I took a deep breath yesterday (after grocery shopping and dropping a few things off at the electronics recycling location). It was time to open the box and test out the new dehydrator. I had ordered it on that Monday night when I was basically sleepwalking after an argument that DH and I had. I knew I needed something with more power, because my little one simply wasn't getting things dried out sufficiently and I had to toss things that were developing storage issues. So, I indulged and ordered a new one - not checking all three dimensions. 18" depth, fine. 12" width, fine. The height ... well, that turned out to be not so good - by about 1-1/2 inches. Oy!
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I finally could unbox and try out the new dehydrator yesterday. I really like it. It does a great job and it's really quiet. |
But I really wanted this new dehydrator. I didn't want to actually check it out if I didn't have a place in which to put it, though, so I started rearranging cupboards. It finally found a home in a different bottom cupboard, next to my stock pots and stew pots. It fills that cupboard completely now, but it has a home, so I brought it downstairs, harvested new thyme and rosemary (the last batch I had tried to dry had molded, so I tossed that out quickly). The idea with herbs is that they get crispy. I placed the herbs on the ultra-fine mesh that was included for that exact purpose and turned the machine on. Oh! It's really quiet. It will take me a bit to get accustomed to the controls, but that's a minimal thing. When I returned to pull the herbs out, they were wonderfully done. Crispy and absolutely perfect. I'm quite pleased.
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I adore Jalapeno peppers, and use them in a lot of my cooking over the colder months. There's nothing like a few pinches of peppers in a soup to make it zing! |
I then started a batch of three different hot peppers that I had harvested, but had been afraid to dry in the old dehydrator. I had Jalapeno, Serrano and Ristra peppers ready to be dried, so I cut them down. I decided to not cut too much, I wanted to really see how well the dehydrator removed the moisture. Peppers don't need to be crispy, they turn leathery when dried properly. I then put them through the blender/chopper and store them, adding them in recipes for the year.
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I'm not getting enough peppers from my Ristra peppers to bother making a ristra, so I'm drying them instead. They have a lovely flavor - not as hot as a Jalapeno, and a bit sweeter. It's why they have been tied into ristras forever and used in cooking throughout the year. As a New Mexican native, I'm quite familiar with ristras. |
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My third type of pepper for the dehydrator yesterday was this one - Serrano. Serrano is mild, with lots of seeds. I cut all of my peppers apart and pull out the seeds. That's where the heat is, and I'm really after the flavor of the rind instead of the heat of the seeds. |
I checked the peppers this morning at 3:30 am and they were perfect. I pulled them, put all of the shelving, etc back into the dehydrator, and put it away into the cabinet. I'm quite happy. Of course, I'm also a bit off kilter at the same time because my security alarm company called me last night around 9:00 pm for a "front door breach and glass break" alarm. That's not what I ever like to hear, so I drove out immediately to check. Fortunately, this one was a false alarm. I called the company back and reported in that I had cleared and reset the alarm and that everything looked just fine. It's the regional Street Rod Championships Friday through Sunday, and there is increased traffic and probably some vibrations that are more unusual outside the store. It's possible that one of the cars set off my alarm with a loud muffler or booming bass from the radio. At least it was a false alarm, although I sacrificed almost an hour of sleep due to it. So, I'm out of here. I have a busy day at the shop ahead of me, but it's Saturday. It's a slightly shorter day and I get a Sunday off to relax. Have an excellent weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini.
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