Cooking with Dehydrated Vegetables

[Anna Blume]

Canning is big. If you can find a bookstore, go look at the shelves in the cookbook section: the number of publications rivals the number of books with romantic pictures of Italy on the book jacket.

My food in jars is a gift from a farmer who owns a pretty cool little drying machine which produced very thin wisps of (mostly) red frying peppers. Also have a wide Ball jar of dehydrated heirloom tomatoes, distinct from store-bought sun-dried plum tomatoes in texture and substantiality. More ethereal, sort of, except they're tomatoes.

Any ideas for creative ways of cooking with them?

I do own a coffee grinder and could go all Wylie on them, but I was thinking of dishes somewhere in between flecks in a tasting menu and suggestions from Ag-Extension websites.

[MsDiPesto]

Do you have to rehydrate them to use, say, marinating in olive oil?

[ol_ironstomach]

I have no suggestions, but will offer an opinion that the Turkish fondness for cooking with rehydrated dried eggplant really does have a beneficial effect on its flavor, silencing the nicotine bite and softening the interior texture. Likewise, while it makes shiitake mushrooms rubbery, drying intensifies the flavor in a way that cannot be duplicated otherwise. Powder them if you have to, but learn to love dried mushrooms.

[KMango]

Soak in an egg mixture, then evolve into a frittata. Or bake into rolls.

And try soaking a few in vodka, the cocktail options look promising.

[Ilaine]

They should rehydrate quite nicely in a braise, stew or otherwise long-simmered dish like beans. I am thinking red beans and rice, or Senate bean soup.

Beef bourguignon.

Chili.

Like that.

[ALB]

I've used dried tomatoes (ground up) blended into the custard to amp up a corn and tomato tart. Perhaps a seasonal equivalent...

[Anna Blume]

Thanks, everyone for suggestions. I tried taking a photo w my camera phone, but quality of image does not justify posting. I definitely will report back once I start using them.

[Anna Blume]

To compensate for low supply of chicken stock, I prepped a vegetable stock for a curried winter-squash soup which calls for a T of tomato paste to be sautéed w chopped ginger, spices and shallots before adding water, etc. So, I added some of the dehyrdrated tomato slices to the stock. Nice.

[Anna Blume]

I've used dried tomatoes (ground up) blended into the custard to amp up a corn and tomato tart. Perhaps a seasonal equivalent...

I really think they work best in this role, that is, enhancing flavors. I threw very large crumbles of thin tomato slices into a braise that already contained a tomato sauce and a bit of tomato paste. Convinced the dried fruit made a difference; simply reconstituted slices of various peppers worked along the lines of "meh" when sautéed in a quickly cooked dish.