indeks dollar: [FOAB] Robin : Less than 15 steps to dried soups

Selasa, 29 Januari 2008

[FOAB] Robin : Less than 15 steps to dried soups

>Hello, my name is Robin and I am a member of FunOnABudget.com. I was reading the newsletter and you mentioned dehydrating your entire huge garden plus
>some. I would be very very interested in how you went about doing this. I would like to do some dehydrating this summer also from my garden and also plan to do
>some freezing of some of my garden. If you have time to email me and let me in on your secret, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Robin
Well, Robin, for all the benefits you get from dehydrated produce, it isn't at all hard to do. I had a book ( bought for $1 at an outlet ), but it wasn't a whole lot more
useful than the book that came with the dehydrator ( except it told me how to do venison, and I don't think that's gonna come in handy : ) Here's what you do :

1. Grow 21x17 garden out back of the kitchen
2. Plant in said garden : 3 different kinds of tomatoes, 3 different kinds of peas and beans, lettuce, spinach, shallots, radishes, okra, cabbage, collards, and some herbs.
3. Obtain 3 deydrators : 1 from friend who's moving, 1 from the thrift store, and one from that TV advertisement.
4. Set up aforementioned dehydrators on screened-in porch, because they will *reeeally* heat up your kitchen.
5. Decide when you want to do this, because it's an all-day job.
6. Harvest produce, and get the rest from the farmer's market. I got onions, carrots, and celery there - lots of it.
7. Sterilise the dehydrator trays in the dishwasher.
8. Get out the cutting board and a sharp knife, and slice everything about 1/4 inch thick. Now, this is important : Make sure everything is as uniformly sliced a possible so
it will all dry at the same rate.
9. Now it gets a little complicated : Layer the stuff on the trays according to how much water is in the item, tomatoes and onions go near the bottom, celery and carrots
near the top. Only use one tray per veggie. Do not overlap the stuff, or they'll stick together. If you have a *lot* of something ( with me, it's tomatoes ) use one whole
dehydator just for that item. Do not mix things on a tray, or they'll pick up flavours from each other.
10. Dry according to the manufactuer's instructions; you can get a chart online, too, but as a rule, carrots, onions and celery take about a day, tomatoes take almost two.
You can tell when the tomatoes are ready when they are leather-like, but not brittle.
11. Remove things from the trays, some things like tomatoes may cling, and you might have to scrape them off a bit.
12. Store the goodies in tins lined with a paper towel. or a piece cut from a brown paper bag - I've found this keeps better than using baggies or glass jars. I don't use
coffee cans because it's hard to get the coffee smell out. Use one tin per veggie.
13. To re-constitute, simmer by about three parts water to one part veggie.
14. To make soup, simmer veggies with boullion, and add bits of other things like potatoes, corn, peas, and leftover bits of meat.

Note : I don't do potatoes because I know of no way to keep them from turning dark, so I used potato flakes. I don't recommend peas either, because as they get smaller,
they tend to fall through the "vents" in the trays. For a nice "add in" for soups and such, take a little bit of each veggie you want, and run through the blender to make a
"mixed veggie powder". To package for gifts, I make brown paper bag envelopes - my camping friends really love it, and it was a big hit in England, too : )

Another note : You don't have to have a store-bought dehydrator, you can do it in the oven, or I *have* done it in a home-made one - I have the instructions for making one
from crates or even an old chest of drawers or bookcase - it's easy to do, but only works on a sunny day, and is not *quite* as sanitary. ( Won't kill you, either. )

I don't know how accurate that was, but just off the top of my head, if you do those things you ought to be successful. It was a bit simplified, please let me know if I left
you with any questions, or if you'd like some of my recipes. The ones online are good, but I've worked with mine and tweaked them for years, and I think they're better. I
can do : Vegetable, tomato, potato & onion ( with bacon, no less ), minestrone, cream of carrot ( yummy and pretty ), split pea with ham, gumbo, hunter's stew, onion ( this is
great for when you do a roast on another occasion ), and probably a few others that I can't think of right now. I *have* done borcht and fruit soup, as well.

Keep me informed, okay? Cheers : )

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