Monday, March 23, 2009

Dehydrator Fun


I haven't blogged in forever. I fail. Anyhow.... Susie and I agreed to update our neglected blogs, so here I go:


When my tax refund arrived, I headed right to EverydayDish, my favorite source for amazing cooking equipment. One of my purchases was an Excalibur food dehydrator, which I bought with a mind to use it for some raw food recipes. However, I am discovering that it makes a great incubator for soy yogurt, tempeh, salt rising bread starter, and other fermented projects that need a warm temperature below what the oven can offer.


My mother used to dehydrate lots of apples when I was a kid. (We had a bunch of trees.) Yesterday, I processed two big bags of apples in the dehydrator. Not only are they tasty on their own, but they can be used to make a delightfully unhealthy treat - fried pies. Around here, THE filling for fried pies is based on dried apples. This is my great-aunt's non-recipe:


Take 1 quart of dried apples, add just a little water, and cook in a saucepan till tender. You can add sugar, cinnamon, or whatever else you like. Mash the results until you have a fairly thick paste.


Make a double batch of your favorite pie crust. Take a ball of dough (golf ball size or bigger), and roll out into a flat circle. Cover one side with the apple mixture (leave space around the edges), then fold over and seal with a fork.


To cook: Heat vegetable shortening in a dutch oven - maybe an inch or so of melted fat. Fry the pies until brown on one side, then flip, and fry the other side. The second side goes a lot faster. If this is too terrifying, brush with melted margarine and bake at 400 until they look done.


Enjoy!

11 comments:

Tami said...

Yay! You're back. And making tempeh? I had no idea. That's impressive!

JohnP said...

Hi Tami - Tempeh is not hard as long as you can control the temperature. I made some the other day using the okara from soymilk.

julie hasson said...

Awesome John! So glad you're back to blogging!!

Anonymous said...

Ahhh! I'm jealous of your dehydrator and okara tempeh!

Now a want a fried pie. What have you done?

Anonymous said...

Welcome back!

panda with cookie said...

Johnp! Fried Pies!

Oh my!

Anonymous said...

yay!! your back! I desperately want to get a dehydrator after I move and redo my kitchen. I want those dried apples!

KitteeBee said...

pinch me, i think i'm dreaming!
xo
kittee

KitteeBee said...

also, susie needs a pinch too, but in the ass...

xo
kittee

Christoffer M said...

Do you run the risk of drying out the tempeh if you use a dehydrator for incubation? Or perhaps keeping it in a perforated zip bag doesn't allow for too much water to evaporate?

JohnP said...

Christoffer - Yes, if you keep it covered, you are OK!