Read The Complete Book of Raw Food Online
Authors: Julie Rodwell
The Complete Book of Raw Food (9 page)
Dehydrator Heat Settings
. While raw fooders agree in principle that the goal is to not heat food beyond where enzymes will be denatured, in practice the opinions about correct heat settings for your dehydrator (or for any heating system you use) are as varied as the chefs in this book. The usual point of view is that anything above 115° Fahrenheit is too warm for the enzymes. However, a large, thick tray of raw dough, for example, will take a long time to heat through when the temperature is less than 115°, and, in the meantime, mold or bacteria can develop in its center because of the warm, wet material. New contributing chef Mary Rydman, the author of
Raw and Radiant: Simple Raw Recipes for the Busy Lifestyle
, investigated this issue in depth with the Excalibur®. She says:
The temperature debate—
Low temperature dehydrating warms
and dries food without destroying all enzymes, although some are still destroyed. Common knowledge is that enzymes are destroyed at temperatures above 118 degrees. That is coming into question, however, as the research that temperature was based on is an outside
water
temperature of 118, not the surrounding air temperature. What matters is what temperature the food reaches, not what the air temperature is. The main problem is there has been no real research done on this subject and no one really knows at what outside air temperature the food enzymes will be destroyed. Recent research by the Excalibur Dehydrator Company found that a higher than usual temperature to start will speed drying time and lessen the chance of mold and bacterial growth (the longer a food is exposed to warmth, the more potential for bacteria to grow), with no threat to enzyme health. The high water content of the food will keep it from actually reaching the initial drying temperature, so enzymes are not in danger, as long as you remember to turn it down after the designated time. For a more complete explanation see Gabriel Cousen’s book
The Secrets of Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine
. The Excalibur company recommends using a starting temperature of 145 degrees for 2 hours, depending on the water content of the food (very low water content foods, such as bananas, perhaps should stay at that temperature less time), then lowering to desired temperature for the duration of drying time.
This is only recommended for the Excalibur dehydrators
and not other brands, because of the Excalibur fan system and precise temperature control.
Mary offers some other tips about dehydrating
:
Flavors get more concentrated
in the drying process, so be careful when adding salt or other flavors—you may end up with a too salty or strong tasting finished product. It takes a bit of experimenting to find out what works for you to get the best end result. The wet mixture should taste not quite salty and spicy enough to you.
Turning over—
Crackers, cookies, etc. started out on the Teflex sheets should be turned over and placed on the screens when they are dry enough to hold together. This will speed drying and make the drying more even.
Water content—
The less water you process your crackers and cookies with the less time it will take to dehydrate them. That means
more energy saved and less time for mold and bacteria to grow in the warm air. That will mean more stopping the food processor to scrape down the sides, but it will be worth the extra effort.
As with any piece of kitchen equipment, there are some important considerations to keep in mind to ensure that your dehydrator is used correctly. A full list of these is available from the manufacturer, and will likely be found in the instruction manual that comes with your machine. We have compiled our own list of dehydrating dos and don’ts, based on our chefs’ experiences with drying raw foods.
Use your dehydrator for warming soups and stuffed vegetables; for making crackers, sprouted breads, trail mixes, fruit leathers, sliced dried fruit, scones, and raw “cookies.”
Make your batter wet but not runny, and cover it with a Teflex sheet, using a rolling pin to spread it out evenly.
Remember that seasonings will be twice as strong after drying.
Remember that the thickness of crackers and other dough-based foods will be about half after drying—if you make them too thin, your crackers will be lacy and brittle. Make them too thick and you’ll break a tooth biting into them.
Dry products thoroughly, allowing them to cool at room temperature and storing them in an airtight container such as a glass jar with a screw-on lid. If your fruits are soft and moist or your crackers not quite crunchy, they will quickly develop mold.
Rotate the trays from top to bottom when you flip your crackers or check the oven—the top DOES get the most heat despite the fan.
Store the spare trays and polyscreen tray inserts in the oven while in use—they are not harmed.
Clean your machine with warm water from time to time, especially the bottom where crumbs may gather and attract pests. Grain moths love to lay eggs in the dehydrator if it’s not kept clean.
Remember that your lead time for dehydrated food may be as much as five days—three for sprouting the ingredients, and two for preparing, flipping and drying your food.
Be afraid to experiment.
Inhale when checking a batch of drying jalapeños or habaneras.
Store unused trays on top, where they can accidentally get bumped and re-set the thermostat.
