Dried pumpkin is a wonderfully tasty and very healthy product. Of all types of winter preparations, it is drying that allows to preserve almost the entire vitamin and mineral composition of vegetables. At home, you can dry an orange vegetable in an ordinary oven or a special electric dryer.
In winter, dried pumpkin pieces can be eaten as a sweet treat or used to prepare various dishes. You can make salads, soups, snacks, meat casseroles, fish and vegetables from dried pumpkin. Powdered pounded dried pumpkin is added to homemade cakes to improve its taste and appearance.
Dried Pumpkin - General Cooking Principles
All varieties of pumpkin are suitable for drying, but it is better to take autumn ones with thick skin. They dry faster and are very tasty.
The fruit must be whole, fully ripe, without spots and signs of damage. It must be well washed, cut into pieces, clean the pulp and seeds. Then cut the peel, and cut the flesh. How exactly? It all depends on the particular dish.
Options are as follows:
• thin plates (on chips);
• narrow strips of 5 mm thick (for soups, salads, vegetable and meat dishes);
• small cubes (for sweet candied fruits).
To cook pumpkin flour, dried plates or strips need to grind in a mortar or scroll in a meat grinder with a fine grill.
Pumpkin pieces can be processed in two different ways before drying. The first is blanching. Prepared slices are kept in boiling water for two minutes. Thanks to blanching, the dried pumpkin will retain a bright color.
To protect the workpiece from pests and spoilage, before drying, you can process pumpkin pieces with saline solution.
For drying pumpkins at home, an electric or gas oven, special drying, and a convection oven are suitable. Drying time and temperature are selected depending on the type of device, the thickness of the pieces and even the pumpkin variety. Average temperatures range from 50 ° to 85 °. Ready dried pumpkin does not stick to the fingers, although it retains its elasticity.
Dried pumpkin in the oven
In order for the dried pumpkin in the oven to turn out tasty and beautiful, before putting it into the oven, you need to wrap it in boiling water, that is, blanch it. Drying lasts about 8 hours, which must be considered when planning your day.
Ingredients:
• a piece of pumpkin weighing 1.5-2 kilograms;
• 2 liters of water;
• a teaspoon of salt.
Cooking Method:
Thoroughly wash a piece of pumpkin and dry it on a paper towel.
Cut off the peel with a sharp knife, cut the flesh, remove the seeds.
Cut pumpkin into equal even strips no thicker than a centimeter.
Prepare a bowl of ice water.
In a saucepan, boil water, salt.
Blanch the pumpkin slices in boiling water for a minute or two.
Remove with a slotted spoon and immediately drop into ice water for two minutes.
Put in a colander to glass all the water.
Heat oven to 55 ° to 65 °.
Put pumpkin slices on a baking sheet in one layer so that they do not touch each other.
Send the sheet to the oven for five hours. Open the door so that the evaporating moisture has a way out.
Raise the temperature in the oven to 80-85 ° and dry the pumpkin for two to three hours.
Allow the dried pumpkin to cool, arrange in canvas bags or glass jars and store.
Pumpkin dried in an electric dryer
The technology of preparing pumpkin slices for drying in a special dryer is the same as for drying in the oven. It is better to cut the pumpkin into small cubes - they are better dried.
Ingredients:
• pumpkin weighing 2-3 kilograms;
• 3 liters of water;
• tablespoon of salt.
Cooking Method:
Wash pumpkin, cut into several parts, remove fibers and seeds, peel.
Each piece is cut into thin slices, then into small cubes. It is important that they have the same size, but after drying, do not fall into the holes of the grid.
In salted boiling water, blanch the pumpkin slices in the same way as described above. Cool in cold water, dry.
Arrange the pumpkin slices on the grid so that they do not touch. Set the average temperature (relative to the power of the device) and dry until ready. At a temperature of 90 ° with the mode of airing on drying will take 4-5 hours. With less temperature (50-60 °) it will take approximately 12 hours.
The finished pumpkin slices will be about twice the size.
Pumpkin dried in an electric dryer with cubes resembles candied fruit, it turns out flexible and very tasty.
Dried Pumpkin: Sesame Chips
Slightly brackish thin slices of dried pumpkin are an excellent substitute for potato chips. For such pumpkin chips fit dense varieties of pumpkin with savory pulp. We will prepare them in the electric drier.
Ingredients:
• a piece of pumpkin weighing two kilograms;
• a tablespoon of spices to taste (paprika, black pepper, cumin, coriander, etc.);
• tablespoon of salt;
• tablespoon sesame;
• two liters of water.
