Who doesn’t love mushroom dishes, this intoxicating aroma that comes from the kitchen! Now you can find champignons in any supermarket, but it also happens that you don’t have time to leave the house, or the weather leaves much to be desired. For such cases, you can dry the champignons, and you will always have them at hand. In this article I will tell you how to dry champignons in a city apartment.
Preparing mushrooms for drying
When drying champignons, the aromatic and taste qualities, as well as useful substances, are preserved; the mushrooms are significantly reduced in size and take up little space during storage.
For drying, it is advisable to purchase fresh, clean, medium-sized champignons. They cannot be washed; they must be wiped with a slightly damp cloth to remove any remaining soil substrate. The darkened areas are carefully cut out with a knife, the lower part of the stem is removed, and rotten specimens are thrown away.
Mushrooms are sorted by size. Small mushrooms are dried whole, and large ones are cut into slices or noodles. The main thing is that the cut parts are not too thick, otherwise they will not dry properly.
An ancient method of drying champignons
You can also prepare dried champignons using this ancient method. It is suitable exclusively for those rural residents and summer residents who have an old Russian stove in their house.
Drying in an oven is carried out in the following way:
- Place the prepared mushrooms in a thin layer on a clean, dry baking sheet.
- Remove the ash from the stove, place two bricks and place a baking sheet on them.
- The oven temperature should be maintained at 60-70 degrees. It is important that the temperature is within these limits; if it is lower, the drying process will take a long time; if it is higher, the mushrooms will burn.
- Keep the oven door two-thirds open at all times to ensure air circulation. Towards the end of cooking, gradually close the door, since by that time there will be much less moisture in the oven.
Check the readiness of the champignons in the same way as in the previous recipe.
Drying in a Russian oven
The most successful way to dry champignons is to dry them in a Russian oven, if you have one. To do this, the caps of the wiped mushrooms are separated from the stems, then everything is laid out on a straw bedding. The ash and ashes are removed from the oven, heated to 50-60 degrees and the mushrooms are dried in it for several days.
You can dry champignons on skewers in a Russian oven. To do this, skewers and skewers with mushrooms are placed on bricks or boards and dried, as if on a straw bed.
Benefits and harms of the product
Dried products retain the beneficial properties of fresh champignons. Protein-rich champignon is actively used in dietary, vegetarian, and lenten diets.
Useful properties of dried mushroom:
- improves metabolic processes;
- stimulates hemoglobin production;
- increases brain performance;
- inhibits the development of inflammatory processes;
- regulates cholesterol levels;
- compacts bone tissue;
- strengthens hair and nails;
- promotes muscle growth, reduces symptoms of sore throat;
- increases immunity.
Vitamin D helps to absorb other valuable elements, in particular calcium and phosphorus. Useful properties are closely related to the quality of raw materials. Below we will tell you how to properly dry champignons and store them without losing quality.
The product will be harmful to people with acute diseases of the digestive system. You should not eat champignons if you have pancreatitis or ulcers. The mushroom is contraindicated in any form of oncology, blood diseases, gout. It is prohibited to introduce into the diet of children under 7 years of age.
Pregnant women are not prohibited from eating champignons, but should abstain in the first trimester.
Air drying
This is the easiest way to dry champignons. Wipe and sliced mushrooms are strung on a thick thread or on skewers and hung outdoors in the shade, covered with gauze to protect against insects. This way you can dry the champignons on the balcony, on the open loggia or on the veranda. The main thing is that the weather is sunny and dry. The mushrooms will be ready if their slices spring back when squeezed and do not release moisture. Otherwise, they should be dried out. Mushrooms can also be dried on strings in an apartment, but the place must be dry and ventilated.
How to dry it properly
You can dry mushrooms at home in a variety of ways. You can do this in the sun using an oven. They can also be dried in a special drying unit. I am very lucky that I live in a private house that has a Russian stove. It turns out dried champignon simply delicious. However, the whole process can be carried out in an ordinary city apartment. We dry the champignons in the oven and get excellent results. Pre-cleaned mushrooms need to be laid out on a baking sheet. In this case, you need to ensure that the layer is even.
The oven should be heated to a temperature of 45°C. This is done so that the champignons do not stick during the drying process. Then the temperature can be increased to 80°C. As for drying time, there are no specific recommendations here. They do this “by eye”, making sure that the drying is uniform.
Ready champignons do not break, but should bend well. If we talk about sensations, they should be slightly “springy”. If this is not observed, then it means it is not ready yet and we dry them further. When they are dried at home, the oven door should not be closed tightly. To prevent them from burning, they need to be removed from the oven from time to time and ventilated.
Champignons can also be dried in the sun at home. There's nothing complicated about it. Fresh mushrooms should be carefully strung on a thread, hung and left in a well-ventilated place. When choosing a location, you need to ensure that there is no dust, moisture or direct sunlight. You don’t have to string them on a thread, but simply lay them out on paper (it should be thick enough). You can lay them out on boards, a tray, and so on. Next, you will need to leave them in this state for several days.
