Now that you have a supply of dried foods in your pantry, you can begin to cook and/or bake with them. Of course, you have probably already discovered that some, like fruits and vegetables, jerky, and certain leathers, need no reconstitution to be enjoyed. A handful of dried grapes, otherwise known as raisins, or vegetable chips, or a piece or two of taco or spicy beef jerky prove that. But other dried foods need to be rehydrated before they can be eaten or used in recipes.
Rehydrating, reconstituting, and refreshing are different words for the same process: adding liquid back to dried foods to prepare them for consumption. In short, by returning liquid to the dried food you are reversing the dehydration process.
How much liquid do you add to rehydrate a dried food? The general rule is to use an equal amount of liquid to the amount of food you are drying. Add the liquid little by little and try not to use more than is necessary. If you have added too much, drain it off and reserve it for cooking: Rehydration liquid contains nutrients from the food that has been soaked in it. When you become really experienced at cooking with dried foods, you will look at a recipe, gauge the amount of liquid in it, figure out how and when to add a dried ingredient, and retain the rehydration liquid for its nutritional value.
How much time does it take to rehydrate a dried food? The amount of time required for rehydration depends on different factors that include:
• the size of the piece of food
• the type of food and whether it was fresh, frozen, or canned before being dried
• whether the food was blanched before being dried
• the degree of dryness of the food
• the temperature of the liquid used for rehydration: the hotter the liquid, the faster the rehydration
Small pieces of dried food, and obviously powders, rehydrate almost instantly. Larger pieces may take 30 minutes to several hours. Unblanched foods will unfailingly take longer to rehydrate than ones that have been blanched, because blanching breaks down the cell structure, thus promoting faster reconstitution. Foods that have been dehydrated until hard, such as rice and tofu, will take more time to rehydrate. When the rehydration process takes longer than 2 hours, the bowl of food being rehydrated should be placed in the refrigerator.
What does rehydrated food look like? Most rehydrated foods regain their original size, form, color, and appearance. It is almost impossible to taste the difference between cooked fresh spinach and rehydrated cooked spinach. Carrots will not only regain their crunch, but they will also taste a little sweeter after rehydration because the sugars in them are intensified in the dehydration process. Apple pie made with dried apples is absolutely delicious, if I say so myself!
Other foods, such as watermelon, for example, will not return to their original form because their cell structure has collapsed. Rehydrated tomatoes are not going to look exactly like the tomatoes you picked from your garden. However, I have used dried tomatoes in everything but BLTs, and many people have told me that they would rather used dried tomatoes in sandwiches than the anemic tomatoes available during winter in most grocery stores.
There are a handful of different methods of rehydration. I begin with the most straightforward ones.
Hot Water: Soak 1 cup dried fruit or vegetable in 1 cup water that has been brought to a boil, then remove the pan with the rehydrating dried food from the heat for 5 minutes to 1 hour, depending upon the size of the pieces. Remember that boiling and hot-water soaks speed up the rehydration process.
Cold Liquid: Although water may be the most common liquid used for rehydration, fruit juice, cider, vegetable juices, consommé, milk, yogurt, wine, liquor, even vinaigrette may be used. Place the dried food in a container and barely cover with the liquid of choice. Depending upon type and size, the food will rehydrate in minutes or hours. Refrigerate foods that are being reconstituted in milk or other perishable liquids or if the rehydration time takes longer than 2 hours.
• If you use hot or cold liquid to rehydrate dried foods, you can add most flavorings, such as spices or herbs, at any point during the rehydrating process. Add salt or sugar only at the end of the rehydrating time.
Cooking: Most dried vegetables need a few minutes to absorb liquid before the cooking process begins or they may toughen as they cook. For the best results, allow dried vegetables to soak in liquid until their color begins to change and they plump up. Then add them to the other ingredients in the recipe and start the cooking process. Other types of dried foods can be cooked without first being rehydrated, although dried fruits become more tender if soaked and/or simmered, then cooked.
Steaming: This method of rehydration prevents the loss of nutrients that occurs when foods are submerged in liquid to rehydrate them. To steam, place the dried food in a steaming basket and place over boiling water until the food softens. Allow anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, depending upon the size of the pieces. Steaming is often used to soften dried foods prior to their being chopped or blended.