Cooking Method:
Peel the pumpkin and cut it into thin plates-medallions no more than three millimeters thick.
Boil water, salt it and throw pumpkin plates for a minute into boiling water.
Immediately lower the blanched pumpkin into cold water. After a minute, remove and spread on a towel or put in a colander.
Slightly wet, fresh pieces of pumpkin spread on the grid electric dryers, season with spices and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Turn on the device and dry the chips for about six hours at 60 °.
Dry for another two hours at 80 °.
Ready pieces of pumpkin dried in an electric dryer will be approximately 8 hours after the start of drying.
Store pumpkin chips to be in a glass container with a vacuum lid.
Dried Pumpkin Powder
Dried pumpkin pulp can turn into a nutritious, tasty and extremely useful product - pumpkin powder, or flour. There are two ways to get the foundation for it. First, the pumpkin pulp may remain after harvesting the juice. Secondly, you can simply dry the pumpkin and grind it into powder. It will consist entirely of healthy fiber and preserve all the minerals and vitamins. The number of pumpkins indicated arbitrarily.
Ingredients: • three kilograms of pumpkin pulp;
• 3-4 liters of water.
Cooking Method:
Cut the pumpkin into pieces, peel off the entrails and skin.
Cut pumpkin pulp into small pieces, without worrying about beauty.
Throw pumpkin slices in boiling water and cook for twenty minutes.
Cool boiled pumpkin cool, then mash with a blender. If there is no blender, you can simply wipe the pieces through a regular sieve.
Put a pumpkin puree on a piece of baking paper in a thin layer.
Dry mashed potatoes in the oven, heating it to 130 degrees.
After 15-20 minutes, depending on the layer thickness, the plate will be dried.
Dried pumpkin in the oven will chop, packaged in paper bags or glass containers.
Dried pumpkin lemon-honey candied
A simple pumpkin candied fruit recipe is sure to come in handy for families with young children. Instead of shopping chocolates, you can cook a pumpkin dried in an electric dryer (with convection) and make it almost indistinguishable from harmful delicacies. It takes a lot of time to prepare, but the result will please.
Ingredients:
• two kilograms of pumpkin;
• six hundred grams of sugar;
• two medium lemons;
• half a cup of powdered sugar;
• water.
Cooking Method:
Pumpkin pulp cut into small cubes with a side of not more than 2 cm.
Fill candied future sugar and leave overnight.
Pumpkin should make juice. It needs to be drained into a separate container.
Peel lemons, remove bones and grate (can be crushed in a blender). Pour all the resulting mass in pumpkin juice, mix.
Bring lemon-pumpkin syrup to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat to low and boil for three minutes with constant stirring.
Strain the syrup, pour it into the pumpkin, put it on fire.
Boil until syrup thickens for about an hour and a half.
Drain the syrup, drain the pumpkin pieces.
Spread them out on waxed paper.
Dry in an electric dryer, turning on the convection mode, at a temperature of 50 °.
Candied fruits will be ready in 12 hours.
Pumpkin slices should cool completely. Now they can be sprinkled with powdered sugar and put into a glass jar for storage.
Snack with dried pumpkin
Dried pumpkin in the oven or electric dryer is great for making light snacks and salads.
Ingredients:
• one hundred grams of dried pumpkin (better to take thin strips);
• one hundred grams of peeled walnuts;
• two cloves of garlic;
• a bunch of fresh herbs (to taste: dill, cilantro, parsley);
• a tablespoon of wine vinegar;
• salt and pepper to taste;
• half a string of hot peppers (optional).
Cooking Method:
Slices of dried pumpkin pour a liter of water, salt with a pinch of salt and cook until the pumpkin slices soften.
While the pumpkin is boiling, peel and rub the garlic.
Crush walnuts in a mortar. If the mortar is not, they can be chopped with a knife or rolled with a rolling pin.
Cut the greens.
Remove the pumpkin with a slotted spoon, condemn, then press.
Mix all the ingredients of the snack, fill with vinegar, salt and pepper.
Dried Pumpkin - Tips and Tips
Pumpkin dried in an electric dryer or oven is best stored at a temperature of 10 ° to 15 ° and low humidity (up to 60%). Slices can be folded into breathable canvas bags, but hermetically sealed containers and glass jars with a vacuum lid are best for long-term storage of dried vegetables.
To keep the pumpkins lying longer, you need to put a dry parchment sheet on the bottom of the containers, and cover the slices with the same sheet.
Very sweet pumpkin varieties can be dried specifically to give children instead of chips and sweets. In addition, do not add sugar when drying, so that the benefit is maximum. You can take such sweet and healthy strips with you to work as a light snack.
