Pumpkin in the dryer for vegetables and fruits. Candied pumpkin: natural sweets at home

Pumpkin has been known since ancient times, and every nation has legends associated with it. Perhaps, there are not so many legends about any fruit or vegetable as about a pumpkin. Many peoples consider it a receptacle of the sun and light. Cambodian legend says that several people were saved in a gourd from the coming Flood. And when it was over, they got out of the pumpkin and planted its seeds. But not plants grew from seeds, but new people who repopulated the Earth. Therefore, the Cambodians revere the pumpkin as an ancestor.

The ancient Slavs believed that the gods hide the sun in a pumpkin with the onset of autumn. That is why the pumpkin becomes so bright golden in autumn, and the sun appears less and less in the sky. In ancient China, it is also believed that the pumpkin helped to repopulate the Earth. During the Great Flood, a little boy and girl hid in a gourd and escaped. It was they who became the progenitors of the whole new humanity. Therefore, all newborns were bathed in ancient China in a font made of big pumpkin. And until now, the Chinese consider the pumpkin a powerful talisman that absorbs evil energy. It is hung over the door as a talisman and rattles are made to scare away evil spirits by placing dry beans in them.

A Nigerian legend tells of a certain ruler who, due to his greed, decided to collect all the smart thoughts in a huge pumpkin and become the wisest and richest person in the world. But when he began to hide the pumpkin so that it would not be stolen, it fell and broke. All wisdom has scattered around the world.

Today it is rather difficult to say where the pumpkin originated. Some scientists believe that the pumpkin comes from China, others suggest that it was first cultivated by the Indians of North America. Many nations have preserved myths and legends associated with pumpkin. Unpretentious beautiful pumpkin, which gives large yields, relished in many countries. It is grown in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, India, Australia, Canada and Mexico and in a number of other countries, which indicates the popularity of pumpkin.

The benefits of pumpkin

Both fresh and dried pumpkin for the winter are highly valued for their useful qualities. Moreover, if the Isidri dryer is used to dry the pumpkin, then all the vitamins contained in fresh product, will be preserved even when dried. There is a lot of carotene in the pumpkin. The more cold-resistant variety, the more this provitamin. There are vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, D, PP, E, as well as a very rare vitamin T, which has a serious effect on metabolic processes in the body. There are pectins, magnesium, potassium, copper, cobalt, calcium in the pumpkin. Science has long confirmed that the pumpkin is just a pantry, necessary for a person vitamins and minerals.

There is a lot of phosphorus and copper in the pumpkin. And in terms of iron content, it is the leader among vegetables. These trace elements have a positive effect on hematopoietic processes, so pumpkin should be consumed in diseases of the heart muscle, kidneys, high blood pressure, gallstone disease and obesity. Potassium strengthens the heart and blood vessels, removes swelling. Pumpkin is useful for patients with colitis and enterocolitis, chronic nephritis. Favorably affects vision, helps to preserve youth. Helps to improve the functioning of the nervous system.

Choosing the “right” pumpkin for drying

The drying process helps to concentrate the natural sugars in the pumpkin, making it sweeter and extending the shelf life. Experts advise choosing a pumpkin for drying only table varieties, with yellow flesh, not very large in size, such fruits have better taste, and fewer fibers. The skin of the pumpkin should be firm, smooth, free of blemishes and visible damage. The tail of the pumpkin should be dry, which is an indicator of ripeness.

How to properly dry a pumpkin in an electric dryer: our practical experience

. For drying, we took twenty kilograms of pumpkin.

Each pumpkin was cut into pieces, and then all the particles were carefully peeled, carefully cleaned of seeds and unnecessary fibers.

Cut the pieces into more small pieces. After peeling the pumpkin, out of twenty kilograms of the product, we had 13.5 kilograms of peeled pumpkin left, which accounted for 68% of total mass. The share of waste accounted for 6.5 kilograms, that is, 32%.

For each tray of the electric dryer, we carefully and evenly distributed approximately 450 grams of grated pumpkin. All of our grated product fit on 30 trays of the electric dryer.

