Dehydrated

No, I’m not talking about my skin, although the Polar Vortex has certainly caused a lot of drying and flaking. At the moment, I bear a striking resemblance to a lizard.

Actually, this is about one of the oldest techniques for preserving food. I’d never thought about dehydrating, but while working on an upcoming story for Edible Long Island, I was talking with Chef Philippe Corbet and Chef James Orlandi, co-owners of Roots Bistro Gourmand in West Islip about New Age gastronomy techniques. We chatted about sous vide, and I mentioned dehydration.“That’s been around for years,” said Chef Corbet, “but people should be using it more.”

Corbet is right.  Dehydration is an age old – in fact, ancient – technique for preserving food.  My first memories of dried food are tied to camping trips and the moon shots. I start to do a little research, and I soon learned that I could be looking at a technique that might help me preserve more of the harvest from Restoration Farm.

I’ll be honest.  My track record as a CSA member is pitiful.  While I cook a lot of vegetables, and consume much raw, I’m often not on top of the huge amount of food I bring home.  I’m ashamed to admit that a certain percentage goes to waste. So I’ve been spending the cruel, cold winter researching ways to preserve more. Canning is one option that I’ve gotten quite good at, and the conversation with Corbet and Orlandi pushes me towards a little experiment in dehydration.  Who knew there were home appliances that could tackle this challenge?

Now, some will ask if I really, really, really need another home appliance for the kitchen? Let’s face it – it’s my art, and kitchen appliances are my paint brushes. So, in a nanosecond, I have purchased the Nesco Gardenmaster Food Dehydrator & Jerky Maker.   

It kind of looks like a Lunar Module – and I may need the assistance of NASA to figure out where I’m going to store it.  The device consists of several layers of mesh trays topped off with a fan and a temperature control setting.  The Gardenmaster can be programmed for different times and temperatures, and the fan circulates air down over food that is layered in the trays, eventually dehydrating the fresh food.  

February – being the longest month of the year – is a good time to practice.   So I purchase apples, carrots and zucchini so I can start rehearsing for the summer months.  You need a bit of space for a Gardenmaster, and it can sound like somebody’s running a hairdryer for hours on end.  

Carrots take about six hours to dehydrate.   Here’s the before shot, which begins with carrots sliced a ¼ inch thick, that have been steam for three minutes prior to dehydrating.

The transformation is startling.  What were once disks of fresh carrot, now look like the cubes in a packet of Cup A Soup.

Zucchini also shrinks considerably.  Here’s the fresh zucchini.

Here’s the result after seven hours of dehydration.

While I neglected to take a “before” picture of the apples, here’s the result after six hours of dehydration.

So here are some initial impressions. Four zucchini shrink down to about a cup of dried zucchini chips.   The shrinkage for carrots is even more dramatic.  I will need to better understand the ratio between fresh food and dehydrated food, in order to effectively plan recipes.  

For apples, the size stays somewhat the same, eventually achieving a soft, leathery appearance. The taste is intensely apple, probably due to the concentrated sugars.  The carrots, too, taste very “carroty” because of the high sugar content. 

So, what will I do with all this dehydrated food? Well, the apple rings will make tasty snacks, and the carrots and zucchini can be tossed into soups and stews.  

And, there’s an interesting cookbook called “The Dehydrator Bible” by Jennifer MacKenzie, Jay Nutt & Don Mercer, that contains over 400 tasty recipes using dehydrated foods.   The liquid in the recipes rehydrates the food.  But, that is for another post.  

Now, excuse me while I go search for a moisturizer…

For a more frosty take on food preservation check out my latest post for Edible Long Island.

©2014 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Wok and Roll

The first piece of specialty cookware I remember getting was a wok. It was a gift for my college graduation from a couple of high school pals. The gift even came with a cookbook, Better Homes and Garden “More From Your Wok” (1982). I never did try the recipe for Apple Bread Pudding made in the wok, but I do recall that for some time I harbored an intense wok obsession.

Eventually, I burned the shiny finish off the base ring, and for years the wok sat in my basement because my electric stove (with coil burners) wasn’t much suited to heat a wok to the temperature needed for a super-hot stir-fry.

With the recent upgrade to a gas stove, I took the plunge and purchased two updated woks from Calphalon – one smaller size for weeknights, and a larger one for a crowd (and no shiny base rings required).

