Food dehydrator

This thread was from 2013 until invaded by a spammer!!

dancingfeet we dehydrate all sorts all the time. As far as apples are concerned if you slice then thinly using a mandolin grater they will dry in no time.

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I won't tell...

Wash your mouth out with soap and water! Lie!!!!!!!!!?
What a good idea

You know what - LIE if you can't find one. Just make sure you have the name of a potential retailer handy in case of questions. Apologies to all those with diets that are different to those of the rest of us, but after many years of two of my four sisters going through so many odd diets I have lost count, plus nephews and nieces on special diets with ME and my mother joining in with health fads from time to time, and me living usually in the middle of nowhere, it really isn't worth the stress. To say nothing of the cost. I think as long as there is a reasonable coating of goat's cheese for the flavour, any mild creamy cheese should work underneath it. It just needs to be in nice thick melty chunks.

If I can get a pasteurised Camembert? She is strange about foods and avoids all unpasteurised or soft cheeses when pregnant or breast feeding
I would point out, she is still breast feeding DGD no 1. Who was born in July 2011!
Earth mother would find it hard to compete with her!

Can you add maybe a whole chopped camembert and thinly slice the hard goat's cheese on top? That would be better.

Thanks!
I've bookmarked it for after dd has my DGD! Expected in 2 weeks time!

I tend to use soft, but why not. Yes you can freeze it, use a pack of frozen puff pastry. Roll and fill a large square flan dish of some kind, cover the base with sliced mushrooms, fry two or three onions and maybe a garlic love very slowly adding a little sugar and vinegar, when they are just starting to catch remove them and dpread over the mushrooms. Add the tomatoes so that they are touching all over the layer, ditto the cheese. Beat an egg, brush it over the pastry that shows and drizzle the remainder over the tart. Add lots of black pepper and herbs. Bake until the pastry and cheese are beginning to brown.

I think my veggie dd might like this.
Can you make and freeze in advance? And as a useless cook, can you give me cooking instructions?
It's difficult to find some thing that we both might like when she visits!
The goats cheese would have to be hard pasteurised , would that work?

Sounds good to me!

I buy a large container of value mushrooms from the market, and when they start to look wrinkly I dry the remainder and buy another lot.

I usually use fresh in that. Dried I use in cassroles and soups.

fresh mushrooms or dried?

NOW THAT! REALLY TICKLES MY THOUGHTS!
WOW

Dried toms are excellent in a goat's cheese tart. Mushrooms on the base, then onions pre-fried, or caramelised, then loads of the toms and then the cheese. The flavour is so intense.

Thanks!
I'm going to get Gary(Gardner) to pick some of the nicer apples off my tree. I usually just leave them for the birds! It's a golden delicious!
I don't usually eat apples as I find they don't agree with me.
But I've found I've no probs with dried apples! I also adore dried toms!
So dehydrator, here I come!

The salt is to get rid of excess moisture, it is amazing what comes out and you only need a little. Slice the courgette about 1/4"and put it in a bowl, add a couple of tsps and turn gently so as not to break the slices (don't peel). Leave it for an hour or so and tip into a sieve or colander and leave to drip into a bowl for a bit. Then pat off the excess liquid by tipping into a clean tea towel and gently turning the bundle. That's just what works for me.

Arrange the slices and at that point you can add flavourings. A sprinkle of soya sauce, a light sprinkling of ground chilli, harissa, sumin, paprika, anything you fancy.

I did my last loads of apple slices today. This lot will be cut up and added to DBH's muesli.

Mines arrived but not the book I ordered.
Can I have your opinions on whether courgettes should be blanched and/or peeled before being dehydrated. Another one
Says to salt for half an hour before drying.
Come on you experts, help a beginner!

Riverwalk you are right. However, I prefer to snack on 400 calories in fruit form than in crisp form with fat/salt/flavourings that make me more peckish. The way I look at it, four apples is the same as eating a piece of cake (which I try not to have in the house) but fills me up and is far healthier.

Herbs - I am just as happy to spread them on a windowsill above the radiator on a piece of newspaper. Or hang them in a bundle (by an elastic band which tightens as they shrink) to look pretty as they dry. But if you don't have space or hanging room then the dehydrators are good, and they keep their colour better that way.

It is very slow to dry naturally e.g. on a sunny windowsill Gally - takes a couple of weeks to shrivel. An plant adapted to living in extremely dry conditions!
The freezer should work, particularly if you dont wrap it in plastic and the airing cupboard method should also work.

Can you do that with rosemary? I have just 'pruned' a very large bush and it seems such a shame not to use it.

I freeze herbs in a bag or box Once frozen, they can be easily crumbled. Specially useful for coriander, parsley and lovage.

herbs dry nicely if you put them in a pillow case in an airing cupboard (if you have an airing cupboard)
Then just squash the pillow case a bit and they will crumble and you can extract.