Microwave drying
Now almost every home has a microwave oven. Drying champignons in it saves a lot of time. But you just need to put mushrooms in the oven in small portions. The champignons are cut into fairly thin slices and placed on a flat dish. Place the dish in the oven at a power of 100 W, dry the mushrooms for 20 minutes.
Next, take out the dish, drain the melted water, ventilate the mushrooms for 10 minutes and return to the oven for 20 minutes. Repeat the procedure until the mushrooms are ready.
Drying mushrooms in an electric dryer
Many housewives have acquired a similar device and use it to stock up on berries and fruits, both dry and dried. This device can also process mushrooms; it is enough to correctly determine the temperature.
Prepared raw materials are placed in removable pallets and placed in place. The temperature regime is determined in accordance with the amount of raw materials and the thickness of the slice.
By default, you can set it from 30 to 70 degrees. If the model is equipped with a fan, you should definitely use this function to start the circulation of warm air.
This will reduce the likelihood of overcooking and significantly speed up the entire process.
Storing dry mushrooms
Before storing dried mushrooms, make sure they are completely dry. The records should break when pressed. Well-dried champignons can be ground into powder, and then used like bouillon cubes, or as a seasoning for salads and main courses.
You can store dried mushrooms in canvas bags or paper bags, in glass containers or in wooden boxes. The main thing is that the storage room is dry, with good air circulation and free of foreign odors. There are special storage containers or bags. If storage rules are followed, dried champignons can retain their taste for 3-5 years.
Are champignons dried?
It’s strange, but many people don’t even know that champignons can be stored dried. After all, dry mushrooms have an indescribable taste and aroma. In addition, mushroom preparations stored in this way significantly save space in the kitchen, since they shrink several times when dried.
These mushrooms make delicious soups and main dishes, and crushed champignon powder makes an excellent seasoning for salads and appetizers. In addition, they cook very quickly - the dried mushroom semi-finished product is cooked until tender in literally 5 minutes.
Did you know? The Italians first began to use champignons for food about 1000 years ago.
Recipes for cooking dishes with dried champignons
You can quickly make the following soup from dried mushrooms:
- Take 300 g of dry champignons, soak them in water for 10-15 minutes.
- Place the soaked mushrooms in a saucepan, add 3 liters of water, and after boiling, cook for 20 minutes.
- Remove the mushrooms from the broth and transfer to a sieve.
- Fry finely chopped 2 onions and 1 carrot along with mushrooms in vegetable oil.
- Place 3 chopped potatoes in a saucepan with broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add fried vegetables, salt, pepper, finely chopped parsley and bay leaf to the broth with potatoes, then cook for another 5 minutes.
- It is advisable that this soup steep for about 1 hour.
There are several options for mushroom soup - you can season it with sour cream, at the end of cooking you can add chopped processed cheese, or you can put noodles in the broth along with potatoes.
How to fry with onions and garlic
Dried mushrooms can be cooked deliciously in a frying pan. When fried, they fit perfectly into a variety of treats. For this version of the recipe, you can use any dried mushrooms that you could find at home. The main product in the recipe goes well with onions and garlic. But if desired, you can add additional vegetables to it.
Composition of ingredients
For the dish you need to take:
- onion – 1 pc.;
- garlic – 3-4 cloves;
- dried mushrooms (any variety) – 130-150 g;
- vegetable fat – 2-3 tbsp. l.;
- fresh herbs - 1 bunch;
- salt and spices - 1 pinch each.
The listed number of ingredients will yield approximately 2-3 servings of treats.
Step-by-step cooking process
The cooking process includes several stages:
- The selected assortment of mushrooms is poured with warm water in a capacious container. The product is left in this form for at least a quarter of an hour.
- The remaining liquid after the procedure is filtered through gauze. You should not pour it out; it will still be useful later in the recipe.
- All vegetable fat is sent to the frying pan. Onions are poured in there too. It is first peeled and cut randomly. For example, you can chop the onion into half rings or rings.
- Garlic is sprinkled on top. Before this, it is peeled and chopped into small cubes.
- The onion and garlic should be fried until soft and lightly browned. Over medium heat, leave the ingredients together for approximately 4-5 minutes. You can wait a little with the garlic and add it later so that the pieces do not have time to burn.
- Broth is poured onto the pan from above. This is water drained from the mushrooms soaked above. If there is none left, then you can take a small amount of any broth or even plain water.
- The treat in the pan is sprinkled with salt and pepper. After thoroughly mixing all the ingredients, they are left to simmer over low heat. As a result, the dish should be completely cooked.
- When the liquid from the pan has completely evaporated, the treat will be ready.
The resulting dish is sprinkled with chopped fresh herbs on top. You can take any one. For example, a mixture of onions and parsley.
How to serve a dish
The fully prepared treat is immediately served to the table. You should first mix the fried mushrooms with any side dish of your choice. For example, with potatoes. Previously, root vegetables can be cut into slices and fried or baked in the oven with spices. And then combine it with the mushroom mass. Warm salads with fried mushrooms are very tasty. For example, you can make a layer of them between potatoes, tomatoes, eggs and cheese.