Standing: This method is as simple as it sounds. Some dried foods can literally stand in a place with high levels of humidity, and they will soften. A cup of dried apples left uncovered on the kitchen counter on a humid day will absorb some moisture from the air. However, do not leave the dried food out for too long or it will absorb enough moisture to spoil.
Another option is to soften dried foods to be eaten as snacks by placing them in a plastic bag with 3 or 4 drops of water. Seal the bag and refrigerate it for a couple of hours.
Microwaving: To those who use microwave ovens, it comes as second nature to rehydrate dried foods in them. Here is how to reconstitute 1 cup blanched dried corn: Put the corn in a microwave-safe container, add 2 cups water, and cover the container. Microwave at 100 percent (high power) for 2 minutes. Remove the container, stir the corn, and cover. Repeat the process. Remove the container, stir, then let the corn sit for 2 minutes. This is only the rehydration process; additional cooking time will be needed. In general, when using a microwave oven for rehydrating dried foods, remember that the bigger the piece of food, the longer it will take to become reconstituted. Pretreated, blanched food will rehydrate faster.
Tips on Rehydration
To Rehydrate Dried Fruits: Use a boiling, hot, or cold-water soak. Or steam them. You can also sprinkle the dried fruits with liquid and let them stand until soft. The amount of time needed for rehydration will depend upon the temperature of the liquid you used—boiling water being the fastest catalyst—and the size and type of the pieces of fruit.
To Rehydrate Dried Vegetables: Some vegetables, carrots, green beans, and corn, tend to toughen when placed directly in boiling liquid. Therefore, when adding dried vegetables to a soup or stew, turn off the heat, then add the vegetable and let stand at least 5 minutes. The vegetable will swell and lighten in color. Resume cooking. The vegetable will fully rehydrate as the dish finishes cooking.
To add small pieces of vegetable, such as dried tomatoes, to a salad, put them in the salad dressing.
Dried vegetables and dried rice can be soaked separately, then cooked together.
To Rehydrate Dried Meats and Fish: Jerky, made of meat or fish, is most commonly eaten dry. However, should you want to add jerky to a stir-fry, for example, rehydrate it in an amount of liquid equal to the amount of jerky. You can also add jerky to soups, stews, or casseroles if there is sufficient liquid in the dish for the jerky to rehydrate.
Te Rehydrate Feed Leathers: Both fruit and vegetable leathers are great eaten just as is, as snacks, or rehydrated into beverages, soups, and sauces. Leathers rehydrate much faster if they are torn into 1-inch pieces before soaking.
Te Rehydrate Dried Herbs and Flowers: Both dried herbs and dried flowers rehydrate almost instantly. Or you can crush them or pulverize them in a blender.
If you are adding salt or sugar, do so at the end of the rehydration period as both may interfere with the dried food’s absorption of liquid and thus toughen the food.
1. In a saucepan, combine ¼ cup dried corn with 1 cup hot water. If the corn has been blanched, it will rehydrate in 5 to 10 minutes, whereas unblanched corn will take about 30 minutes or longer.
2. Bring the rehydrated corn to a boil and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes.
3. Drain. Add salt and pepper and butter to what is now ¾ cup cooked corn. Serve immediately or use as below.
Example: Creamed Corn
Years ago, when I first made this recipe, my mother and father came for lunch. Dad took one bite of the corn and said, “This is how it used to taste.” In his youth, he had lived on a farm, where his mother dried corn on pans in the attic and used it to make creamed corn on toast, a family favorite.
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon sugar
¾ cup cooked dried corn (see above)
½ teaspoon dried celery powder
Pepper to taste
In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Sprinkle in the flour and stir with a wire whisk until blended. Slowly add the milk and the sugar, stirring constantly. Add the cooked corn, celery powder, and pepper, and remove the pan from the heat. Top with more celery powder or a dusting of Parmesan cheese.
Serves 2
Tip: Rehydrate small pieces of dried green bell pepper with the corn and cook them together.
Once a dried food has been rehydrated, the cooking process is basically the same as with any fresh, frozen, or canned food, although a rehydrated food may cook more quickly than a fresh food, especially if it was blanched before being dried. It is always recommended to try to cook the dried food in the liquid in which it was rehydrated. Also, it is better to add liquid during the cooking process than to start out with more liquid than is needed. Like fresh foods, dried foods, if overcooked, lose both texture and flavor.
