Mushrooms are a multifaceted anda popular product. You can cook almost any dish with them: a great appetizer, a salad in which mushrooms go well with other products. Liquid dishes acquire an unforgettable pleasant aroma thanks to mushrooms. And main courses become tastier. A good housewife always has recipes for several dishes using mushrooms in stock, which will decorate the table for a holiday and will be indispensable on an ordinary weekday. Due to our weather conditions, this protein product cannot be found in the forest or in the garden all year round, so craftswomen preserve, dry and marinate mushrooms. In order to preserve their taste and aroma, culinary enthusiasts are ready to do anything. The main way to store this valuable product is drying.
Drying the ceps in the oven
This process will not take much time and effort. You just need to follow the instructions.
- Choose only pure, whole mushrooms. They should not have flaws (rotten, spoiled worms do not fit).
- Rinse mushrooms well and clean them of forest debris (sand, leaves, branches). But do not soak in water.
- Remove the mushroom film from them and pat them with a cloth rag so that the remaining water comes out. Wet white mushrooms dry longer.
- Lower the legs.
Next, proceed to the drying process itself.An oven is a good choice for home use, because everyone has one and it dries quickly. So, cut the mushrooms (as shown in Fig. 1) and place them on a baking sheet. Put them in a preheated oven (the temperature should be 60-70 °C). The oven should be slightly open for air circulation. During drying, your house will smell like mushrooms. This aroma will indicate the end of cooking. The product will look dry. There is another way. The cleaned mushrooms are strung on a long thread and hung on a grid in the oven. An example is shown in Fig. 2. Then everything is as in the previous option. Place the grid in the preheated oven and dry the product with the door open. During drying, the mass of the product changes. It decreases (1-2 kg of dried mushrooms are obtained from 10 kg of fresh mushrooms), but swells when put into water. After drying, the mushroom becomes plastic; if it crumbles or breaks, it means it has been overdried.
Selection of mushrooms for drying
Not all mushrooms are suitable for drying.When collecting, pay attention only to edible ones. Remember that there are false honey mushrooms, white mushrooms and others. If you are an experienced master in this business, then use only tubular ones for drying. These are white mushrooms, chanterelles, birch boletes, aspen mushrooms, honey mushrooms. They give off moisture well, and also absorb it when cooking. In addition, other mushrooms acquire a bitter aftertaste when dried and are only good for seasonings. White mushrooms are best suited for this task. They have a fleshy structure. In some dishes, they can completely replace meat. Having a pleasant aroma, they are suitable for various culinary purposes: from salads to individual main courses. In addition, drying them is not difficult, for this both an oven, which is in every home, and special equipment (dryers) will do.
Preparation of dried mushrooms
There are many options with dried mushroomsculinary recipes, you can use them in soups and pies, as a filling. Before the main preparation, soak them so that the mushrooms swell and increase to their original size. Use boiling water for quick soaking. And then boil them. It is advisable to drain the first water, and from the next broth you can make mushroom soup. When cooking, the aroma spreads throughout the house and resembles the smell of the forest in which these mushrooms were collected. For independent preparation of spices and seasonings, use mushroom powder, and it is made from dried porcini mushrooms. To make, grind the required amount of mushrooms in a coffee grinder. When grinding, hard crusts are destroyed, which can spoil the dish and are poorly absorbed by the body. Mix the powder with fine salt (5-10% of the powder weight), as well as spices to your taste (black, red pepper, parsley, dill, etc.). Salt is required. It prevents pests and also prevents caking. Your home will be filled with the pleasant smell of deliciously cooked food when adding such natural spices. Enjoy your meal!