Now, I’m reliving my former passion, relishing the Zen simplicity of the stir-fry. This easy recipe for Chicken, Red Pepper and Green Bean Stir-Fry from Epicurious uses a short list of ingredients, most already on hand.

The stove sure gets splattered, but that’s part of the theatrical fun of stir-frying. Remember those old Benihana TV commercials?

And, the taste is 100 percent authentic takeout - Wok-a-doo!

©2010 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Warm Bread Rising

I remember the first time I got hot over warm bread.

I was an elementary school student and we were camping during summer vacation in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The family had piled into the station wagon and driven into the town of Conway to purchase groceries at the local IGA.

We walked into the store and collided with the intoxicating aroma – fresh, fragrant, sunny and malty. The store had a bakery and there were burgeoning loaves of rustic white bread rising in the oven. We snapped up a warm loaf and ate it with our camp stove dinner that night. Immediately we boys began pressuring our parents to return to the IGA for more fresh baked bread.

Was it there in Conway, New Hampshire that I experienced my first craving? Until that time, my bread had come in white plastic wrappers sealed with twist ties, and often with red, yellow and blue balloons on the package.

That day in the IGA remains a pivotal moment. The yeasty aroma of freshly baking bread was a revelation. I had to have more, and I needed to learn more. Today, the Old Man in the Mountains is gone from New Hampshire, but the craving for fresh bread that began in Conway remains – not just to buy it, or eat it, but to bake it. I have a deep knead to experience that ancient alchemy that conjures up plump, bronze loaves of flaky bread.

I’ve had some successes. I even took a full-month of training in European Breads with excellent results – in the classroom. At home, I could never get the bread to rise. The house was always too drafty, or too warm, or too cold. Until now.

Presenting the latest feature in the suburban Long Island kitchen makeover – the Warming Drawer – complete with a setting for proofing bread!

Note the sleek exterior and aerodynamic styling.

As soon as it is connected, I move into action, and select a recipe full of good things from the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook, “Honey Whole-Wheat Bread.” There’s nothing really complicated about a bread recipe – just flour, water, salt and yeast – but just for fun, Martha adds honey and wheat germ for a nice flavor boost.

I knead the bread by hand into a smooth and elastic disk. It’s therapeutic.

The dough goes into the pre-heated warming drawer and within an hour it has doubled in size.

The dough is punched down and divided into two loaves. At this point I am taking every step with extreme caution. I really want this to work. No need to worry. With another thirty minutes inside the drawer, these are really beginning to look like loaves of bread.

A little egg wash gives each loaf a golden lacquer, and with one hour in the oven, we’ve got bread – two heavenly loaves!

It’s so easy it almost feels like witchcraft, or like one of those magic boxes used by a Las Vegas magician.

I’m not even sure I care exactly how the warming drawer works its magic. I’m just glad I don’t have to make the six hour drive to Conway, New Hampshire to satisfy my craving.

©2010 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Chocolate-Mint Icebox Cake and Some Chilling Thoughts

I remember when my last refrigerator died. It was chock-full of food and several days before the holidays. There’s never a convenient time for the refrigerator to go. Emergency resuscitation failed. The food was quickly scooped into coolers, and I made a frantic trip to the local appliance store. A replacement was delivered within about 24 hours. That chocolate brown beauty of a fridge – circa 1970 – had done an honorable tour of duty. The spanking new compact Hotpoint Refrigerator Freezer seemed ultra-modern. It certainly was, compared to these vintage models on display at the exhibit “America’s Kitchens” at the Long Island Museum at Stony Brook.

It’s easy to take the refrigerator for granted, but it is an essential kitchen tool. If you’ve never considered the maintenance-free qualities of the modern refrigerator, take a look at this passage from the booklet, “2000 Useful Facts About Food,” published in 1941 and a birthday gift from my friend Miss Tera.

In the section, “Care of the Automatic Refrigerator,” the author writes:

Defrost and clean refrigerator once every week or 10 days. Turn temperature control to defrost. Remove ice trays. (Ice cubes may be kept in a vacuum jar for several hours.) Remove food from refrigerator. Leave door open. Ice trays may be filled with tepid water to hasten defrosting. Do not chip ice from freezing unit with any sharp instrument. Wash inside of box and inside and outside of freezing unit with a solution of soda and warm water. Remove shelves and wash. Rinse with clear warm water. When defrosted, empty water collected in drip tray. Turn control to normal operation (if not automatic.)

This sounds like just the kind of household job I’d like to take on every week to 10 days.

