Using dehydrated food in cooking

[ElsieD]

There are several topics dedicated to dehydrating food but none that I could find that talked about what you do with it so I thought I'd start one.  I recently bought a dehydrator and while I have been busy dehydrating stuff, I have made exactly 2 things - a tomato and red bell pepper quiche and a squash risotto topped with Japanese U10 scallops, pictured below.  I have various amounts of red, orange and yellow bell peppers (never green, perish the thought!) 1 apple, cranberries, peaches,squash, tomatoes, and there might be something else, I've forgotten.  I only dehydrated 2 delicata squash but have 6 more which I plan to dehydrate.  So that's the straight-up stuff.  I also plan on turning some of it into powders which I'll use to enhance the flavours of, for example, soup.  I don't have a lot of ideas yet as I'm still learning about it but I am keen to learn more, dehydrate more, and use it more.

 

For those of you who dehydrate food, what are you/have you dehydrated and how do you plan to do so?  I'm all ears, Oops!  I mean eyes!

, 

[lemniscate]

I mainly dehydrate mushrooms (when there's a really good sale), lemon slices (I have a backyard tree) and pomegranates (also in backyard).  

Lemon slices are for tea steeping or infusing cocktails.

Pomegranates are for anardana and eating like raisins or on top of salads.

Mushrooms for adding to soups/stew/gravies.

 

One or two large batches of beef jerky a year.

 

 

That's about it so far, and the use is very seasonal based on backyard fruit.

 

I guess I don't really "cook" with my dehydrates much.

 

 

[donk79]

My last dehydration project came from a surplus of peppers.  I dehydrated a bunch of sweet peppers (including bells) along with a few hot peppers.  I dehydrated them until definitively crisp then ran them through the food processor.  My inspiration was paprika.  This is definitely not paprika.  It does make a mighty fine addition to scrambled eggs though!

[liuzhou]

The only things I dry myself are mushrooms, chilli peppers, cherry tomatoes and tangerine peel. That said I use a lot of dried ingredients, but store or market bought. Some rarer mushrooms I can't get fresh, seaweeds, various fish, shrimp, squid, scallops, longgan and more. Chinese stores carry vast selections of dried foods for cooking or as snacks (especially fruits). I extremely rarely use dried herbs, though.

 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2024 by liuzhou (log)

[Bhukhhad]

Dear ElsieD,

 

What a lovely topic. May I write about it, even if I don't have a dehydrator? I dehydrate though. But in the oven. I must share my experience. I have to look up photos from my computer and will add them later. This is a recipe for AAM PAPAD
 

One year I had bought mangoes in their season and ripened them diligently in the pantry. Mangoes (Haden or Kent are the favorites in our home) are expensive, but they are the KING & QUEEN of fruit for us. So have them we must! 
At the same time, we received two more boxes as gifts from some friends who went to Los Angeles and brought back those from the Indian stores there. Far less expensive than the Bay Area San Francisco. So those were the best gifts in the season!. Well, we had too many. I remembered the Aam Papad from Bombay and my childhood. So I decided to experiment. 

 

AAM PAPAD

Mango Juice

Sugar to taste

A pinch of salt

A pinch of cayenne pepper powder

 

Spread in a ceramic or glass baking tray. The mango juice may not be more than 1/4 inch in height on the baking tray. Bake in a 300F oven and keep watching every hour. I did not have any idea how long it would take. And I would stop baking if I had to stop watching. Then the baking tray would be cooled and transferred to the fridge overnight. I know it was a pretty stupid thing to do. But in India, aam papad are made by drying under the sun. And they are brought indoors every night. I just wanted the mango pulp to not spoil. It did keep drying though even in the fridge. 

 

Well the result of my experiment at the end of three days of trying was still a moist leather, but it did roll like a leather. Just not a very good leather. If I had a dehydrator, I may have made aam papad!! I found a royalty Free photo on the internet. I don't know if it is allowed to be posted here or not. So I am not posting it. Please look for AAM PAPAD. There were many photos there. 

 

Totally yummy though. I need a dehydrator. Let's see when I get one. Thought I would share my experiment. 

 

Bhukkhad which means always hungry. 

 

 

[ElsieD]

@Bhukhhad Thank you for this.  I did look it up and from what I read, it is essentially a fruit leather.  The recipes I saw say to use mango puree (not juice) and once the first thin layer has dried, you add another layer layer of puree and repeat a few times.  Does that sound about right?  I can buy frozen mango puree here, I love mangos.

