Food drying - Dehydrators (merged)

HOLsale

halloweenqueen wrote:

Whats the best way to dried peppers, one of the main reasons I would like a drier as I do use dried peppers a fair bit and have overloads of fresh ones in summer, they take up a fair bit of room in the freezer so would love to dry some when I have a glut of them.
Will be playing all summer with my drier and paper brick maker!!

just slice in normal slices or even rings and put on the drier. dry til leathery but not totally crispy or they aren't too nice

i like to dry a lot of different veg til they're really crispy then put them through my coffee grinder. i throw all the powder together, add in a bit of garlic powder and some salt in an old seasoning shaker and have the BEST EVER seasoning mix!

then, i use my seasoning mix on my veggie crisps that i make...

you can do the low fat version where you simply slice veg, add seasoning and dehydrate but if you really want the most gorgeous tasting healthy(ish) snacks then saute all your veg for a few minutes in butter or olive oil. just til they start to become a bit translucent potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips,onions... beets and peppers don't need this) then lay them out, sprinkle with choice of seasoning and dehydrate until they crisp up, they usually curl at the edges and that means they are done mmmmmmmm

in fact, doing the onions this way produces onions very similar to the deep fried onion rings that americans use in classics like green bean casserole and weekend casserole...believe me i've been in scotland nearly 7 years and i spent a great deal of that time trying to find a replacement so i could make these again

HOLsale

bektoria wrote:

Thank you so much for this, I have ordered mine today !
I too would be interested in the recipe for the fruit leather if anyone could help ?

Thanks,
Bek

puree fruit, add spices if you wish

lay greased paper over tray, cut a hole out of the middle to let air through, don't spread puree too close to hole, put it on thickly

dry til tacky and firm mmmmmmmmm

banana makes a beautiful base for most fruit leathers

apple_mint

I bought my drier last year when Holsale recommended drying fruit (I bought the Tchibo one.

I haven't been as adventurous as Holsale, but have dried peppers, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, bananas and apples. The dried apple is my OH's favorate ... sprinked on top of his shredded wheat each morning. When I did onions, I used the dried onions with dried rosemary in HM (a Queenie recommendation) bread ... it was delish

RacyRed

This looks so good! Tchibo online has sold out of driers now though .

Can anyone tell me what size the "footprint" of the drier is please?

HOLsale

it's pretty big actually

i'd say somewhere between a foot to eighteen inches across (it's round though)

it takes up a fair portion of kitchen counter. i have some bookshelves in my kitchen set up for my spices/pulses/recipe books and some of my appliances so it's got it's own small shelf where i can just use it there... before we had that set up it was a bit of a kitchen hog

ok... just went in and 'measured' it using a piece of A4 paper. it's slightly bigger across the top than that A4, an A4 paper is 11 inches high (i'm not that anal, in the states it's called 8.5x11 paper ) so it's about 12 inches then... so not too bad but still pretty big!

carly

Mine arrived yesterday. Its bigger than i thought so Should be able to dry quite avbit at a time. havn't used it yet, going to the market tomorrow to buy some cheap fruit after work. can't wait.

bektoria

Thank you to you all for your recipes. I have had confirmation that it is on its way and now I cant wait to get started !!!

apprentice_tycoon

The doorbell went at 9.15, the man said that he wanted me to sign for a parcel that was in his van, 'is it books?' I asked (thinking Amazon) no, he said it's a teakaboo and walked off down the path to his van to fetch it. It wasn't until I saw the blue sticky tape on the box that I realised that it was my Tchibo dehydrator.....:rotfl: :rotfl:

moggins

LOL. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of mine. I;ve sat in today waiting for a four poster bed to be delivered and my dehydrator and now the book people have said that my order has been despatched too. Looks like I'm going to be stuck in for the rest of the week at this rate.

halloweenqueen_2

Still waiting for mine - anyone got any recipes to prepare for while I wait!!