It is precisely because I am lazy, that I recently decided to upgrade my refrigerator/freezer –that, and a desire to have more room to store the vegetables anticipated from the upcoming summer CSA season. You’ve probably gotten the sense that there is a bit of a kitchen renovation in progress right now here on suburban Long Island. The latest addition is GE® Energy Star Refrigerator with bottom freezer drawer, and “CleanSteel” doors that resist pesky fingerprints. It looks like something out of the Jetsons.

There is plenty of room for fruits and vegetables, chilled wine, and lots of wide shelf space to hold special cake projects. My sister-in-law Ramiza is convinced I have an incurable condiment problem, and now I’ve got a designated section to keep condiments organized and easy to access. My decluttering guru was not at all happy with the state of my baking cabinet, so she’ll be pleased to see that I’ve started out on the right foot organizing the new refrigerator. Everything is visible and has its place.

It’s easy to brag about your organizational skills when you start fresh. I’m not so willing to share photographs of my cupboards for Lydia’s “Other People’s Pantries” feature.

A classic no-bake Icebox Cake seemed like the perfect recipe to christen the new refrigerator. Chocolate wafers are stacked with layers of mint-flavored whipped cream to create a log that is covered with the remaining whipped cream and sprinkled with chocolate morsels. The cookie layers become soft and cake-like as the roll chills. You can find the recipe here. The most famous version of the recipe is found here.

It’s a sweet finish to dinner with good friends, and if you happen to serve this Icebox Cake during a blackout, be sure to slice quickly, because even the most modern refrigerator still needs electricity to keep a no-bake cake from melting.

©2010 T.W. Barritt all Rights Reserved

Half-Baked No More

Baking has been around since the dawn of time. There are pictures of bakeries depicted in ancient Egyptian tombs. Larousse Gastronomique cites the baker as the oldest of the food professions. As long as humans have ground grain into flour, we have been baking.

Baking is in my DNA. My grandmothers both baked and my mother provided me with my early training. I remember an elementary school homework project where I baked a simple butter cookie called Petticoat Tails. Somewhere in my unwieldy files, I still have the handwritten recipe sketched out in my expressive grammar school penmanship.

I love the tactile feel of baking, the soothing rhythmic motions, and the sensual aroma of anticipation that fills the room. Early on, I became quite fond of licking the beaters. I own so many different types of baking pans that the closet where they are stored resembles an abstract work of art.

I grew up using a gas oven, and I was more than a little dismayed to discover when I moved into my house that the oven was electric. For the first time in my life, I started to experience “baking flops.” The temperature was never right, and forget about browning. The oven was temperamental to say the least. Cakes looked pale and anemic, and there were times when cakes would fall, or even burn. There were too many times when I was forced to throw out the first attempt and start all over again. Eventually I learned to develop a certain empathy with the electric oven and produced some pretty good results, including a popular line of Retro Cakes.

I love the tactile feel of baking, the soothing rhythmic motions, and the sensual aroma of anticipation that fills the room.

But life in the kitchen is all about the journey and now I have traveled back to baking with gas. The electric oven is just a memory, replaced with a shiny new Viking Stove.

It’s a gentle giant with a traditional baking setting and one for convection baking as well. Handing someone like me a convection baking setting is like giving someone who writes on a chalk board an IPad, just to see what will happen. I may actually have to read the instruction manual.

This Apple Crumb Pie is one of my first forays into the brave new world of baking in a gas oven. The raisins plump up from the juice of the apples, and I’m kind of reveling in the golden bronze color and the delicate, buttery crunch of the crumb topping – something I wasn’t able to achieve with an electric oven.

I’ve got gas, and it’s a good thing.

©2010 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

No Pressure

It was the culinary bogeyman of my mother’s kitchen when I was growing up. It would hiss like a demon and often appeared on the verge of exploding. And, there was usually some strange orange substance hidden in its bowels.

Beware the dreaded pressure cooker!

Some years have passed, and one would hope I have shed my fears of kitchen gremlins and foods that are a good source of Vitamin A. For the most part I have, but old habits die hard. Although I’ve been intrigued by the promise of lightning-fast preparation of food, the classic pressure cooker that I picked up at a tag sale sits idle (and depowered) in my basement.

All I need is a good suggestion to take action (the power of suggestion may be my Achilles heel), so when I read a post by Debby at Feast for the Eyes that mentioned her electronic, programmable pressure cooker, it was enough to inspire some online research and a purchase. About a minute-and-a-half transpired and I was the proud owner of a Cuisinart Electric Pressure Cooker.

