Saw this on a Nordic food blog (link below) and thought it would be worth a go – cucumbers are cheap and the dehydrator takes up quite a bit of precious countertop space that some other gadget could be occupying. So, let’s put it to use. Since getting a dehydrator I’ve use it to prove pizza dough, ferment potatoes, slow bake lotus root chips, make kale chips (no, just no), dry tomato slices and mint leaves, but not much dehydrating at all (er, except the last two).
Anyway, the theory goes that removing all of the water content of a cucumber and grinding the dried vegetable produces a very deep, concentrated spice, more akin to the inner souks of the medina in Marrakesh than a subtle, palate cleansing yoga water ingredient, for example. It’s very bitter and pungent, and smells a bit like toasted cocoa.
Day one.
Process is pretty simple, cut lengthways and that’s it. The original blog suggests peeling, but I found that produced too subtle a spice in the end. Leaving the skins on increased the overall drying time by a day or so, but produced a deep pungent powder in the end. Perfect for adding to tagines or curries, or a small amount for dusting, if you try it let me know what it pairs well with (I’m thinking lamb). Hope you’re not in a rush. Dehydrating something that is 96% water took around 4 days at 60deg celscius, which is pretty high for dehydrating.
Day two.
Cucumbers die in hot cars, m’kay? Please think of the cucumbers.
Day four.
Once they snap easily, break them up into small pieces and manually grind to a powder, and that’s it!
Original blog post http://nordicfoodlab.org/blog/2011/10/cucumber-powder
500fires 