Dehydration - Not So Bad When You're a Tomato, by guest blogger Tammia

Tammia brings us Food Preservation Part 2 - Dehydrating!

I'll admit it. I've got a problem, a food preservation problem. In one day I canned 5 quarts of tomatoes, made 16 jars of blackberry jam, 1 quart of sauce, pickled 2 quarts of onions, and dehydrated a quart of cherry tomatoes. Since that's a lot to cover in one post, let's break it down into bite sized pieces. "Sun-dried" bite sized pieces.

 

First, you'll need a huge load of tomatoes, salt and pepper, a bunch of basil, and a dehydrator.

I borrowed my dehydrator from a friend of mine that has TWO. She's a food preserving bad ass.

 

If you don't own one, you can buy one for about $40 (the dehydrator, not the badass friend - she's priceless).

One Huge Load of Tomatoes

Step 1:  Clean and halve all the tomatoes.

 

Tomato bath.

Step 2: Clean out all the seeds. A spoon could be used, but it's so much easier to just use your fingers. 

 

Scoop out the seedy guts.

Step 3: rinse, dry and chop basil. toss the cleaned out tomato halves with kosher salt, pepper and basil.  

 

Step 4: Place the tomatoes skin side down on the dehydrator trays.

 

 

ooooh pretty!

 

Step 5: allow to dehydrate completely - about 8 hours/overnight.

 

 

Dried Up Tomatoes!

Step 6: Place in a clean dry jar and use in salads, soups, pasta sauce, pizza...the uses are endless. I tend to just eat them straight out of the jar, they're so delicious!

 

Dessicated tomato-y goodness

 Thanks for this great post, Tammia! I LOVE dried tomatos, and I put them in everything, especially egg sandwhiches and omelets!

Guest Blogger Tammia: Pickling!

Guest Blogger Tammia is a fountain of food preservation knowledge. Actually, a fountain of all kinds of knowledge! I'm pleased and excited to bring you her first Guest Blogger post about pickling onions.

 

There are a lot of ways to preserve food. It can be canned, dehydrated, frozen, vacuum sealed, and pickling. Pickled onions are pretty simple to make. They're kind of a big deal in my family, and I remember countless visits to my gran's where she was making pickled onions. Here's how you do it.

 

• 2¼ lbs pickling onions, peeled
• 4 tsp pickling spices or
• ½tsp coriander seeds, ½tsp mustard seed, ½tsp black peppercorns, ½tsp dried chili flakes
• 1 oz  salt
• 35 fl oz malt vinegar
• 6 oz  sugar

1) Peel all the onions, then toss them all in salt and put into the fridge for 24 hours.

2) Rinse and dry the onions. pack tightly into glass jars.

 

 

3) Pour the vinegar, sugar and spices into a non-reactive pan and heat until barely boiling. remove from heat.

 

 

 

4) Pour hot vinegar over onions, leaving an inch of headroom in each jar.

 

 

5) Can the jars for 15 minutes in boiling water. remove from water, and allow to cool untouched for 8 hours. Pickled onions are best eaten 2 weeks or more after pickling.