I’m a fan of magic and magic is the only word for dried cauliflower. We grow and eat a lot of brassicas. Preserving them is problem though. You can’t can them unless you’re fond of foul, bitter mush. You can freeze them but it’s really hard to get a product that isn’t waterlogged. I counteract that problem by giving broccoli and cauliflower a good spin in the salad spinner before vacuum sealing in a food saver bag, then either stir frying or boiling right in the bag but this requires the constant input of a plastic bag. Drying solves both problems. I dried a bunch of cauliflower the other day to have as a class demonstration. It took only 12 hours to dry. I cut the flowerets and steamed them for three minutes. It took only twelve hours to become crispy dry. Dried cauliflower is funny looking. It’s a weird yellow color and very unappetizing. But set it in a bowl of boiling water for 20 minutes and you get cauliflower that looks and tastes like freshly picked and steamed. I have a mess of carrots that I need to do something with. It’s too early for the root cellar so I plan to slice them into coins, steam and dry. Rehydrated, they are wonderful in soups or glazed.
As much as I love canning, I believe drying is the way to go for flavor and nutrition, ease and energy efficiency. There are few inputs as I store my dried food in vacuum sealed jars with old canning lids. I do add an oxygen absorber packet but it probably isn’t really necessary. The power for the Food Saver and the Excalibur is negligible, certainly in comparison to the propane needed to run the canner. It is a lot less work and mess for me too. When I can’t use the root cellar, the dehydrator is my second choice. I’ll always can meat and broth, apple sauce and tomatoes, jams, jellies ,pickles relishes. I’ll can dried beans and some soups too. Most other things are headed for the Excalibur.
I’m looking forward to a trip to the cannery tomorrow. Maggie and I are going together to get oxygen absorber packets, wheat, oats and whatever else strikes my fancy. I’ll give you a report on Monday.
July 29, 2011 at 8:04 am
Oh fun! A trip to the cannery! I have a friend who lives over there pick me up stuff when he goes, because I am not a good city driver. The mylar bags are gret and a fantastic price.
We opted to dehydrate a lot of our produce this year for the same reasons and I am a much more relaxed home food preservationist! I spent last spring experimenting with how dehydrated stuff “came back to life” and tasted and it’s exactly like fresh! My current favorite is potatoes, like cauliflower, ugly at first, but perfect when done. lol Magic!
I”ll be posting a review of your YouTube videos with a link, they are great!
July 29, 2011 at 8:10 am
Thaks for the instructions… I had never contimplated drying cauliflower. We roast it with lots of butter and a bit of garlic and then hot can it and put it in the fridge. Its good there for about four to six months. Love now having options.
July 29, 2011 at 10:03 am
Cauliflower is one of our favorite veggies year ’round so I’m going to put the one in the frig in the Excal this morning and give it a try. Do you cook carrots a bit before drying?
July 29, 2011 at 10:16 am
Interesting way to store cauliflower, I’ll have to think about that. However, I thought you weren’t supposed to reuse canning lids for food storage because the seal can be compromised after use? Any thoughts about that?
July 29, 2011 at 10:38 am
Off topic question … in the event of an emergency can rain water be used for animals (dogs & chickens)? If so, does it need to be boiled and/or otherwise filtered first?
July 29, 2011 at 10:56 am
After reading this post I went and took a look around my pantry where all my deydrated foods are stored. I have quite a list and nothing has dissapointed me yet. I have dried onions, bell peppers, jajapeno peppers, banana peppers,
carrots,pineapple, apples, pears, tomatoes, yellow crook neck squash,
cucumbers, zucchini, coconut fresh from the shell, orange slices and lots of spices like basil, rosemary,dried celery leaves, parsley and probably some others that I did not see. I love my Excalibur! I use it so often. I dried the long red cayenne peppers this week and crushed for pepper flakes. The possibilities are endless. Mine, like yours ,are stored in quart jars and sealed with the Food Saver. Some things like the orange slices are stored in sealed food saver bags. I purposely make my bags longer than is necessary when I seal up certain things like the orange slices. I carefully open and take out what I need and I still have enough overhang to reseal. This is better than using a completely new bag. Happy dehydrating!
July 29, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Given what I have found my dog drinking from, I’m not thinking you need to boil any water first but I can be persuaded otherwise. You do need to blanch all vegetables before dehydrating using the same process as for freezing. You can not only reuse lids for dried food storage but used lids actually work better than new with the Food Saver. You only need the hot sealing compund when used in a canner.
July 29, 2011 at 9:53 pm
Kathy,
Could you do a post or better a video of rehydrating some of these veggies? I’m never sure whether to simmer them, let them just sit in hot water, put them in fridge with cool water over night…. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Just on a side note……I had a teeny problem with my Excal last week and the people at the head office (tech support etc) were really courteous and friendly. They went out of their way to help me resolve my problem and get me up and running again. Wonderful folks over there! (not solicited, just a happy customer) Those machines are definitely worth the money.
July 30, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Wait…you can seal canning jars with a food saver gizmo?? Also, does the dehydrator give off a lot of heat when working? Any ideas about electricity use for it? Thanks!
July 30, 2011 at 9:33 pm
You can but you need to purchase a seperate attachment. It works really well. Itgives of a lot of heat. I often do it outside on the deck to avoid heating up the house. The claim is that it uses about the same energy as a lightbulb. I hope they don’t mean a stadium light. I will be posting a video about this soon as their is aload of veges in the dehydrator now.
August 2, 2011 at 10:20 pm
Kathy: I’m really looking forward to your dehydrator videos. In the meantime, could you please post a comment about how to use the oxygen packets. I looked them up online and there are so many sizes. What size packet for a quart jar, for example. Also, it sounds like they don’t come individually wrapped so all get exposed to moisture once you open the big pack? Any suggestions on where/what to purchase and how to actually put them in your jars? I dehydrated broccoli last night for the first time which was pretty exciting – it was perfectly crispy but by the time it cooled it was flexible again. Our humidity is so high. Any suggestions for this problem too? Thanks!!