Rice and Beans

[pawlinghiker]

I just got my dehydrator today.

I had a few questions...

- Pineapple, do I just slice it up and dehydrate it ? How long at what temp.

- Rice and Beans. I wanted to cook up a pot of black beans and yellow rice to dehydrate. Do I cook everything fully and then just dehydrate it ?

Do I need paper to do this or do I use the racks ?

I have not had time to look at it yet so I figured I would start here.


After its dried and I want to eat on the trail do I just boil water and add it to the vacuum sealed bag ? Generally how much water and how long for it to become edible ?

Sorry these are basic questions...

Thanks

[bigcranky]

Pineapple, we always did the canned stuff, dried just fine. I expect fresh would be the same. It won't ever be really totally dry.

Beans and rice, yes -- cook everything. I would put it on parchment paper.

Lots of fun things to dry: apples, cherries, strawberries (slice in half and put seed side down), thinly sliced lean beef marinated in teriyaki sauce, etc. Enjoy!

[Tuckahoe]

Form things like rice or pasta dishes, or any food that may fall through the slots in the drying try, you will wwnt a few fruit roll trays-- http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_14?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=fruit+roll+tray&sprefix=fruit+roll+tra%2Caps%2C448

They will make such dishes easier to deal with and much less of a mess. When I have not had enough trays I have used parchment paper.

When I have used dehydrated meals, i put mine in the pot, and just enough water to cover the meal. The best thing to do though is to experiment at home.

You might like to check out out Hungry Hammock Hanger. His videos are atleast entertaining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnjggTXii84&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[FarmerChef]

I have done all of what you're describing. Here's my approach.

Fresh pineapple - Cut the pineapple into chunks. We eat ours as part of trail mix so we cut the chunks big rather than small. If I was going to cook with it I would cut the pineapple much smaller to make rehydrating easy. It will never get totally dry - it should be slightly chewy. Also, let the pineapple sit until it starts to brown on the outside and the green "leaves" at the top begin to curl and get brown tips. This will make the pineapple much sweeter when you go to use it. Canned pineapple doesn't have this problem, it's already done.

Beans and rice - Yes you can make this and dehydrate it but if you're going to go that much trouble why not make it so that it comes out nice on the trail too? First cook your rice. Many, many, many people do this one step wrong and wind up with a sticky mess at the end. Make sure to rinse the rice in cold water until the water runs clear THEN cook it. This will aid in dehydrating it greatly as it will be less likely to clump together and spread easier on the trays. Separately, make your beans (and sauce if you want but I'll do that separately in this guide) or, if they're canned, just put them straight into the dehydrator. They will probably crack as they dry. This is ok! They won't reconstitute into mush when you rehydrate them.

To dry either or both, use a fruit rollup tray as Tuckahoe mentioned. You can also use parchment paper cut to size for your dehydrator trays. Dry the rice and beans on a medium heat setting. Dry the pineapple at the lowest setting to avoid cooking the pineapple (unless it's canned then it's already cooked - dehydrate away) or caramelizing the sugars (browning).

If you want to make sauce just make it like normal and dehydrate it on the roll up tray(s). The resulting product is referred to as "bark." Just crumble it up in your hands and put in a vacuum bag or in a ziploc in your freezer. When you're ready to use it warm up some water and throw it in. Voila! Reconstituted sauce. I do this for chili all the time. Works like magic.

So let's say I was making red beans and rice. I would first throw the beans in some hot water in my cozy and let them soak for a couple of minutes. Then I would add the rice. Once the rice and beans were approaching my desired tenderness I'd toss in the bark and let it sit a bit longer, stirring it all together until the sauce was fully hydrated. Yum! Of course, I would also add some pork jerky and maybe some dehydrated sausage and dried onions to boot. Yum!

[pawlinghiker]

this sounds awesome.

I will try the bark for sure.

I guess you could do pasta sauce bark ?

Pasta ? Cook it dehydrate it and then re constitute on the trail ?

[Another Kevin]

You can dehydrate cooked pasta, or you can just use tiny pasta shapes. Anything that the box says cooks in 7-9 minutes will be done in 15 in a freezer bag in a cozy.

Pasta sauce bark works well. I also do pasta sauce with tomato powder from Harmony House, using something like the sauce recipe from Sarbar's site (http://www.trailcooking.com/fbc/pizza-pot/), except that I use hot abruzzese sausage in chunks instead of the pepperoni, and add dried onion, celery, and carrot to the mix. Oh, and a piece of a bay leaf, and ... well, you'd just have to watch me putting the freezer bag together in the kitchen because I don't work to a precise recipe. Anyway, it comes out tasty. Farfallini or pastina or orechiette work as well as couscous - use the 7-9 minute guideline, or precook and dehydrate.

I like the flexibility of having separate ingredients, so I'll usually cook rice and beans or lentils separately and combine only when I'm making up the bags. That way, some of the lentils can go to lentil soup, and some to dal bhaat, and some to my lentil salad burrito mix, and so on.

[annamagpie]

This guy has great ideas, recipes, and even a book if you want. http://www.backpackingchef.com/

[daddytwosticks]

I hate watery sauces. When I make tomato sauce on my dryer, I pulverize it up in a food processor into the consistency of fine powder. When I prepare my tortellini on the trail, I simply drain most of the water, then just sprinkle the dried sauce over the tortellini and stir it up. Like it just fine. :)

[tiptoe]

For pineapple, I do pretty much what FarmerChef does, and the pineapple turns out great.

Bargain hunter that I am, I generally wait until fruit goes on sale, which is fairly often at my local grocery. Just bought two pineapples for $5, and will be dehydrating them when they ripen a little more.

[Valley Girl]

Question about dehydrated rice and pasta and Foodsealer. Once sealed a few would poke thru and break the air tight bag. Is this normal?

[rocketsocks]

Question about dehydrated rice and pasta and Foodsealer. Once sealed a few would poke thru and break the air tight bag. Is this normal?
Happened to me too...a tip from "Hungry Hammock Hanger" (https://www.facebook.com/HungryHammockHanger) says place the dehydrated food in parchment then seal in food saver bag, and before re-hydrating remove parchment paper.....worked for me.