Turn on the device and install temperature regime+55 degrees. She helped us to dry the pumpkin qualitatively. In it, the pumpkin was dried for 24 hours at a set temperature. In the room where the device worked, the temperature was +18 degrees.

After the drying process was completed, we carefully removed the trays and shook the pumpkin shavings from the nets. The result was 1.3 kg of dried product.

We placed dried pumpkin in glass jars under vacuum caps.

Dried pumpkin in the Izidri electric dryer turns out to be much tastier than if it was dried on the street or in the oven, besides, it is much less troublesome.

Many housewives store dried pumpkin in paper bags or cloth bags, plastic containers. We recommend vacuum lids, since their use significantly increases the shelf life, and dried product will be reliably protected from mold.

Preparation of pumpkin powder

Delicious pumpkin can retain all its beneficial properties in powder form. In this case, the horizons of its culinary application are expanding. And also pumpkin powder is perfectly used in cosmetology for various masks.

Before grinding dried pumpkin into powder, it is recommended to dry it additionally. To do this, pour the dried pumpkin shavings from the cans and carefully distribute it among the trays.

The Ezidri vegetable dryer dried the pumpkin for an additional 4 hours at a temperature of +65 degrees.

We grind the dried chips using an electric meat grinder with a “mill” nozzle and sift through a sieve in order to prevent the formation of lumps and the ingress of unground large particles into the powder.

Screened particles that did not pass through the sieve. we again passed through an electric meat grinder and sifted.

The resulting powder was packed in hermetically sealed bags.

Using pumpkin and pumpkin powder in cooking

Application dried pumpkin found in soups, pumpkin "noodles" can be added as a garnish to salads and desserts. And if you grind pumpkin chips into powder, then it is used as a breading for various meat and cereal products, such as meatballs, zraz, meatballs, semolina cutlets, buckwheat or meat.

Pumpkin powder - required product for the nutrition of people engaged in physical and mental labor. It contains a lot of zinc, choline, amino acids that increase brain activity, improve memory and eliminate overwork and nervous tension. And arginine, calcium and phosphorus affect the frequency of muscle contraction, which contributes to increased growth. muscle mass. Therefore, athletes should include pumpkin powder in their diet.

It can be added to the dough, to fermented milk products to give beautiful color And delicate aroma. Pumpkin powder is also used as a thickening agent. flavor additive to cereals, soups, cocktails, sauces, gravies. Baking with the addition of pumpkin powder is saturated with high-grade vegetable protein and at the same time does not get stale for a long time and does not undergo mold much longer. Due to the versatility of the use of the powder, you can create your own pumpkin recipes. And as a stimulation of fantasy, we present several options for dishes.

Appetizer with pumpkin

Boil dried pumpkin shavings in lightly salted water until soft. Then recline in a colander, cool and squeeze. Chop a little. Squeeze out the garlic walnuts. Mix nuts, pumpkin, garlic, salt, add a little wine vinegar, cilantro and dill, Bell pepper. It makes a very tasty snack.

Interesting "sea" salad

Boil a little pumpkin chips in salted water so that it becomes a little soft, add dried kelp to it to your liking a little vegetable oil(about half a teaspoon). You can add dried vegetables. Rub the mass with your hands. The salad is ready. It tastes sweet-salty, fishy, ​​and in appearance such a salad looks like dried squid.

In a preheated pan with broth, simmer the chopped leeks until soft. The broth can be taken vegetable, meat, chicken. Add finely chopped garlic clove, dried pumpkin, thyme, pepper, pour another liter of broth, bring everything to a boil. Cook until the pumpkin is soft. Add some spoons soy sauce, turn off the heat, let the soup brew, cool and beat with a blender until puree. This soup is served with crackers or with finely chopped young garlic arrows.

Baked fish

Mackerel or cod is cut into fillets, cut into pieces, placed on the bottom of the pan, sprinkled with dry pumpkin shavings so that it completely covers the fish, then with onion rings, and pour dressing. It consists of a glass of kefir, three eggs and salt. The fish is placed in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for half an hour. Served hot.

