip the rest of the drying process as they were just too darn wonderful to not eat there and then mmmmm

i think i'll make some of these 'burgers' for our camping trip this summer

HG

Joined: 08 Apr 2005
Posts: 105
Location: London

Posted: Wed May 18, 05 8:23 am Post subject:

Really inspired by this thread and after consultation with the O "not something else for the kitchen" H yesterday ordered the Tchibo thingy (thanks for the discount tip

) and also that recommended book.

How's this - amazon received my order at 4.20pm yesterday, and the book was delivered at 7.20 this morning!!! Unbelievable.

Now, just to wait for the dehydrator and hope they're more efficient than Bugs experienced...

ButteryHOLsomeness

Joined: 03 Apr 2005
Posts: 770

Posted: Wed May 18, 05 9:31 am Post subject:

happy to have been of service HG

i'm sure you'll enjoy having it. i just put most of my 'sun' dried tomatoes in the remaining oil from the storebought variety. i topped it up with more olive oil and they just look so lovely staring back at me

last night i had a ham & cheese sandwich on multi seeded bread and used some of the dried tomato and dried red onion that i'd done... you could definately sell this sandwich at Pret a Manger

please feel free ask me if you have any questions. i'm no pro but i'm definately enthusiastic

HG

Joined: 08 Apr 2005
Posts: 105
Location: London

Posted: Wed May 18, 05 9:36 am Post subject:
cheers muchly for that - so many uses and hopefully I'll get cracking when it arrives. OH is excited at the thought of some decent trail mix and I'm looking forward to some experimentation :bounce:

lr110td5

Joined: 20 May 2005
Posts: 37
Location: Kerpen, Germany

Posted: Mon May 23, 05 8:59 am Post subject:

The great thing about the internet is that it is a virtually unlimited source of information. But I find it a bit cumbersome trying to search for hints and recipes at a later date, especially when there's a lot of "chat" in-between. If I take this particular thread as an example, would it not be possible to condense the various contributions - like those from ButteryHOLsomeness - in a separate, permanent file for easier access, such as in the "Latest Articles" selection?
Colin

Last edited by lr110td5 on Tue May 24, 05 8:28 am; edited 1 time in total

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Mon May 23, 05 10:02 am Post subject:

Hi Colin, that's exactly what this site is for

- particularly, I agree the problem of "especially when there's a lot of "chat" in-between".

We've got a lot of threads like this, that have got useful information on, and that the originator or the main contributors could very usefully condense, just as you say. Having said that there's a lot of room for an interested onlooker to do it, too - providing the posters are happy to be quoted or have their information used (I'd prefer the latter, with the end of the article crediting the people who provided information) so if you'd like to join in that would be welcome as well.

Buttery or Deedee do either of you feel up to doing us an article based on your experiences, and asking posters in this and other threads on the subject for permission to quote them and use their tips? I've put up a thread to discuss how to go about it (so we can leave this one for dehydrating tips) here: https://forum.downsizer.net/viewtopic.php?p=57807

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