Slow cookers work beautifully with all dried foods. Their low temperatures and long cooking times give flavors a chance to mingle; steam collects on the lid and drops back into the pot, keeping the foods moist and nutritious. When using a slow cooker, it is important to make sure that you have enough liquid. I do not rehydrate dried foods before cooking them in a slow cooker.
Another discovery I have made is that in specific instances I will get a better finished product if I allow the combined mixture to sit a few minutes before cooking. Take, for example, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. I assemble the batter, put it in the prepared pan, and then let the pan sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes before I put it in the oven. The flavors mellow during that time, and the recipe, plain and simply, turns out better.
Another observation that I can make about using dried food as opposed to fresh in recipes is that I generally use more of the dried food. When I make the carrot cake recipe, for instance, with fresh grated carrots, I use 3 cups; whereas when I make it with dried carrots, I use the equivalent of 4 cups fresh. This means that you utilize more fruits and vegetables in your preparation when you cook with dried foods.
It is also interesting to note that when rehydrating dried foods, you often use less liquid to cook them. Do not feel that you have to compensate for all the water that was removed from the dried foods. You do not, which gives you much more control over the amount of liquid in a recipe. I find this an asset, and it is a creative way to control the finished products.
When it comes to baking with dried foods, trust your instincts. You have probably added a dried food to a batter, in the form of raisins, more times than you can remember. Similarly, you can add your favorite home-dried fruit in pieces, as is, to a batter. Or you can rehydrate the dried fruit, then add them to the recipe. Or you can rehydrate the fruit in the liquid in the recipe. Or you can dust the fruit pieces with flour to prevent them from sinking in the batter, then add them. If you substitute one fruit for another, adjust the spices in the recipe and note that dried fruits have a high sugar content, which means that the sugar measurement in some recipes can be reduced.
And whatever you do, don’t forget this old trick: Add your own dried fruits to packaged cake and cookie mixes for quick treats with a personal touch.
The Power of Pulverization
There is no way to overstate the rewards of pulverizing dried foods. To begin with, the flavors are intense—so pure, in fact, that celery powder, for one, can readily substitute for salt, and many other pulverized vegetables can be used as nutritious seasonings. Second, pulverizing is a means of using a dried food product that may not be quite up to your standards.
Dried fruit or vegetable powders can be used for making soups and juices, as natural food colorings, and even as a supplement to flour: add ½ cup dried powder to each cup flour in a recipe, and add 2 tablespoons additional liquid.
To grind dried fruits or vegetables to a powder, be sure that they have been dried hard; otherwise they can gum up your blender. A reminder: Putting dried foods in the refrigerator or freezer for 15 to 30 minutes before pulverizing them turns them crisp and they become easier to pulverize.
Prepare Your Own Baby Food
With dried foods on hand, you won’t believe how easy it is to prepare baby food. In many cases, all you need do is soak the dried food, then blend it.
Pulverize dried foods to reconstitute them for infants. As your child grows, pulverize dried foods to a coarser texture. Use single-item powders, then combine powders as you introduce new foods. If your child is food sensitive, dried, pulverized foods can be very helpful because you control the ingredients.
Three points to remember when you are preparing pulverized food for your child:
• Start out with a small amount of liquid and gradually add more until the desired consistency is achieved. It is best to add liquid to the dried food just before using it.
• Store rehydrated foods, including baby food, in the refrigerator.
• Discard any leftover baby food that has been at room temperature for more than an hour.
The basic principles of microwave cooking apply when cooking dried foods in a microwave oven. In other words, remember that microwaves cook foods by heating the water inside them. Dried foods have no water in them, thus they must first be rehydrated. The amount of water to add and the cooking time will vary, depending upon how dry the foods are, the size of the pieces, and the way the foods were dried.
Here are a few obvious, very general pointers when cooking dried foods with your microwave:
• Watch the cooking time carefully. Overcooking is the most common error when using a microwave.
• Always put the food in a microwave-safe container and be sure that it is large enough. A good rule-of-thumb is that the container have twice the capacity of the dried-food measurement.
• Large pieces of food should be stirred once or twice during cooking to ensure even cooking throughout.