Quick Salad

Soak pumpkin dried "noodles" for a few minutes to make it soft, then add grated apple, a spoonful of honey and sprinkle with lemon juice. Here is a salad for a quick hand.

Pumpkin is one of the best and most valuable gifts that the summer sunny period gives us. This is a huge storehouse of the most essential vitamins and minerals for our body. And if you were lucky enough to get big harvest pumpkins, then you should definitely make preparations for the winter, and drying - perfect option quality preservation of such a solar product. And in winter, during the period of beriberi and colds, it will be enough just to get a jar of dried pumpkin, or a bag of pumpkin powder, cook vitamin dish or just add a touch of sunshine by sprinkling some bright pumpkin powder on the dessert.

Our experience in the preparation of candied fruits with Ezidri dryers.

We took 10 kg of pumpkin. Removed skins, seeds and pulp.

Happened:

7.1 kg (71%) - peeled pumpkin
2.9 kg (29%) - waste.

Cut with a knife into pieces, which were crushed into small cubes through. Peeled 2 lemons and squeezed the juice out of it.

1.5 cups of water were poured into a 5-liter pan and 1.5 kg of sugar were added, poured lemon juice. Brought to a boil. Pour pumpkin into the pan and bring to a boil again. Using a slotted spoon, they pulled the pumpkin out of the pan. The pumpkin absorbed some of the sugar and gave some of the juice. There is more liquid in the pan, and the concentration of sugar has decreased. Therefore, before loading the next batches, we poured out part of the liquid, and added 200-300 grams of sugar to the rest.

They put the cooled pumpkin on trays and turned on the dryer.

The pumpkin was dried for 17 hours at a temperature of + 50°C. It turned out 1 kg 400 grams of soft and tasty candied pumpkin.

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The pumpkin has long been a symbol of Halloween. Perhaps this is due to the fact that there was nowhere to put the rough peel and it is convenient to cut a scarecrow out of it, or maybe because the pumpkin is a symbol of something angry, but stupid. Everyone remembers well the fairy tale from childhood about Cinderella, whom the Fairy Godmother made a luxurious pumpkin carriage. In any case - the pumpkin has always been a subject that folklore has curled around. different peoples peace.

This huge berry in history was used almost completely. often used as dishes by many peoples of the world. The Aztecs made dishes from pumpkin flowers, they ate pumpkin stalks. Pumpkin seeds are still very popular and are sold in almost every supermarket. The Indians used the dried fruit to make mate tea. And it is still considered national drink exactly in that form.

Pumpkin - very useful berry. She is well suited for diet food. The calorie content is quite low, but the amount of microelements just rolls over. It contains all the B vitamins, vitamin C, PP and E. Pumpkin is rich in potassium, which makes it useful for people with cardiovascular diseases.

You can cook a lot of dishes from pumpkin: cereals, juices, soups, pumpkin dessert is considered especially tasty and one more thing - candied fruits. And if you are going to cook candied pumpkin, then you have come to the right place! Below we will tell you about how to choose the right pumpkin for candied fruits, the benefits of candied fruits and outline brief cooking recipes.

How to choose the right pumpkin for candied fruits

The process of choosing a pumpkin must be taken seriously so as not to miscalculate with the result, because not all types are well suited for candied fruit.

There are three main types of pumpkins you can find:

1) nutmeg pumpkin;
2) large-fruited pumpkin;
3) hard-skinned pumpkin.

In order to cook candied fruits at home, you are best suited butternut squash. Its size is not so large and the weight is from 1 to 5 kilograms.

The flesh is very tender and resembles the taste of a pear. The crust is easily peeled off, which gives it an additional advantage.

When choosing a pumpkin, follow the basic rule: the pumpkin should be heavier than it looks. It is also better to choose a smaller berry, as its taste is brighter, and there are much fewer unpleasant fibers. Besides, big pumpkins cause inconvenience during transportation.

Examine the skin carefully. It should be smooth and firm, without dark spots from blows. Look at the stripes on the berry. They should be straight, sinuous - a sign of the use of nitrates. A good indicator of ripeness is the tail of the pumpkin. It should be dry, which indicates the maturity of the fetus.

