Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Dehydrator results

My husband cleverly bought me a dehydrator for Xmas (after I told him exactly what I wanted, the model, how much & where to buy it from lol). I tried it out yesterday and today. Yesterday, for it's inaugral dry, I made potato chips (typical of me!) - cook potato, mash with milk, salt & pepper (I also added a small amount of Massel chicken stock), and spread on the drying tray. 12 hours later - voila :) They're not too bad actually - not a bad substitute for the real thing. I think the Gobbledok would approve (ok, who remembers the ad??! Chippy-chippy-chippy lol).


Chips before being broken up (or a big chip doughnut!)


Chippy chippy chippy!



At the fruit shop yesterday I picked up a bag of bruised apples for $1 - today I made dried apples. They taste delicious!



Not a bad haul for $1 worth of apples!

13 comments:

Unknown said...

wow, a mega chip!! I'll fight the Gobbledok for it,lol :)

and the dried apple looks delicious too!!

Anonymous said...

My goodness you're good!! I'm still in awe about the jam making abilities, and then you come out with this!!

That apple looks yummy!!

Anonymous said...

Wow! I've never thought of making potato chips in the dehydrator before!!! I am the ultimate gobbledock. Too much so sadly cos they're really no good for you!!!

Looks like you're giving your dehydrator a real workout. One of these days I must get mine going again....

Robin said...

Hi Kez

Have tagged you for a meme, go check out my blog

Cheers
Robin

The Tin House said...

Monster chippy! How scrumptious. What a great way to use up cheap fruit. What brand and model of dryer did you buy and why did you choose this particular one? I've been thinking about one for a year or so now but have managed to resist the urge.

Minni Mum said...

Oh wow, what an excellent idea! My kids *love* dried apples (I dry them crispy, so they call then apple "chips"), but actual potato chips, mmmmmmmm. Thanks!

Kez said...

Lisa - I got an EziDri Snackmaker - bought from Good Guys. I'd heard good things about the brand. Modelwise it's the middle option - the cheapest one doesn't have the different temp controls so it limits what you can do and I think you also have to rotate the food as you dry it. The top of the range was overkill for what I want at this stage, so the middle one seems to suit me well. I've also heard good things about the Fowler one but it's harder to come by.

Creative Life Studio said...

Cool, Kez! I never would have thought of potato chips - er, potato CHIP. LOL! That's a great way to eat that treat.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I'm impressed. And I've tagged you for a meme as well: http://www.kinshome.net/2008/01/favourite-5-meme.html

goingferal(ish) said...

Loving the mega chip. So much healthier... Yum. And dried fruit without sulfides. that's a great thing in itself.

Anonymous said...

Nice work Kez!
BTW: The Gobbledok makes an appearance in the latest Smith's Chips ad playing at the moment (where they are on a building site) - look for him behind the main group of workers in the shot where they pan back to everyone dancing - he's wearing a hard-hat!!

P.S. would love to know 1) how long anf how much power the dehydrator uses and 2)which dehydrator you decided on.

Kez said...

Anonymous - thanks for stopping by! I bought an EziDri Snackmaker - so far it's doing the job that I need. According to the book it uses approx 1/3 unit of power per hour. Things take on average 12 hours to dry so about 4 units of power. I'm assuming that's a kWh which at my prices means I'm paying about 48c to make a batch. Obviously the more trays you do at once the cheaper it would work out. HTH.

Anonymous said...

Hey Kez. Would you believe I came home from archery today , looked at reviews for this product and up yours came. Do you still use it? If you don't will you sell it to me!!
Tricia