The dehydrator is a great piece of equipment to own, any raw chef will tell you. Start simply as you learn to use your new machine, with some seasoned snacks or fruit. Pretty soon you’ll be dehydrating whole cakes, and scrumptious raw “cookies” to share with all your friends. To get you started, here are some more tips about dehydrating food from our experienced raw chefs.
To dry Teflex sheets, plastic trays, and milk bags, purchase one of the little circular folding drying racks made for camping. They have a coat-hanger type hook and eight folding arms with tiny clothes pegs on the end. They can be hung over the sink to let things drip overnight. At a class on sustainability, one of our chefs met someone who is still using a 10-year old baggie, so now she washes her Ziplocs and hangs them up there, too.
Finding space for raw tools can be a problem in a tiny kitchen. We discovered that our Excalibur dehydrator fits perfectly inside the oven cavity of our range. The range door and oven racks have been consigned to storage and the dehydrator is super convenient.
At first, we couldn’t figure out where to store the dehydrator racks and plastic trays. Inside the dehydrator works fine (duh!) because even if some shelves are in use, the heat is too low to harm the empty racks, unlike a conventional oven.
Never leave your dehydrator teflex sheets stacked wet. An easy drying method is to put them back in the empty dehydrator and turn it on high for 15 minutes to get perfectly dried sheets. If the dehydrator is full, then dry each sheet with a towel.
What do you do with pulp after you’ve strained juice or soup? I like to make pulp into little burger shapes, dehydrate them out in the sun for a day or two and eat them with the next day’s soup! If you don’t have the sunshine, you can always use a dehydrator, an airing cupboard, the top of a radiator, or an oven on its lowest setting with the door open. Also, try adding soaked minced nuts, and making loaves out of them, dehydrating in the same way, but only until still moist inside.
O
nce you have the right tools and ingredients, you’re well on your way toward preparing appealing and delicious raw food dishes. The missing elements are know-how and imagination.
In this chapter, our chefs offer their expert advice on raw food preparation, and share some simple techniques that will spark your creativity. To get you started, here is some advice from Victoria Boutenko about how to create tasty raw meals that will make your mouth water and satisfy your palate.
(adapted from
12 Steps to Raw Food
by Victoria Boutenko)
Can raw food be as tasty as cooked food? Absolutely! We have learned how to prepare delicious raw food, and our family has been successfully teaching secrets of raw gourmet dishes to hundreds of men and women of different ages. During the last few years, we have simply stopped telling people that our food is raw unless they ask.
There is one principal difference between cooking a meal and preparing live food. In the cooked dishes, sugar is always sugar, flour is always flour, and salt is always salt. In the raw world, no two lemons are alike. One is bigger and has more juice; another has thick skin and is more sour. You could prepare the same recipe, measure carefully, follow every step, and still it would turn out different each time because of the variables inherent in live food. Cooked corn, cooked zucchini, cooked peas, and other cooked vegetables taste almost the same and require added oil and salt at the least. Raw corn, zucchini, peas, and other raw vegetables all have their own unique flavors that are impossible to confuse.
INVENTING NEW RECIPES
Inventing New Recipes
Being creative is so important when you prepare meals, and it is also lots of fun! After you learn the basics by following the recipes in this book, it will be time to invent some of your own. Just take the plunge and experiment!
Here are some tips to get you started:
Use the freshest, ripest organic produce available.
Try to use raw foods to mock/imitate your favorite cooked food recipes.
Try foods you haven’t used before.
Experiment with equipment, such as a food processor, blender, and juicer. A coffee grinder can also do interesting things to nuts and seeds, like making a fine flour out of them.
Experiment with using all the food left in your house before heading to the store. Setting this restriction often encourages you to be more creative with the foods that you have, and it will also save you money.
Go inward and meditate upon what your body wants to eat. Feel the flavors, the texture, the scents, and the energy, and you will create in your mind new kinds of feasts! This works especially well when you are very hungry or fasting.
Look at the recipes others have created (
www.rawfoods.com
, for instance, which offers thousands of raw recipes) and adapt them to your own taste. Give them a twist of your own style.
—Jinjee and Storm Talifero
When we prepare a raw dish, we use recipes only as ideas, as general guidelines, or just for the ingredients. Then we adjust the final flavor using a method of five tastes. There are thousands of different tastes in natural food, but when we balance the five major ones, the food is so delicious that everyone says, “Wow!” These five tastes are: sweet, sour, salty, spicy, and bitter. When you learn to balance the five tastes, you will make delicious food. When all five groups of taste buds on your tongue are excited, you too will say, “Wow!”