In my defense, this was not a typical impulse purchase. I have been considering the idea of pressure cooking for years, and I even read the Consumer Reports product evaluations online before purchasing. So it was a well-informed, lightning-fast purchase. And, it was on sale.

So what might you expect if “Kid Flash” joins your culinary team?

Imagine fresh lentil soup in about 15 minutes, where the lentils are tender but firm and you can taste the flavor of the carrots:

Homemade chicken stock is produced in about 90 minutes on a weeknight:

Various recipes using beans and legumes – like this hearty “Chili Con Chickpea” come together quickly. The beans require no pre-soaking:

White rice comes out sticky and firm like the takeout variety, and brown rice takes only about twenty minutes. Vegetables, like butternut squash (which I now actually like) cook in about 3 minutes. Cannellini beans for a White Chicken Chili can be made the day before, in just under 45 minutes, and stored in the refrigerator until it’s time to prepare the dish.

The best news is that the device is programmable, so everything cooks according to the exact time needed. The lid locks into place during the cooking sequence, so the possibility of a Mount Vesuvius -style eruption is unlikely.

It’s kind of become my go-to kitchen pot, which is weird, since I just had a new gas stove installed (a behemoth - more on that later).

And, with the time I’ve saved in cooking, I’m already feeling a lot less pressure. Although on occasion, I still peek under the bed before I go to sleep at night.

©2010 T.W. Barritt all Rights Reserved

Advice from the Kitchen GadgetGal

There’s at least one, lurking in a dark corner or recess of every kitchen – a slightly embarrassing reminder of the home cook’s irrepressible desire for miracle solutions, or proclivity for impulse-buying. They are the disappointing, the underperforming, or just-plain-dumb kitchen gadgets and appliances. We all buy them, and eventually we all toss them, or quietly donate them to junk sales. Yet, we all have those tools we can’t live without. So how do you tell a culinary workhorse from a complete dud?

In the back room at the store, “A Cook's Companion” in Brooklyn Heights, New York Jan Hazard is giving the merchandise the once-over. The store is a veritable utopia of kitchen equipment and accessories. The floor-to-ceiling shelves are stocked with coffee pots and Dutch ovens in as many hues as a Crayola Crayon box and scads of silicon tools hang like alluring holiday ornaments along every inch of wall space.

Jan Hazard has a sunny demeanor, bright eyes, a warm smile and short-cropped sandy hair. Her reading glasses are perched high atop her head, and she carries a scratch pad. A long-time food editor at Ladies Home Journal, she now dubs herself the Kitchen GadgetGal. With her partner Nancy Byal, a former food editor at Better Homes and Gardens, they dispense advice on a gaggle of gadgets and small appliances at http://www.kitchengadgetgals.com/.

Jan has agreed to give me a 101-course on the ingenious, cluttered and often cacophonous world of culinary tools and appliances. She leads me down the store aisle on the hunt, with the kind of instinct and intent one usually only sees at the Barney’s mid-winter sale. She mixes experience and pragmatism with a genuine sense of excitement for a new discovery. And, for those kitchen clinkers, she offers a healthy dose of skepticism, and a “what-were-they-thinking?” bemused sense of humor.

"Coffee pots have always sold,” she tells me, inspecting a mile-high display. “Whether it’s electric or the French press or the drip, we like our Starbucks and want to get that taste at home.” So, no matter what your culinary skill, coffee is one thing we’ve all managed to master in the home kitchen.

But, if one were equipping a kitchen from scratch, what are the essential tools one should gather? “I would have a basic gadget drawer with about ten things in it,” says Hazard. “A silicon spatula, a pancake turner, a can opener, and a whisk. And, knives – you only need three knives really -- a chef, a pairing and a bread knife. I would also get tongs, and a pair of scissors to cut open all of these sealed packages that we have to deal with." She points to a collection of instant-read thermometers. With concerns about food safety, their use is increasing. “That’s in the gadget drawer. That’s one of the ten gadgets you need to have.” Hazard says the instant-read is particularly handy when checking items cooking on the barbecue.

Hazard believes it’s essential to test the weight and feel of any tool in your hand. “Every hand size is different.”

How does she evaluate the longevity or relatively short trendiness of a kitchen tool? “I think it should be multi-use. There are some things that are not multi-use. You have to consider how valuable it is to you. If you want fresh lemon juice every day, then buy the lemon juicer. It’s what you deem important.”

