Drying vegetables and stringing peppers, step by step
Interactive lesson: steam blanching, cutting and temperature, picking peppers and stringing them into garlands, drying in the shade, checking for mould and rehydrating.
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The whole lesson as text
1. Steam blanching
A short heating before drying keeps the colour and flavour of vegetables.
- What gets steamed — Carrots, celeriac, peas, green beans and sweetcorn are steam-blanched for 2–4 minutes. Onions, peppers, tomatoes and herbs are not.
- Pan with a steamer insert — 3–5 cm of water in the pan, the vegetables in the insert up to 5 cm deep, then the lid.
- Time from returning steam — Start timing when the steam comes again: carrots and green beans 2–3 minutes, peas 3 minutes. The times are approximate, for thin pieces.
- Cool and drain — Briefly into cold water, or spread out to cool. Drain, dry on a cloth, then onto the tray.
Why: Blanching stops the enzymes that turn vegetables brown and give them a hay-like taste. Steam is better than water: fewer vitamins and less flavour go into the water, and the vegetables don't soak up water that then has to be dried out.
- Watch out for steam: open the lid away from you, lift the insert out with oven gloves, and keep children away from the cooker.
- The vegetables mustn't be cooked: the cut surface is one colour and the piece still has a little crunch.
2. Cutting and temperature
Vegetables are dried thin, separately and at a lower temperature than fruit.
- Each kind separately — Onions are done before carrots, leaves before roots. One batch holds only kinds of the same thickness whose smells don't matter.
- Thickness of pieces — Carrot and celeriac slices 2–3 mm, onion rings 3–5 mm, courgette rings 5–6 mm, green beans in 2–3 cm pieces.
- Tomatoes — Slices 5–8 mm, or halves of meaty varieties. Salt lightly and lay them cut side up so the juice doesn't run.
- Temperature and test — Hold 50–60 °C (120–140 °F); for the first hour or two it can be 60 °C. Test brittleness on a cooled piece, then condition for 7–10 days in a jar.
Why: Vegetables have little sugar and a lot of water, so they are dried until brittle. Above 65 °C they case-harden and darken: dark outside, still moist inside.
- Dry onions and garlic on their own, ideally outdoors or in a shed. Afterwards wash the dryer and air it for a day or two before using it for fruit.
- Parsley, celery and dill leaves are dried like herbs, at 35–40 °C or in the shade.
3. Peppers for garlands · Locked
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4. Stringing garlands · Locked
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5. Drying and checking garlands · Locked
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6. Old methods and rehydrating · Locked
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