Brined Zucchini Chips

It is Celiac Disease Awareness Day here in the U.S., and even though I've been thinking about posting this for a while, today seemed like a good day to share a recipe with you that I've been playing with lately.

Ever since I got my dehydrator, I have been putting it to use as often as I can. Most of the time it is drying herbs, okara (paid for itself already there), and fruit leather (OK, I really just throw a jar of apple sauce on the fruit leather tray and wa la), but I decided that I needed to try playing around with it more and making veggie chips seemed the next logical step in my dehydration learning process.


We have a neighbor that has had a bumper crop of zucchini and this has allowed me to play with my dehydrator to find my preferred method of seasoning zucchini chips. There are a lot of recipes out there for dehydrator chips (kale, zucchini, potato, etc.) but when I tried it with salt and oil, my chips were just too salty or greasy for my taste. I guess that is what happens when you haven't eaten a bag of Lays in a while.

I like to brine my cucumbers before I make pickles, so I decided to try brining with my dehydrator chips. This method allows the food to take up just the right amount of salt and the flavor is more even than when the salt is sprinkled on top. I also don't have to use any oil, which my dehydrator directions actually strongly suggested NOT using when dehydrating food. I'm planning on trying this with potatoes and kale next to see if this is something that can be used universally, but if you get to it before me, feel free to share your results in the comments. I'll warn you, this is one of those recipes that uses dump and pour versus scientific measurements. This is set to our families level of saltiness. Don't feel bad if you need to add more or less to get what you want. Think of this as a guideline instead of a recipe.

Brined Zucchini Chips

1 medium zucchini
1 palm-full of salt (I use kosher or sea salt)
enough water to cover the veggies (about 1/2 gallon or 2 liters)

Slice the zucchini about 1-2 mm thick. I used a mandolin the first time, but sometimes this makes the slices too thin and the zucchini sticks to the dehydrator trays, so thickness depends on what type of tray you have (no problem with thin slices on silicone).

Place all ingredients in a large bowl, cover, and place this in the refrigerator. I leave it in up to 24 hours or at least overnight.

Remove the zucchini slices from the liquid, rinse, and either spin dry in a salad spinner or let them drain for a few minutes over the sink in a colander.

Spread them out on the dehydrator trays. Try to lay them out in a single layer as that will affect the drying time.

I dry them for 24 hours at a 135 degree setting on my Nesco dehydrator. Our apartment stays humid for some reason, so this can be more or less depending on your local conditions. I wouldn't go any less than 12 hours.

Remove your chips and place them in a air tight storage bag or container. One zucchini can fill my entire dehydrator, but my three boys can easily eat it in one sitting. Enjoy.

Putting the Dehydrator to Use

My new toy

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I got my first dehydrator the other day. It was an exciting event around here and my husband and I started rattling off recipes that we wanted to try in our new machine. My husband loves beef jerky (but what meat eating male doesn't?), so that was an obvious item on the list of things to try. I wanted to try out just some of the basic fruits and veggies so that I could send them off with the kids for school. I would love to send healthy snacks that are light weight and not as messy as say...applesauce. There are also all the goodies I've seen lately with the April in the Raw event hosted by Real Sustenance that require an hour or four in a dehydrator.

So my first day of playing with my new machine started out with a pint of strawberries that my husband 'just happened' to pick up on the way home. (I can't tell who is more excited, him or me.) Fruit is easy, just wash and cut up into desired size. I love that I have several different tray options in my machine, so I used the flexible trey for the strawberries. This was a bit of luck on my part. I don't know if I could have removed them otherwise as the flex trey made it easy to peal the berries off. These turned out really well, except for my poor planning that ended up with me having to get up at 5am to check on them.



I had also saved a sweet potato last week in hopes of turning it into sweet potato chips when the dehydrator arrived. I peeled, sliced, and blanched the slices for three minutes in my steamer before setting these on the treys. I don't know if blanching is allowed in the raw diet, but since I'm just playing with the option of raw food, I figured I'd follow directions first before attempting completely raw chips. These also turned out well, but next time I need to cut them thinner on the mandolin for a crunchier chip, as these were slightly chewy. Live and learn.



I also had to make tofu today, as Tuesday has ended up being the best day in my schedule to make it. This meant that I had okara (soybean mash) that I had to do something with. I usually toast it in the oven, but figured that since my other two experiments were done, I'd try okara in the dehydrator too. That turned out beautifully and it was much dryer than I get it in the oven and took about the same period of time. I also saved some soybeans from my tofu to make soy nuts. I cooked these all the way through before salting them and drying them for about 6 hours. They are still a little chewy, but the boys like them so it's all good.


I did throw a little applesauce on the fruit leather trey somewhere in between all the other trey fulls of foods. I don't know how long it took, but being a commercially made applesauce it was on the watery side and took longer than homemade applesauce would. It made perfect fruit leather and if I don't try anything else in the dehydrator, that alone makes this machine money well spent.

I like the fact that even with the machine running almost a full 24 hours, the house wasn't uncomfortably hot like it gets when I'm baking granola or okara all day. I was a little worried about a machine that was just a stack of treys and not a solid unit (much like the ones that look like miniature ovens with multiple treys), but this feature actually came in handy when the strawberries and fruit leather were finished quicker than their companion foods. I still have plenty of ideas to try, but as of right now I'm just experimenting with the recipes of others or playing with whole foods. I have at least one recipe in mind for beef jerky, but I'm sure my husband will have the final say on if it works or not before I post it to share. Until then, I plan on filling up my freezer with all sorts of dehydrated treats.