Hazard is an advocate of silicon utensils, although she’s not a fan of silicon baking pans - too flimsy. She points to a short plastic tube hanging on the wall. “The thing that I think is absolutely useless? The garlic peeler! I mean, what’s wrong with taking a French knife, putting it down and smashing it?”

Is she a chronic collector of kitchen gadgets? “I get a lot, just because of our business. My kitchen is organized chaos, definitely. I’m like the cobbler’s kids – barefoot and no shoes. I have the worst kitchen ever. If anyone deserves a great, gorgeous kitchen, I’m a candidate, but I don’t have it.”

If you are an obsessive gadget collector, one method is to count to ten before purchasing. “Think of its uses,” says Hazard. “Go to garage sales just to see what people are selling, because that gives you a window into what’s not working." She agrees that the constant innovation in kitchen technology causes the need to step back and purge on occasion.

The GadgetGals website came about due to the changing editorial climate. “Originally, when we started out, we wanted to have a syndicated newspaper column,” Hazard explains, “but we know what’s happening to newspapers, so we said let’s try the web instead.”

Kitchen tools and appliances often carry a personal connection. “I’ve seen people that have something of their grandmother’s or great grandmother’s. It’s something they’d like to hang on to because it’s part of the continuation of life. It’s something from the past.” She describes arguing with siblings for possession of the family box grater because it was so effective, but then the Microplane came along.

Given the state of the economy, what items might become popular as more people turn to home cooking? “I went to an eco house wares show,” says Hazard, “and they were showing a deep fat fryer that only uses one tablespoon of oil. The machine is 300 dollars, so you really have to love French Fries, but it’s kind of a better mousetrap that uses far less oil. Remember deep fried-turkey? What people failed to realize is you needed six gallons of oil. And what do you do with it after you fry the turkey?”

Time savings and convenience and important features, and Hazard acknowledges that she is a more recent convert to some devices. “I must say that I came to slow cookers kicking and screaming. I’m in love with them now. You can make chicken broth with them. I’ve talked to people who will roast a chicken and throw the bones in afterward in the slow cooker. You just put it on low and let it cook all night and get a wonderful homemade broth. So, I think things like that are going to find other uses, other than chili and split pea soup.”

We pause by a shiny, chrome pressure cooker. “Do you have one?” she asks. “Are you fearful?” I share my recollection that my mom’s pressure cooker would sometimes explode.

“Everyone has that same memory,” she agrees. “I’m with you on that. But now, they really are very safe. I’ve even used mine to make a risotto.”

As we wander the aisles, I ask if she’s ever come across a gadget where she says, I wish I’d thought of that. She gestures towards a “Tuna & Veggie Press & Strainer,” a flat, plastic disk the size of a tuna can with perforated holes. “No, I don’t wish I’d thought of that,” she murmurs. “What’s wrong with the lid?”

So what’s the worst kitchen gadget of all time – the culinary equivalent of the Edsel? Hazard mulls over several notorious candidates. Then she gives a definitive nod. “The hot dog cooker and the electric crepe maker!”

At that point, my cheeks color. “We had an electric crepe maker,” I reply sheepishly.

“I did, too,” Hazard admits. “But, it only cooked one side. You have to cook both sides of your crepes!”

How many kitchen gadgets has Hazard tested during the course of her long career? “I'd lie if I said it was the same number as the bailout package from Congress,” she laughs. “But, I'd be telling the truth if I said I have not kept track and could not begin to count. I must have stopped counting after the hot dog cooker!”

Back home, I admire my purchases from “A Cooks Companion” – all multi-use as the Kitchen GagetGal recommends. The 2-in-1 Citrus Squeezer will juice both lemons and limes. The wide-angle silicon spatula – heat resistant up to 600 degrees – will flip hamburgers, pancakes, lift a pizza, and probably come in handy if I want to fry an egg on the exterior of the Space Shuttle Discovery. And, the retro New York City tea-towel is good for drying hands, face and dishes. I am confident that all will give me years of use as I tuck them away in a cluttered kitchen drawer.

Later, it doesn’t take me long to locate the much-maligned electric crepe pan hidden away in my basement – a worn relic of the haute-cuisine, high-tech 1970s. I consider one final farewell crepe party, but decide that perhaps it’s time for a little spring cleaning instead. And, maybe even a garage sale.

©2009 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved