Friday, January 30, 2015

Apple Jerky

Ted Morris and Cullen Wyne

Rating: ****

Ingredients: 
  • 1 Jar Apple Sauce 28 oz (796 ml)
  • 1 Banana
  • 6 Dates, chopped
  • ⅓ Cup Flax Seeds (79 ml)
  • 2 Tbsp Honey (30 ml)
  • 1 Tbsp Agave Nectar (15 ml)
  • 1 Tbsp Cinnamon (15 ml)
  • ½ Cup Orange Juice (118 ml)
  • 2 Apples, shredded
  • 1 Cup Oatmeal, uncooked (236 ml)
  • ½ Cup Coconut, shredded (118 ml)
  • 3 Cups Rice Krispies Cereal (708 ml)

Instructions:
  • Add apple sauce, chopped dates, banana, honey, cinnamon and flax seeds to blender. Let this sit to soften up the dates while you get the other things ready.
  • Peel, core and shred two apples. Combine with orange juice in a large mixing bowl. Mix it around a bit to keep the apples from turning brown. Add oatmeal, coconut and Rice Krispies to the mixing bowl and stir.
  • Turn the blender on for about two minutes or until everything is well blended.
  • Dump blender contents into mixing bowl and mix well.
  • Pour mixture into a large bag or jerky gun. If using a bag, cut a ½ inch hole in one corner.
  • Cover dehydrator trays with Excaliber Paraflexx sheets or parchment paper. Make lines of apple jerky on trays. Should make three trays if using an Excalibur Dehydrator.
  • Dry at 135° F for about nine hours. At five hours, take off the paraflexx sheets and continue drying. Will dry similar to fruit leather.
  • Let cool and cut strips in two or three pieces.

The jerky turns out great if you follow these precise steps. Our first batch didn't turn out so well because they weren't in the oven for long enough, but we learned from our mistake the and so the second batch came out delicious. Everyone from the class seemed to enjoy it. It would be a great item your menu to pack for a trip. 

















(2014) Rutherford, Al. Apple Jerky. Retrieved from:
http://www.backpackingchef.com/yr-als-apple-jerky.html 

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Ahmad's Dehydration Asginment

Ahmad El-Arab

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

PAD20

Jan. 22, 15

Rating ***

Ingredients:

½ lb of Ground beef

½ cup of spaghetti sauce

½ of teaspoon of salt

½ of teaspoon of black pepper

2 garlic cloves crunched

2 tablespoon olive oil

Spaghetti sticks

Steps:

Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the cooking pot. When oil is hot add the ground beef and cook it

until it is brown in colour. Add the salt and black pepper, then add the sauce and the crunched

garlic.

Boil water in another pot with a tablespoon of olive oil and dash of salt. Boil for 8 minutes and

then drain all the water. Add to the meat sauce and mix.

Spread on an oven tray and place it in the oven and set the temperature for 120° Celsius, and

leave it for 12 hours.

After 12 hours have passed, place the meal in a container. When ready for use, simply boil

approximately 2 cups of water, and mix it with the spaghetti. Continue mixing until the texture of

the pasta is soft enough for your liking.

Hints and Changes:

When testing out the pasta at home after it had been dehydrated, I realized that if I were to ever

do this again, there would be one major issue that I would change. First was that it wasn’t

necessary to dehydrate the actual spaghetti itself. As dehydrating the pasta would leave it in the

same state as when it was initially bought. This left meant that extra time was wasted cooking the

spaghetti. Although it did seem faster to rehydrate then it took to initially cook the spaghetti, it

would be all around faster to simply leave the pasta uncooked and simply boil it on the trip.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Apple Butter Bannock

Our Recipe:

1 1/2 cups of flour
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 pinch of salt
3 1/2 tablespoons of apple butter (or to taste)
water

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and then add Apple butter. Knead the mixture while slowly adding water until the mixture turns into a play dough like consistency (dry but a bit sticky). The batter should stay together in a ball. Stretch the dough into a snake- like form that is about 1 cm thick. Wrap this around the end of a stick with the bark torn off. It should stick to the wood if you turn it 360 degrees.

Cooking:

Make a hot fire. Let it naturally burn down to glowing coals with a bit of flames. Then take the stick with the bannock and place about 15-20 cm above the fire (your hand should be able to be held there for 20 seconds). Rotate the bannock over the fire to ensure even cooking. The bannock is done when the outer layer (crust) is a golden brown. You should be able to slide it off the stick. If you can not, cook it for a bit longer and try again.

Our Thoughts:

The Apple butter paired well with the smoky taste of the fire. The brown sugar complimented the apple butter and made it a little sweeter. The bread was fully cooked and tasted fantastic! It didn't take long to cook. We believe that this was a success and would try it again. 

By Lucia and Gillian

Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips by Brayden M.

Cut the potato in paper-thin slices
using a mandolin (or in this case a meat slicer).
*The recipe is dependent on the thickness of
the slices.*
 Recipe & Steps -

What you'll need -

-one medium to large spud (~200 grams)

                                         
-3/4 teaspoon of salt

                                         
-150mL of malt or                                                 cider vinegar (use                                                 water for plain                                                     salted chips)

             




The salt and vinegar mix should be poured into
a bowl. Put the potato slices in the bowl to soak
for approximately 10 minutes. After 10 minutes,
remove the slices and dry them off.
 Rating - **** 4/5 stars

My batch was very light tasting and lacked the taste of salt. Although my                                                batch was very                                                      crunchy.                                                  
Preheat the oven to 250°F and then put in the slices.
Parchment paper is recommended so they don't stick.
Bake for 30 mins, check periodically depending
on the thickness of the slices. Voila!

Raw Banana Bread


Rating: ***
Ingredients:
      1. 5 bananas
      2. 1 2/3 cups roughly chopped carrots (peeled)
      3. 1/4 cup water
      4. 1/4 cup dates
      5. 1/2 cup chia seeds (or flaxseed meal)
      6. 1 tablespoon vanilla
      7. 1 teaspoon cinnamon
      8. 1 pinch sea salt
      9. 1 cup raisins
      10. 1/2 cup chopped pecans (or chopped walnuts)
      11. 1/4 cup sesame seeds
  1. Directions:
1. Get out a large mixing bowl. Place raisins, pecans and sesame seeds in bowl. Set aside for later.
2. Place water, peeled bananas, vanilla, cinnamon and sea salt into your high speed blender. Once blending, add chopped carrots and dates. Mixture will be pretty thick. Try to avoid adding any extra water (besides the initial quarter cup). Blend until nicely combined and smooth, like a smoothie.
3. Try to do this step quickly: Add chia seeds to blender mixture and blend well. Since the mixture is already quite thick, your chia seeds might get stuck at the top of the mixture. If so, turn blender off and create an air pocket down the side of the mixture. Also, use your Vitamix tamper (big tool for mixing, like a big spoon) if you have one. Start blender on low again and increase speed. (Remember that chia seeds will thicken the mixture even more so work fast!)
3. Once your mixture seems as smooth as you can get it, find the mixing bowl that you set aside in step 1. Now, pour/spoon blender mixture on top of rasins, pecans and sesame seeds. Mix with a spoon. This should now resemble regular, Standard American Diet (SAD) banana bread batter.
4. Line two dehydrator trays with parchment paper or teflex sheets. (Do not use wax paper! It'll stick and be a disaster!)
5. Pour half of raw banana bread batter onto each tray. Smooth batter out with the back of a spoon (or with a palette knife/cracker spreader). Batter should be a 1/4 of an inch thick or a bit less. The thinner the batter is the better it will dehydrate, although you don't want it too thin because you want some moistness in the middle like "raw banana bread slices" not like dried out "banana crackers or cookies" if you know what I mean!
6. Dehydrate on high for 1.5 hours. Reduce temperature to 105 degrees and dehydrate your banana bread for another couple of hours. Once it seems to be holding together and drying out, score lines into the crackers with a knife so that you can more easily break them up later.
7. Keep dehydrating. At some point once they appear to be holding together very well you’ll want to remove the parchment paper, flip them over and finish dehydrating them. (You want to remove the parchment paper so that the air can flow around better without being blocked by the parchment paper.)
8. One you've flipped over your banana bread slices, keep monitoring based on how dry/moist you want your banana bread slices to be. Dehydrator times and temperatures can vary greatly so I urge you to check this raw banana bread recipe quite frequently. Don't be afraid to taste test, especially if you are new to dehydrating.
9. Once your banana bread is done, remove from dehydrator.  Eat some right away, and let the others cool.
Comments: This recipe was really good, even though it didn’t turn out as planned. I made a couple of changes when making it (taking out the nuts and sesame seeds and adding coconut) and I would make a couple more. On the recommendations of Mrs. Trumpower I would add some honey to the recipe. I would also put it in the dehydrator for longer because it was a little bit undercooked (the recipe called for a more advanced dehydrator with heat settings). Overall I would say that this recipe was really good, but it wasn’t banana bread; it was more of a banana fruit bar.

Source: "The Rawtarian: Raw Banana Bread Recipe." The Rawtarian RSS. Web. 23 Jan. 2015. <http://www.therawtarian.com/raw-banana-bread-recipe>.  

Dehydrated Chili

Chili Recipe Simon C.
Rating ***** of *****
Ingredients
-Ground Beef----------------------------------------------------------1 Pound
-Onions---------------------------------------------------------------------1 1/2
-Garlic----------------------------------------------------------------- 6 cloves
-Carrots---------------------------------------------------------------- 6 large
-Celery----------------------------------------------------------------- 3 sticks
-Bell Pepper--------------------------------------------------------1 Chopped
-Jalapeno Pepper--------------------------------------------------1 Chopped
-Tomatoes------------------------------------------------------------ 3 Cubed
-Tomato Paste-----------------------------------------------------------1 can
-Kidney Beans-------------------------------------------------------1 Lrg Can
-Black Beans---------------------------------------------------------1 Lrg Can
-Chili Powder----------------------------------------------------------To Taste
-Oregano ---------------------------------------------------------------1 TBSP
-Cayenne powder------------------------------------------------------1 TBSP
-Marble Cheese-------------------------------------------------------Optional


Method
-Place the ground beef in a large pot and put in the garlic and the onions. Cook over medium heat until browned.


-Add Carrots, Celery and peppers cook until the carrots are softened.


- Next add tomatoes, tomato paste , chili powder,, oregano,and cayenne. Stir together, cover pot, and then reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer for 45min, stirring occasionally.


-Put on tray in oven at 170 C with the oven door
open and heat for 24h- 30h or until completely dry


-To rehydrate put in a Container and fill with water
until you reach the top of the chili wait 12 hours
add extra water if required after 12 hours


-Heat on Medium until it reaches a simmer


-Serve with Cheese on top (Optional)


Thoughts
This recipe was an overall success, I enjoyed it and so did everyone else. It kept its flavor very well seeing as I had kept it dehydrated nearly four months. It had great taste and I would not change anything if I were to make this recipe again.


"Chili." Interview with Simon. page 0. Print.

Dehydration assignment: Teriyaki Beef Jerky By Joshua and Grace

Teriyaki Beef Jerky

By Joshua And Grace

Rating:

Ingredients:

30 pieces of beef cut into 1/4th of an inch thickness

Teriyaki Marinade 
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
-1 cup of water
- 2 tbsp honey
- 5 tbsp Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp  ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder


Instructions

1. you must make your marinade by adding all ingredients together then cooking on your stove top on low till the brown sugar has blended into the sauce 

2. Cut up your beef into 1/4th of an inch slices making sure to cut off all the fat inside the beef.

3. Soak your beef in the Marinade for 18-20 hours checking it occasionally 

4. Then place all your beef on the dehydrator racks and cook at 160 degrees fahrenheit till it is dehydrated. Check on it occasionally and flip the beef if needed.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Angel Cake


Angel Cake

Rating: ***

By: Amanda, Olivia H, Alyssa

Ingredients
1 Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake Mix
1 ¼ cups of cold water

Directions

In a medium size bowl, add package of Betty Crocker Food Cake Mix and add in water. Mix ingredients with electric mixer on medium for 30 seconds, then on high for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Make sure to get rid of all remaining air bubbles by smoothing over the surface with a knife.

Pour the mixture into a 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan and put it into the oven. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and bake for 50 minutes. You will know it’s ready when the top is lightly browned.

Set and let the cake cool for 5-10 minutes. When cooled, cut into small, square sized pieces.

After the cake is prepared, place them into the dehydrator and leave them there for 4 hours.



Reflection

At first we did not know if dehydrating a cake would work but it ended up tasting really good. It tasted just like normal angel food cake but the texture was a bit different. It was sometimes hard to break off parts of the cake but the flavour was excellent. We were pleasantly surprised at how delicious it was. It only took 4 hours to dehydrate in the dehydrator and we did not have many issues. Except for when we were dehydrating the food at school, someone stole a few pieces of our cake so we had to break pieces apart so that everyone in the class could have a bit of our cake. 



Rice Chicken Recipe

Rice Chicken Recipe
By:Suryadev.A, Josiah Jahleel Baay, Michael Leblanc       2015/01/21


Marinate the Chicken



Add 3 oz lemon juice to 0.834kg chicken in a bowl. Add Garlic powder 1 tsp. Ginger powder 1 tsp. Add red pepper ½ tsp, salt ½ tsp, ground cinnamon ¼ tsp plain yogurt 2 tsp black pepper ¼ tsp. After adding all of the given ingredients mix it all together. Use a knife after mixing the batch to poke holes in the chicken so the batch that you mixed can get inside the chicken and soak up faster. Mix the batch one more time and leave it overnight in the fridge.


Baking/Dehydrating the Chicken



Take the marinated chicken and back in an oven for 1 hr at 350f. After the chicken is cooked use a dehydrator or an oven that has convect bake to dehydrate the chicken. It is recommended to cut the chicken into smaller pieces after you have cooked them so the process occurs faster. We used an oven for the dehydrating process. Set the oven to Convect bake mode and set the temperature to 175f. Put the chicken in and leave for 3-4 hrs. After such is done they should seem rock hard.


Making the Rice



Grab the desired amount of rice and put it into a bowl with about 2 cm of water. Grab a pot with olive oil in it and cut tomato, potatoes, onions and cumin seeds into the pot. Set the temperature to high and cook until the onions are light brown in colour. When they reach this colour add red peppers tomatoes, garam masala, black powder, and cinnamon powder to the batch. After adding all of that add chick peas into the pot and cover the top for 10 mins. After the 10 mins add 1 and ½ cups of water into the pot and turn the heat off. Leave the pot with the cover on it for 5 mins.


Rehydrating the Chicken


Rehydrating the chicken is really easy. Put water in a pot and boil it. Once the water is boiling put the chicken in the water for 30 mins and voila. Your chicken is ready to eat.

Granola mix by Felix

Oven Granola Mix

 (Dehydrated banana & apple chips + granola)

Felix Shier 
PAD20
Jan 22nd 2015

Rate: **** 

Dehydrated banana & apple chips

Ingredients

1 banana
1 fuji aple
1/4 tsp cinnamon (sprinkled on apples)
1/4 tsp nutmeg (sprinkled on bananas)
1/4 cup raisins

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit
  2. cut apples and bananas into thin 1-2 millimeter slices
  3. Sprinkle spices onto the fruits
  4. place them onto trays with parchment paper (different fruits on different trays since for us the apples took longer) 
  5. put in the oven for 1 hour and then flip them 
  6. check them every 15-30 minutes until dry and crispy 
  7. To add flavor I sprinkled cinnamon over everything once the fruits were mixed with the granola

What it should look like (minus the bananas and lemons)

2011_10_19-AppleChips.jpg 

Oven-dried banana chips

Granola 

Ingredients

3/4 cup quick oats
1/2 cup whole oats
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp butter
2 tsp maple syrup
1/4 cup hazelnuts

 Steps

  1. add the oats together, then melt the butter,honey and maple syrup together, then add that to the oats
  2. bake the granola for 10/15 minutes then add the hazelnuts, raisins and/or any dried fruits you might want in it
  3. continue baking until the granola in golden around the edges (stir every 5 minutes) 

Notes/reflection

     A lot of the things i added to this mix came to me while i was making the granola so there are some things i would change if i did this again. I put the spices on about an hour in when they were already pretty dry, if i did this again i would put the spices on at the beginning before putting them in the oven so that they stick to the fruits better. For me, i prefer almonds over hazelnuts so if I could do this again I would change those and another thing that i think would be good is if i made my own raisins by dehydrating grapes. Lastly i would make more bananas and apples to fix the ration with the granola since the fruits seemed to be the favorite.
 

Bibliography

Prasertong, Anjali. 'How To Make Oven-Dried Apple Chips'. The Kitchn. N.p., 2011. Web. 23 Jan. 2015.
 
Cheng, Vivian, and The Guide. 'Banana Chips: An Easy Real Food Treat! - The Real Food Guide'. The Real Food Guide. N.p., 2013. Web. 23 Jan. 2015.

Coconut Cinnamon Apple Chips


Coconut Cinnamon Apple Chips  

Rating: **** 

By: Amanda, Olivia H, Alyssa 

Ingredients 
4 red delicious apples
1/2 cup of coconut shavings
Powdered cinnamon (apply desired amount per apple slice) 

Directions

Wash apples and then cut them leaving the skin on.  Be sure to cut them through the core, removing seeds from each slice.  The thinner the slice, the crispier each chip will be.  The 4 apples will make approximately 40-50 chips. 

Mince the coconut savings thoroughly for a more powdery, light texture. Once minced, place the coconut into a small bowl and press each apple slice in it, making sure they stick to it on both sides.  Note* the thinner the coconut, the easier it will stay on the apples.  

After the coconut is on the apple slices, sprinkle the desired amount of cinnamon onto them (only on one side).  

After all the chips are prepared, place them onto a dehydrator and leave them there for 18 hours.



REFLECTION 
We thought our apples would have been easier to make than our cake but it turned out that it took much longer than we expected to dehydrate them. The recipe said to put them in the dehydrator for 8 to 10 hours but it ended up being around 18 hours in the dehydrator. At first we were going to season them with cinnamon and brown sugar but we ended up using coconut and cinnamon. The apples ended up tasting amazing. Our group agreed that we would make this recipe again.