Space Jam©

Space Jam©: Left to right: Rhubarb,
Citrus (mixture of lemon and orange)
and Strawberry, plus T&G Powder

I've been making some dried fruit powder, and making Space Jam© out of it.

• Dehydrate fresh fruit until it's really dry and crisp.

• grind it to powder. 

I store the powder in the freezer but i mix some in shaker spice jars.

1:1 mixture of fruit powder and sugar free powdered sweetener. 

Serving: spread peanut butter on a cracker, shake Space Jam© on top to taste. It's pretty darned good, but none of the carbs or calories of sugar. 

I took this mixture on a family campout, and my niece decided this needed to be called Space Jam©. So it's Space Jam© now. 

Also: roast tomatoes with fresh garlic. Dehydrate completely. Grind to powder for T&G (Tomato & Garlic) powder. Still working on the best application for this one. 

NB: Rhubarb, Lemons, Tomatoes and Garlic from my own garden. Strawberries from Spooners. Oranges from the produce department.

NB: Apricot Space Jam© is not worth the effort. Needs a fruit with some zing. Going to try Raspberry and Blackberry soon. 

Dehydrator Beef Jerkey

Ingredients:

• 3 LB Beef (Eye of Round or Other Lean Cut)
• 2 TSP Salt
• 1 ½ TSP Black Pepper
• 1 ½ TSP Garlic Powder
• 1 ½ TSP Onion Powder
• 1 ½ TSP Smoked Paprika
• ½ Cup Brown Sugar
• ½ Cup Soy Sauce
• 1 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce
• 6 TBSP Water

 

 Instructions: 

1. Put the meat into the freezer until cold and firm, but not frozen (30-60 minutes).

2. Mix the salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, brown sugar, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and water in a large bowl until well mixed and the sugar has dissolved.

3. Take the meat from the freezer and trim all external fat. Using a sharp knife, thinly slice the meat between ⅛” and ¼” across the grain.

4. Add the meat to the marinade, piece by piece, and mix well to ensure contact between the meat and marinade.

5. Transfer to a plastic bag, seal and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours.

6. Remove the meat from the marinade. Let the marinade drop off and lightly pat with paper towels to remove excess marinade without wiping the meat clean.

7. Lay the strips of meat on the mesh dehydrator trays. Make sure not to overlap the meat.

8. Place in the dehydrator and cook for 3 to 6 hours at 165°F.

9. Start checking the jerky at the 3-hour mark.

10. Once the jerky has been cooked, remove from the dehydrator, and let cool.

11. Store in an airtight container and enjoy.

     

     

    Results:  Flavor is pretty nice, but the pre-sliced meat I used is far too thin.
    

 

Zucchini flour

You may have heard it called Amish flour or troops flour before. It’s a Staple in Amish and Mennonite household for generations. It was also embraced in the 1940’s during rationing. 

It's a low-carb, gluten-free flour. Or it's good for just stretching your flour, or for using up all those zucchinis that grow so quickly. You can substitute zuke flour for coconut flour 1:1.

There’s probably fancier ways of doing this out there, but here’s how I learned. It's pretty easy.

You let your zucchini grow, oversized zucchini will give a milder-flavored flour. Peel with a carrot peeler, into thin even strips. If you shred the zucchini (cheese shredder or food processor), it will dry faster, but take more space and be messier.

You can use the skins and seeds if you’re using small-to-medium size fruit; if you’re using a great big one, leave skins and seeds out.

Dehydrate the zucchini. It must be absolutely dry, paper dry, crispy dry. It’s essential. If in doubt always dry it more; any moisture will ruin it during storage

Then run the dried strips through a food processor until you have a powdered consistency. It will be a marbled green looking power if you kept the skin. The texture should be similar to a good quality whole wheat flour. If it’s not fine enough for you, sift the flour. You can run the siftings through a coffee grinder and sift again.

That is zucchini flour. Three large zucchini is about four or five cups finished.

It can be used to replace up to ⅓ of the flour in most recipes without any change to the finished products. It acts as a thickening agent for gravies, great for breading fish. I’m told it makes good tortillas or naan bread. It also makes great dumplings and brownies.

Store in air tight jar or vacuum pack it; adding a desiccant (silica) packet to keep humidity down. Do not store the flour in the refrigerator (too much moisture) and use within 6 months for best quality. Alternatively, store the sliced/shredded zucchini in the freezer and process it when you’re getting ready to bake.

So this is free, sustainable, easily produced on site and it has a mild taste. Most people wouldn’t pick up on it. It cuts our flour usage by a third. You can make flour with sweet or regular potato, other squashes, and with pumpkin. I just find myself zucchini is the least flavored. Plus we get overloaded by the darn things. 

Christmas Peppers

On Christmas Eve, I harvested a goodly lot of peppers. What else can you do when you have so many, but dry them for spices?

When this batch was completely dry, on Christmas day, I ground it all - in a single batch - to powder. 

This is, in my completely subjective opinion, the best tasting pepper powder I've ever made: fruity and hot and full of complex flavors!

Components:

• Lemon Drops were the primary flavor component, and gave the spice its fruity elements. 
• There are only two Jalapeno peppers here. The others that look like them are Felicity: a nearly heat-less version of Jalapeno. These kept the flavor up, but the heat under control.
• There are two small Habanero peppers in the back.  
• Two Hungarian Cherries contribute substance and a bit of heat. 
• Two Big Jim peppers (large, green) are good, mild flavor. These also kept the heat  under control.
• And I think the smaller green ones are Serrano: modest heat. 

These were so good that I made another batch the following week.