You bought good pumpkin and now you want to make candied fruits from it. Now it's time to evaluate the pulp. It should be elastic and fleshy. The color of the pulp should be orange. At the same time, than richer color the better the taste of the pumpkin.

If you got just such a pumpkin, which is described above, then we can congratulate you: now you will get a healthy and tasty dish!

If you want to make candied fruits, you will need good equipment. For this, the Isidri fruit and vegetable dryer is well suited. Its technical characteristics are significantly superior to analogues and speed up the preparation of candied fruits. And, of course, cooking candied fruit in artisanal conditions on the balcony will not replace a dish cooked in a device such as the Ezidri dryer.

The Izidri dryer will help you not only prepare healthy and tasty candied pumpkins, but also make preparations for the winter, which makes it indispensable in the household! But back to our candied fruits.

Candied Pumpkin Recipes

A recipe that has been tested for several generations will help you prepare candied pumpkin. For this you need only 4 ingredients:

1) Pumpkin (1 kg.)
2) Sugar (800 gr.)
3) Citric acid (5 gr.)
4) Cinnamon or other flavoring to taste.

First of all, thoroughly wash the pumpkin, peel it and remove all the seeds from the pulp. After that, cut the pulp into cubes or rectangular pieces. Now sprinkle the resulting pieces with 200 g of sugar and refrigerate. Wait for the juice!

After the appearance of juice, you need to put the resulting pieces on slow fire and wait for it to boil. Now you need to drain the juice and cool the resulting dish. Save one glass of juice! It is needed now in order to pour all the remaining sugar, add citric acid, a little cinnamon and cook over low heat until the ingredients are completely dissolved. Pour the hot syrup over the pumpkin pieces and boil again until the pieces become transparent and the syrup thickens to the consistency of honey.

The resulting transparent pieces must be rolled in powdered sugar, cinnamon with sugar or other flavoring to taste. The resulting candied fruits can be dried a little or immediately served on the table.
The remaining syrup is quite usable. It can be used as regular jam or preserve to winter evenings receive useful substances that are usually available only in summer and autumn.

The second recipe for candied fruits is a little more refined, which makes them no less tasty.

For this recipe you will need 8 ingredients and 8 steps.

Ingredients:

1) Sugar (700 gr.)
2) Water (1 tbsp.)
3) Pumpkin pulp (2 kg.)
4) Oranges (2 pcs.)
5) Vanillin
6) Cinnamon
7) Powdered sugar
8) Carnation.

Actions:

1) Wash the pumpkin, peel it, remove the seeds from the pulp, cut into small slices. Peel oranges and divide into slices.
2) Pour water into a saucepan and add sugar. Cook over low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the consistency is uniform.
3)Dip in hot syrup slices of pumpkin pulp and orange slices. Cook for about 7 minutes over low heat.
4) Now you can remove the mixture from the heat and leave it to cool completely. Now you need to repeat the cooking process twice more with an interval of about 8 hours.
5) Now we select transparent pumpkin slices from syrup, separate from orange slices.
6) After that, you need to dry the future candied fruits in a dryer for vegetables and fruits or in an oven at a low temperature for about 5 hours.
7) Sprinkle dried pumpkin slices with a mixture of powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon (add cloves to taste)
8) Store candied fruits at room temperature in a dry jar.

Candied fruits can be used as a dessert, or can be added to semolina or oatmeal. You can also decorate the cake with candied fruits. home cooking. Crushed candied fruits can be an excellent filling for homemade pies. The remaining syrup can be used as sweet sauce, as well as for cooking kissels and compotes.

The benefits of candied fruit

Candied fruits are distinguished by their ability to retain the beneficial properties of vegetables and fruits from which they are made for a long time, in addition, sugar, which is one of the main components of candied fruits, gives energy and energy for the whole day, which will become good addition to "morning" cereals: semolina or oatmeal.

