The Dehydrator

Yesterday I picked up my new 5 tray food dehydrator. I am looking  forward to drying all sorts of excess fruits and vegetables as they come into season so nothing is wasted.

The first of my little fruity friends to find their way into the dehydrator are the figs.  I have been having a competition with the local parrots and I think I am winning... (which will be no surprise to those who are aware of my competitive nature and love of food!)..... in regards to who can eat the most figs.  However believe it or not even I have my limits so into the food dehydrator some of them go.  I just washed and sliced them into rounds and spread them out over a tray.  I then intend to harvest the walnuts in a couple of months and make some fig and walnut rolls (which I experimented with over the New Year using commercially purchased walnuts and dried figs).  This roll is wonderfully delicious thinly sliced and served with cheese, bread/crackers and wine (my favourite combination of foods as known to those who have read my previous blogs).  If you are interested in finding out more about the Fig and Walnut Roll keep checking back and I will post a recipe once I have my walnuts sorted out.

There are only so many cumquats that I can either candy or peel and whack into a bottle of vodka so I am going to experiment with these as well.  Again, not a lot of preparation needed, these were washed and sliced thinly.  I then used some paper towel to try to take the excess juice off them before laying them over the remaining 4 trays of the food dehydrator, removing the pips as I went.  For those of you that can suggest some uses for dried cumquats I would appreciate your thoughts.  These are a fruit which I have not had a lot of previous experience with so I am a bit dumbfounded as to what to do with them all. In the absence of any suitable ideas they will find their way into the family Christmas pudding (recipe to be supplied by my sister who had the privilege of receiving this from our Grandmother).  Other than that, not sure where they will have their second life but I am sure that it will be a very exciting time for them!

Thank you again for your attention and any comments or thoughts are always very much appreciated.

Until next week,

Ciao for now