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Post by auntieannie on Apr 19, 2010 19:17:23 GMT
yes, I saw them and my mouth watered. I am jealous now as the mangoes here are not that good so the end result isn't as yummy as yours.
I have some notes by " marguerite Patten" about drying in a book about jam making. will jot the important bits down for you here.
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Post by fumobici on Apr 20, 2010 2:56:19 GMT
I surprised myself Saturday by quite enjoying dried mango slices dusted with hot chili powder from a Mexican grocery.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 20, 2010 3:28:48 GMT
Be careful -- that kind of stuff is addictive!
The dried treats I crave are the tamarind balls. Every once in a while I'll have the plain sugared ones, but it's the bright red ones that ring my bell.
I remember a solo bus trip across Mexico years ago, before I moved here. I was changing buses in San Luís Potosí, where the bus station was being renovated. It was all closed off with sheets of plywood, and all the bus customers had to stand around on the walk in front of the loading bays. There was no place to sit, and it was raining really hard. But hey! It was Mexico, so there were snacks available. I bought a nice-sized red ball of tamarindo and, as I stood there staring out across the wet bus lot, thought, "I am perfectly happy."
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Post by fumobici on Apr 20, 2010 3:39:25 GMT
This is decidedly lowbrow but I was chasing the mango-chili slices with Mexican Tamarindo soda pop and guiltily enjoying it
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 20, 2010 5:09:30 GMT
My spiritual twin!
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Post by auntieannie on Apr 20, 2010 12:30:29 GMT
would be interesting to work out if it is financially worth for you to make your own dried snacks. Here in the UK dried mangoes and the like are prohibitively expensive and they also are full of additives so it is doubly worth making your own.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 21, 2010 0:35:03 GMT
I think for home drying, stuff that's abundant locally and acquired in season is the way to go. That would also include windfalls of items that the family could not finish up while it was fresh.
A use for the dried mango slices that would work with other dried fruit. I imagine it would be lovely with slices of dried fig or dates for instance:
Heat a tortilla or something similar. While still on the heat, lay a couple of strips of dried fruit on top, then roll up. The heat softens the fruit, and the small amount makes for a tasty, subtly sweetened snack.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 2, 2010 21:15:04 GMT
Yesterday evening I cut up some more mangos -- a little more thickly this time. I set them out on a table on the porch, then brought them in when it started getting dark & put them in the fridge. This morning I took the table outside for several hours exposure to the sun. The table is dark green, so gets really hot. It's very hot and sunny, as you can see, and there's a constant breeze. I don't think there is a trace of humidity in the air. It's 4 pm now, so there are @ three more hours of sunlight left in the day. It will be interesting to see how dry the slices get. Here are the contraptions I'm using. I took this pic when the slices were still on a plate and on a perforated pizza pan. Later, they got transferred to racks. The skillets are to make sure the colanders don't get blown away or upended by birds. Eventually I'd like to make something that would cover the whole table and with a screened lid for the whole thing.
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Post by auntieannie on May 3, 2010 10:43:45 GMT
fab! bixa! maybe you can find some chickenwire that you'd double with some old mosquito net, the lot being held by a wooden frame? I will have to check the mangoes that are currently drying. no heat and not much sun here so the dehydrator is definitely needed. I found some that were actually ripe (they were selling them at half price to get rid of ).
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Post by bixaorellana on May 3, 2010 15:34:03 GMT
When I brought these in last night I went ahead and finished them off in the convection oven. However, if I'd started in the morning on the first day, I think they would have completely sun-dried by last night.
Having something big rigged up would make the process easier. You can see I cut the slices of mango in half. Next time I will simply slice them more thinly and leave the slices whole. If I had a hardware cloth drying surface, I'd probably only need to flip them once.
I'm giving most of this batch to a friend. This is such worthwhile endeavor, I wonder why I didn't do it sooner. Thanks, Annie ~~ you are a force for good!
Annie, would some kind of solar oven be useful for large-scale drying in your part of the world?
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Post by auntieannie on May 3, 2010 17:14:31 GMT
Where my parents live, for sure, bixa.. but here in the UK it is difficult to actually get the sun where you want it. and the air is very damp as well (which does wonders for my skin!)
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Post by bixaorellana on May 3, 2010 19:29:06 GMT
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Post by hwinpp on May 6, 2010 9:11:46 GMT
How were the dried mangoes? Any good?
I can get dried beef here but it's not as good as biltong from southern Africa. Cut too thin.
We do dry our own fish, first rub with salt then dry in the sun.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 6, 2010 17:10:04 GMT
HW, the dried mangoes are really good. If you make some, I suggest using them at the peak of ripeness. The riper ones I dried are also good, but almost too sweet and with less character. Do you all dry your own fish in order to get exactly the results you want? Interesting! Here's a biltong page you might enjoy: www.markblumberg.com/biltong.htmlI would be tempted to combine the techniques from that link with the ones in #41 in order to get biltong results with less tra-ca. Google the words biltong recipe for lots more hits. In one of them I found some great ideas for really simple dehydrators. These would work for all kinds of things, not just biltong. Check it out: www.3men.com/biltong.htm
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Post by hwinpp on May 7, 2010 8:28:06 GMT
We just score the fish, salt it and then put it out in the sun. Takes about half a day. It's not for preserving but to firm up the flesh, we actually eat the fish the same evening for dinner, usually.
And thanks for the biltong links!
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Post by bixaorellana on May 7, 2010 16:25:22 GMT
Put up a good supply of the stuff in readiness for my visit!
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