For the most part, candied pumpkin has retained all the useful substances of pumpkin, and these are all B vitamins that are useful for gastrointestinal tract, as well as a rare vitamin B3, which is famous for helping in the absorption of other trace elements. They contain vitamin C, which is indispensable in helping your immune system, as well as vitamin A, which our skin needs, especially in spring, when hypovitaminosis begins in the body. Candied pumpkin is an excellent remedy for combating asthenia, apathy and stress, as they are rich in iron. Vitamin E, which is designed to keep our youth, is also found in large quantities in candied pumpkin.

Imagine that guests came to you, and you put a large plate of candied fruits on the table. This will surely surprise all the guests, because home-made candied fruits, and even pumpkins, are a rarity in our time, characterizing the hostess only on the positive side. Cooking candied fruits is not so easy, but for those who do not know how it is done, candied fruits are generally the work of a large machine and they are sold only in a supermarket, so home-made candied fruits can also become a source of pride for the hostess. Well-cooked candied fruits are a real culinary achievement.

We are accustomed to always praise the food prepared by the hostess when visiting. This is a courtesy gesture. But your guests and household members will praise your candied fruits not only as a sign of respect for your work, but also in connection with the excellent exquisite taste which cannot be found anywhere else.

And when in the evening you sit with a cup of tea and have a conversation with family or friends, it will be so great to replace the usual sweets with homemade candied fruits. In any case, candied fruits prepared at home are what will give you joy in your soul and health in your body!

Wash the pumpkin well with water on the outside and cut it in half lengthwise with a sharp knife, after cutting off the pumpkin tail. Using a spoon, take out the contents of the pumpkin - seeds and fibers.

Never throw away pumpkin seeds and pumpkin tail. Seeds can be dried, fried and chewed at your leisure. And an infusion of pumpkin tail is an excellent remedy for toothache, tested on myself.

Remove the thick skin from the pumpkin. The peel of a ripe fruit is usually like wood, and cleaning is not an easy process. To do this, place a half of the pumpkin on a cutting board cut down, strengthen it so that it does not slide on the table. With a vegetable cutter or sharp knife clean by removing small pieces of peel. Peeled flesh cut into a thickness of about 5 millimeters.

Put the pumpkin slices in a thick-walled cup or cauldron, sprinkled with sugar, and leave for 5-6 hours. Sugar calculation: for 1 kilogram of peeled pumpkin - 300 grams of sugar.

While the pumpkin slices are standing, the juice will stand out from it, and the sugar will almost completely melt.

Kazanka with slices in own juice put on a slow fire, bring to a boil, and after boiling for 2 minutes, remove from heat and leave for at least 6 hours.

During this time, the pumpkin will cool down, soak and become softer. Return the cup (or cauldron) with pieces of pumpkin to the fire, add required amount citric acid, bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes and turn off.

Usually 2 boils are enough. Focus on the pumpkin: it should not turn into a puree, it remains soft and at the same time keeps its shape. If the pumpkin remains firm, repeat the procedure a third time.

Drain the syrup. It is convenient to do this by carefully discarding future candied fruits and a colander so that the syrup is well stacked.

Do not spill under any circumstances pumpkin syrup. It can be added to compote, used as an impregnation for pies and cakes, etc.

We spread the boiled slices freely on the grate of the electric dryer and dry for about 5 hours, preferably changing the grates in places, then the candied fruits will dry at the same time. Drying time depends on the type of pumpkin, its juiciness, the size of candied fruits, the power of the electric dryer, etc.,

If you do not have an electric dryer, then you can dry candied pumpkin naturally in a dry place: put candied fruits on parchment (cloth), when dry on one side, turn over. It will take several days. You can also dry candied fruits in the oven at the lowest temperature.

Remove appetizing coffees from the grate of the electric dryer. They should remain elastic, soft inside, and outside still a little sticky, transparent. In no case should you overdry candied fruits.

I will now consider how to cook candied pumpkin, I will offer you a simple recipe for this in the oven and dryer. There are different sweets, mainly made from a variety of fruits, but in our situation we will consider the recipe for making a vegetable treat. As you know, it is very useful, since it contains a lot of various substances that have a positive effect on the body, but this will not be considered in this context.

During cooking candied pumpkin pieces of vegetable to start should be cooked in sugar syrup and then dry them in the dryer or in the oven. On average, the preparation of such a delicacy will take the hostess from 4 hours to a couple of days, which is quite a lot compared to preparing other dishes that can be done in an hour, but the result is worth it.

