I'm still learning how to reconstitute dehydrated foods. I'm not interested in dehydrating for snack foods, but to use foods in recipes or meals that just have to be reconstituted.
On January 9, 2015, I made a Chicken Helper Fried Rice recipe, using ground turkey instead. I dehydrated one serving for experimental purposes. Because it was a bit oily, I put the dehydrated product into a Ziploc bag and into one of the drawers in my refrigerator. I thought it might go rancid if I just packed it into a jar and vacuum sealed it.
Today, March 2, 2015, I reconstituted the serving and had it for lunch. I first just added hot water to bring it to the 1 cup mark, because it was a 1-cup serving that I dehydrated. I put that in the microwave for 5 minutes. It had absorbed all of the water, but wasn't fully hydrated, so I added about 1/4 cup of water, and put it back in for 3 minutes. Still didn't seem wholly hydrated, so added about another 1/4 cup of hot water and just let it set for about 10-15 minutes, then ate it for lunch. It had very good flavor. the vegetables and the rice seemed fully hydrated, but I think the turkey wasn't as plump as it could have been, but still tasty.
I'm quite pleased.
Last Friday I made some of my 4-can chili, and on Saturday I dehydrated a little more than 2 cups of it. I did vacuum pack that into a quart jar and put it into my pantry. I'll wait a while to check it out.
During the process of dehydrating, I measured out 1 cup of chili and put that on its own tray in the dehydrator, so I could weigh how much 1 cup of dehydrated chili weighs. I used parchment paper on my trays. Now, to make one cup, I weigh out the right amount and rehydrate.
My objective is to get away from so much freezer storage of homemade meals and put some of it in dehydrated meals and also pressure-canned. I'm seriously thinking of getting a pressure canner this spring.
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