[Bhukhhad]

Dear ElsieD, 

The recipe I saw in my relatives homes, was not layered. It was essentially keeping the mango puree (yes puree. I should have mentioned that my reference to mango juice was just the entire pulp from one mango, with the seed removed and all the juice squeezed out. That would make it a puree, not "juice" as in what we would drink in a glass). So the method was just to dry the mango puree in sunshine every day all day, and bring it indoors at night, so that insects would not fall into it. And the tray would be covered with muslin during the day so that dust and particles would not settle into it. 
Fruit leather sounds right. Though I don't know how that is made here. But go ahead and try it for yourself in the dehydrator. It is a method for preserving fruit longer. And you might enjoy AAM PAPAD in the result! How great is that. 

 

[gfweb]

anyone ever dehydrate a pawpaw?

[FauxPas]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

anyone ever dehydrate a pawpaw?

 

I don't know why I was curious about this because I don't have pawpaws and I don't think they are usually grown in this part of the world but I did some searching and found some stuff that suggested it was a bad idea to dehydrate them. Have you seen or heard of this? 

 

Seems very odd, but see here, for an example:

 

https://growingfruit.org/t/using-pawpaws/2307/31

 

Here is the quote from I believe the Director of Pawpaw program at Kentucky State University from their Facebook page called “KSU Pawpaw”:

Pawpaw fruit do not dry well, for some reason I have had reports from numerous people saying dried pawpaw fruit didn’t agree with them and made them a little sick to their stomachs. We aren’t sure why, if the fatty acids get rancid, or if there is something that gets concentrated when you dry that isn’t agreeable to the stomach, but because of that it isn’t recommended. Freezing pawpaw fruit is the best way to store it. Remove the skin and seeds, puree the pulp and store in a freezer bag.

[gfweb]

54 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

 

I don't know why I was curious about this because I don't have pawpaws and I don't think they are usually grown in this part of the world but I did some searching and found some stuff that suggested it was a bad idea to dehydrate them. Have you seen or heard of this? 

 

Seems very odd, but see here, for an example:

 

https://growingfruit.org/t/using-pawpaws/2307/31

 

Here is the quote from I believe the Director of Pawpaw program at Kentucky State University from their Facebook page called “KSU Pawpaw”:

Pawpaw fruit do not dry well, for some reason I have had reports from numerous people saying dried pawpaw fruit didn’t agree with them and made them a little sick to their stomachs. We aren’t sure why, if the fatty acids get rancid, or if there is something that gets concentrated when you dry that isn’t agreeable to the stomach, but because of that it isn’t recommended. Freezing pawpaw fruit is the best way to store it. Remove the skin and seeds, puree the pulp and store in a freezer bag.

 

Not a lot of pectin in a pawpaw. I can imagine texture problems, rancidity is a surprise.

 

I need to look into this more.

Thanks.

[FauxPas]

13 hours ago, gfweb said:

Not a lot of pectin in a pawpaw. I can imagine texture problems, rancidity is a surprise.

 

I need to look into this more.

Thanks.

 

@gfron1 used pawpaws quite a bit, I think. I wonder if he ever dried them? 

[gfron1]

On 10/24/2024 at 8:25 AM, FauxPas said:

 

@gfron1 used pawpaws quite a bit, I think. I wonder if he ever dried them? 

I did and nothing there to leave substance

[haresfur]

An Australian TV show about rural living and agriculture, Landline, just did a show on combating food waste and one of the segments was about a company that was making dehydrated vegetable and fruit powders. Apparently dehydrated broccoli contains quite a bit of protein.

[ElsieD]

I have been dehydrating various items and thought to show you what I have done.  Being new at this, i only made small amounts of some items.   I dehydrated a particularly small amount of ginger, it was the last bit I had in the freezer.  I'll grind it tomorrow when my grinder comes.  What i can say is that it smells wonderful, much more potent than the jar in my spice cabinet.  I plan on doing a slash more ginger to give away.   

 

From left to right we have kabocha squash, carrots, celery, delicata squash, apples, mushrooms and mushroom powder, onions and cranberries, strawberries and plum tomatoes,yellow and red pepper, more apple and that pathetic bit of ginger.

 

Any suggestions as to how best to use them gratefully received.

Edited November 6, 2024 by ElsieD
Typo (log)

[ElsieD]

I have one of these to vacuum seal the canning jars which i will do once I get my silica gel dessicant ckets, probably tomorrow.  I have used squash and tomatoes in a quiche and mushroom powder in scrambled eggs, both turned out well.

[FauxPas]

10 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

From left to right we have kabocha squash, carrots, celery, delicata squash, apples, mushrooms and mushroom powder, onions and cranberries, strawberries and plum tomatoes,yellow and red pepper, more apple and that pathetic bit of ginger.

 

Any suggestions as to how best to use them gratefully received.

 

You've got a pretty nice start there! It would certainly be easy to group some soup ingredients together for yourself or as a gift. Squash, carrots, celery, onion (maybe apple) and some ginger would be a nice start to a squash soup. You could add curry spices also, for example. 