As a result, we will get delicious sweets, devoid of any dyes, preservatives, as well as other harmful components that are often used in industrial production. Yes, and this delicacy tastes very interesting, because it is often prepared with the addition of fragrant cinnamon or lemon, which gives extra flavor dish.

Usually cinnamon is not used together with citrus fruits, they are used separately, since fragrant seasoning can just say so lemon flavor, it is better to use an orange paired with cinnamon. So, what is required to prepare such an orange vegetable delicacy, what ingredients are needed?

Prepare:

Fresh pumpkin - 1 kilogram;
Sugar - 1 kilogram;
Powdered sugar;
One lemon.

As you understand, dear reader, our recipe for candied pumpkin will be using lemon. It is worth noting that in the end the product will be in a dried form, respectively, its amount will be approximately 300 grams, which is not so much, therefore, it is possible to increase the volume raw vegetable.

Let's start cooking candied pumpkin - recipe:

So, for starters, the pumpkin should be peeled, in addition, it is important to remove the seeds, while you should not remove the pulp where the grains were, as it is very tasty in candied form.

It is not recommended to cut the vegetable into too small pieces, in addition, they should not be thin, since in this situation they will simply be brittle and overdried, and not dried, which is much tastier, since such candied fruits are more juicy.

Usually, the ideal thickness for cutting future candied pumpkin is 5 or 7 millimeters, and in terms of shape, any variability is allowed, for example, it can be cut into cubes, oblong sticks.

Before buying a lemon, pay attention to its peel, it should be thin. The fruit should be washed, after which it is doused with boiling water. Then it should be cut into thin circles. After which it will be added to the syrup, where they will cook pumpkin slices.

Future candied fruits should be cooked in enamel saucepan, so, you need to put a layer of pumpkin on the bottom, and put lemon circles on top. The next layer is sugar, it must be poured evenly, and the remaining layers are placed in this form, one above the other.

We make a small fire on the stove and put the pan with all the ingredients on the gas, where the syrup will begin to cook, in the process of moderate heating, the lemon will give juice, which will gradually dissolve granulated sugar and soak the pumpkin slices.

As soon as the syrup begins to boil, this process should be carried out for no more than five minutes, after which you need to remove the pan from the stove. If you cook longer, then our pumpkin pieces will simply boil and turn into porridge, which should not be allowed.

Next, leave the pan with all the contents to cool, after which we put it on the stove again and repeat the cooking process. Then, after cooling, it is worth checking how soft the pumpkin turned out. If it is stiff, repeat the process a third time.

Then, when the pumpkin has reached the desired condition, it is recommended to drain the syrup, and future candied fruits must be thrown into a colander, it is important that they are as dry as possible, that is, leave them in this form for longer. Do not throw away the drained syrup, it can be useful for making sweet drinks with a pumpkin-lemon flavor.

So, the pumpkin is prepared for the direct drying process, which can be done in the oven, or using a dryer. First, consider how to dry candied fruits in the oven. To do this, cover the baking sheet parchment paper and spread the pumpkin slices on it so that they do not touch each other.

The oven is heated to 90-100 degrees, a baking sheet is placed inside oven, after which it is recommended to keep the door open. Candied pumpkins are dried in the oven for 4 hours with a break, determining readiness visually and by taste. When they become with a reddish tint and somewhat dried on top, we can talk about their readiness.

They should be removed from the paper while still hot, because, as they cool, they will stick tightly, so to speak. While still hot, they should be quickly rolled in powdered sugar, because if this is done on cold pumpkin pieces, the powder simply will not stick to the candied fruit, but it is necessary, as it will serve as a kind of protection so that the delicacy does not stick together.

We learned how to dry candied fruit in the oven, but how does this process take place in the dryer? On it, pumpkin pieces will dry in time much longer, even up to two days. Moreover, all the preparatory steps are exactly the same. Candied pumpkins in the dryer should not be placed too close to each other so that they do not stick together. Then they are also sprinkled with powdered sugar.