The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Turkey stir fry

My food dehydrator is turning out to be a winner. For years I’ve often had the frustration of running out of an essential ingredient and having to adapt my cooking plans. I now have access to a large range and choice of ingredients. I can do off the cuff cooking which is fun.

As long as I remember to bung them into the slow cooker for an hour to rehydrate I can throw a meal together in minutes as all the chopping and preparation has been done prior to dehydrating.

My dehydrated fruit and veg are stored in ziplock bags in a vast carrier bag that floats about the kitchen. It’s good fun sorting through the packs
“Shall I have bell peppers or Romano? I think a pinch of celery (the equivalent of half a stalk) would be good with this. And what about some mushrooms – Shitake, Portobello or Chestnut. How about a teaspoon of spinach for colour?”
Rather than a pepper, some mushrooms and a tired stick of celery from the fridge.

Most of the fruit and veg are bought on offer and dehydrated immediately. So the food is cheaper and fresher – in a sort of dehydrated way. The water that the vegetables rehydrate in is a good base for a tasty vegetable stock too. I used some in a scrummy duck risotto last night.

I made this stir fry a few days ago with some free range turkey breasts that were going for a song in Waitrose. The Romano peppers were from the Tesco CFC and dehydrated weeks ago. The dehydrated button mushrooms were another Waitrose bargain.

Quick piquant turkey stir fry with Romano peppers and button mushrooms recipe

Ingredients:
Noodles for two – prepared using the manufactures instructions. We always put some vegetable stock powder in the water
200g of fresh turkey breast diced
20g of dehydrated Romano peppers (equivalent to about 200g fresh)
10g of dehydrated button mushrooms (equivalent to about 100g fresh)
7g of dehydrated onion (equivalent to 75g fresh)
500ml of boiling water
2 tbsp of white wine
1 tbsp of water
2 tsp of cornflour
2 tsp of coriander powder
1 tsp of garlic granules
Half a tsp of ground white pepper
Quarter tsp of cayenne pepper
2 tbsp of Hoisin sauce
A handful of fresh parsley (chopped)

Method:
An hour before you plan to eat put the dehydrated veg in the slow cooker cover them with 500ml of boiling water and switch the slow cooker to high. After an hour they should have softened and rehydrated.
Prepare your noodles and leave in a warm place
Put the water and wine into the wok and when they are bubbling toss in the drained rehydrated vegetables. Let this bubble for a minute or so before adding the coriander, garlic, Hoisin and cayenne. If the mixture is looking a bit dry add some of the vegetable stock. Roll the chopped turkey in cornflour and white pepper and add to the wok keep on stirring everything until the turkey is cooked (about four minutes). Garnish with parsley and serve with noodles on warm plates.