 

Tomato and pepper soup also. Or a starter for chili? 

 

Dried cranberries and add some nuts and the dry ingredients to make a cranberry orange nut loaf? All ready to go, except for wet ingredients? 

 

Strawberries and apples would be great for muffins, scones, pancakes maybe? 

 

 

 

 

[nickrey]

On 10/25/2024 at 2:25 AM, FauxPas said:

 

@gfron1 used pawpaws quite a bit, I think. I wonder if he ever dried them? 

On 10/24/2024 at 12:26 PM, FauxPas said:

 

I don't know why I was curious about this because I don't have pawpaws and I don't think they are usually grown in this part of the world but I did some searching and found some stuff that suggested it was a bad idea to dehydrate them. Have you seen or heard of this? 

 

Seems very odd, but see here, for an example:

 

https://growingfruit.org/t/using-pawpaws/2307/31

 

Here is the quote from I believe the Director of Pawpaw program at Kentucky State University from their Facebook page called “KSU Pawpaw”:

Pawpaw fruit do not dry well, for some reason I have had reports from numerous people saying dried pawpaw fruit didn’t agree with them and made them a little sick to their stomachs. We aren’t sure why, if the fatty acids get rancid, or if there is something that gets concentrated when you dry that isn’t agreeable to the stomach, but because of that it isn’t recommended. Freezing pawpaw fruit is the best way to store it. Remove the skin and seeds, puree the pulp and store in a freezer bag.

There is an enzyme in Pawpaw called papain, which is a very effective meat tenderiser. Could be related to this.

[rotuts]

@ElsieD

 

love the idea of dehydrating various mushrooms , especially if they go on sale

 

then grinding them , then using therm in , well , anything you wanted some mushroom 

 

flavor :  soups , stews , rice dishes etc ?

Edited November 6, 2024 by rotuts (log)

[Bhukhhad]

Hello fellow dehydrators

 

Here is my second pathetic experiment. 
Using the last of the juicy tomatoes I tried to ‘dehydrate’ them in the oven. Here is a picture. 
the recommended 175F that I saw in some recipes seemed to do nothing for me. So I yanked up the heat to 200F and after two hrs to 250F. It dried them somewhat. 
Then I had to go out so I took them out of the oven and covered them with some cheesecloth overnight. The next morning I put them back at 250F. Succeeded in burning some 😱

but then I gave up and rescued what I could. They tasted amazing. But were still a but squishy. Anyway all I had on them was some salt and some vinaigrette. Dont know why? I just felt like it and there was no oil in the jar so I substituted 😝

I have now stored them in a jar in the fridge and waiting to make a baked eggs and ovendried tomato dish.  Will add a photo when I do. Wish me luck

Bhukhhad 

[ElsieD]

4 minutes ago, Bhukhhad said:

Hello fellow dehydrators

 

Here is my second pathetic experiment. 
Using the last of the juicy tomatoes I tried to ‘dehydrate’ them in the oven. Here is a picture. 
the recommended 175F that I saw in some recipes seemed to do nothing for me. So I yanked up the heat to 200F and after two hrs to 250F. It dried them somewhat. 
Then I had to go out so I took them out of the oven and covered them with some cheesecloth overnight. The next morning I put them back at 250F. Succeeded in burning some 😱

but then I gave up and rescued what I could. They tasted amazing. But were still a but squishy. Anyway all I had on them was some salt and some vinaigrette. Dont know why? I just felt like it and there was no oil in the jar so I substituted 😝

I have now stored them in a jar in the fridge and waiting to make a baked eggs and ovendried tomato dish.  Will add a photo when I do. Wish me luck

Bhukhhad 

I did a bunch of roma tomatoes cut into eights and took the seeds out before dehydrating at a temperature of 130.  Doing them in the oven you'll want to use a temperature as close to 130 as your oven will go.  Also stick something in your oven door to let moisture escape.  Then be prepared to wait.  I can't remember how long mine took but I do know I left the Dehydrator on overnight so maybe 15 hours?

[Bhukhhad]

3 hours ago, ElsieD said:

I did a bunch of roma tomatoes cut into eights and took the seeds out before dehydrating at a temperature of 130.  Doing them in the oven you'll want to use a temperature as close to 130 as your oven will go.  Also stick something in your oven door to let moisture escape.  Then be prepared to wait.  I can't remember how long mine took but I do know I left the Dehydrator on overnight so maybe 15 hours?

Wow ElsieD

I had no clue that I needed to get the seeds out. And then the tip about keeping the oven door ajar to let the moisture escape!! You certainly know a bunch that I can learn. 
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻Thank you so much

[ElsieD]

@Bhukhhad  Thank you but I really don't know all that much.  I only started dehydrating stuff earlier this fall.  But, I did read that removing the seeds helped the tomatoes dry faster.