Gluten Free Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

If you are a gardener or a seasonal eater, you know that it is time for some spring dishes. On my patio is a rhubarb plant that has followed me through at least one move and it is the only plant that will overwinter on my east facing patio. I love that it eagerly comes up each spring, even if I forget to water it for half of the winter. The variety I have has wonderful red stalks and it isn't quite as tart as the green stemmed variety. It looked so beautiful the other day that I finally gave into my urge to harvest some. It looked a little naked after I had finished, but it is a hardy plant and as you can see from the picture below, it is just fine.

One tip for rhubarb that I just have to share is that if you ever harvest more than you can use right away (or those stalks at the farmers market where huge), just cut it up as you would for a recipe and toss it into a freezer bag and pop it in the freezer. That's it, frozen rhubarb. It is also handy to put it into bags in pre-measured portions. Frozen fruit works good in any recipe, but watch your cooking times as there is a slight difference between using thawed or frozen fruit.

For years I have been making the Choose-A-Fruit Crisp recipe that is in my Better Homes and Garden's baking book and I would get rave reviews for this simple and classic dessert. When I went gluten free two years ago this month ("Happy Anniversary to me...") I wanted to find a topping for this recipe. In the mean time, I've played with the filling by reducing the sugar amount and adding the spices from the original crisp part to the fruit mixture. I think I finally got a topping that I like to go with my filling. It is very similar to my granola recipe and it is great to eat warm with a little dab of dairy free yogurt or even a scoop of coconut milk ice cream. Enjoy.

It is also part of Real Food Weekly for April 7, 2011.

This is my rhubarb plant after loosing half of its leaves. It looks much better than it did two days ago.


Ingredients:
(all measurements are by volume and before being milled)

Filling:

2 large or 5 small stalks of rhubarb
1 pint of really ripe strawberries
1/2 cup/120ml brown sugar
2 tblsp/30ml potato starch
1/4 tsp/1.25ml salt (or a small pinch)
1/8 tsp/1ml nutmeg
1/8 tsp/1ml powdered ginger or 1/4 tsp/1.25ml fresh grated ginger

Topping:

1/2 cup/120ml gluten free oats (I use Bob's Red Mill)
1/4 cup/60ml sunflower seeds-milled in the coffee grinder
2 tblsp/30ml flax seed-milled in the coffee grinder
2 tblsp/30ml toasted white sesame seeds-milled in the coffee grinder
1 tblsp/15ml brown sugar
2 tblsp/30ml oil
1/2 tsp/2.5ml salt


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chop rhubarb and strawberries into bite sized pieces, stir in sugar, cover and set them aside in the refrigerator for at least two hours up to overnight. Add the remaining ingredients and place the filling into a baking dish. (This can be done with frozen fruit, toss with other ingredients and bake, but you will have to watch your cooking time.)

In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients for the topping. Mix until the oats and seeds are evenly moist. Spoon this mixture over top of the filling and place in a preheated oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until the topping is brown and the fruit is tender. Serve warm, if desired. Makes 4 dessert servings.

PB & J From Scratch

PB & J is not something most people would consider making from scratch, but after having to deal with the contaminated peanut butter issue over the past few years (I use to like Peter Pan peanut butter and ended up regretting that decision) and a slow economy, I have started making my own nut butters. I use to make jam all the time when the kids were littler, but I fell away from that practice until recently because of cost. There are some great jams out there that are corn free, but I saw some strawberries at a ridiculously low price and just had the urge to make a batch.

I do buy my nuts in the bulk section. Usually I stay away from the bulk isle because of cross contamination, but if I can wash it, I'll buy it bulk. I will wash my nuts really well in hot water until the washing water is almost clear before I bake them. This way I avoid cross contamination as much as possible and my husband is convinced this is why my roasted nuts taste better.

The bread I used is my rice bread recipe. One thing I like about it is that the jam doesn't cause it to become soggy when the kids take it to school. So here are my recipes on homemade peanut butter and strawberry jam. Enjoy.

Homemade Peanut Butter:

1-1 pound bag of peanuts
1 tsp of salt or to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons of oil (I used sunflower)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse off the peanuts well in hot water, making sure to remove all the brown skin before baking. Pour them into a pan sprayed with cooking spray or oil and spread them out evenly. Salt and mix well to evenly distribute the salt.

Place in your preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes. Remove and stir. Put back in the over for another 20 minutes. Continue this process until done. The peanuts should be a golden color. At this stage the natural oils are released, making it easier to blend into butter.

Pour the still hot peanuts into a food processor and blend until achieving the desired texture. Add the oil to help blend the peanuts down into butter. The more oil you add, the smoother the peanut butter, but be careful not to add too much as it will result in runny butter. This step may take up to 10 minutes, so be patient. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Feel free to use other nuts or seeds (sunflower) in this recipe as the process is the same for all nut butters.

Strawberry Jam:

2 cups of very ripe strawberries, crushed or puréed in a blender
1/2 cup brown sugar or brown rice syrup

Pour the sugar over the berries before blending and setting this aside for half a hour. This causes the berries to release their liquid.

Pour ingredients into a saucepan over medium heat. Continually stir until the mixture bubbles. After about 10 minutes, the mixture should become thick enough that when you wipe a line down the back of a spoon with your finger (be careful, this is hot) the jam should hold it's shape. Pour into glass jars or prepared container (this may be too hot for plastic) and cover. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.