It’s officially the END OF SUMMER & the BEGINNING OF AUTUMN. It’s the end of some things that you will miss and the beginning of other things to look forward to. It’s okay to miss things and to want them back. It’s okay to not have them and wait for their return. It’s okay to pursue new things and put the past behind you. It’s okay to find solutions so the waiting becomes bearable. It’s okay to adapt to what you can’t change and to transform what you presently have. People often say that one year goes by quickly. What can you do in the meantime ? How was your summer ?

In Montreal (and other cosmopolitan cities with a wonderful mix of cultures, ethnicities and origins) and in particular in neigborhoods like Little Italy, the lucky inhabitants who happen to have a large terrace, sun-dry their vegetables outside. For the more dense and over-populated cities like Paris with little balconies, small and often non-existent terraces and rarely any gardens at all, this is not an option; but we do have OVENS.

This is my ritual once a year every September. I pick my favorite fruits and vegetables that I’ll preserve and use during the colder seasons : sweet green ‘cubanelle’ peppers, red ‘plum tomatoes’ and white ‘portobello’ mushrooms (which also happen to be my favorite toppings for my montreal-style all-dressed pizza and you can see that recipe here). 

Of course I’m totally aware that sun-dried tomatoes (completely dried or packed in oil) and mushrooms (fresh or dried) are easily available all-year long but I doubt you’ll find semi-dried green peppers as easily. Anyways, when given the choice between buying something prepared and time-saving or doing it all myself, I’ll always pick the latter. And then come these flavorful “spreads” sometimes also called “tapenades” or often “caviars” in France, because there are no olives in them.

Over the years, I’ve adapted and modified my approach as well as how much I will semi-dry the things I like to have all winter long. The answer is 25% of their original weight (after the cleaning, slicing, de-seeding, de-veining but before the vinegaring, salting, sugaring). This means that for every 1 kilogram of fresh, prepared, cleaned and sliced produce to be dried, I’ll end up with a total of 250 grams, thus not entirely dried nor semi-dried but actually quarter-dried. Like I said : 25% (but up to 33% is okay too).

An interesting (and obvious) point is that smaller things will dry quicker than larger things, which is why this year, I’ve chosen to oven-dry tomatoes and mushrooms that are quartered and long peppers cut into eighths but sometimes I do both if I want to oil-pack the larger pieces and reduce the smaller pieces into a coarse purée to make the spreads. 

Another interesting point is that spraying the vegetables to be oven-dried with white wine vinegar or white distilled vinegar, then tossing them with some salt and a touch of sugar and then letting them sit and strain for approximately 15-45 minutes will help to remove part of that water in the vegetables and speed up the whole process by at least half, in addition to deepening the flavors.

A final point (and one that I consider paramount and quite time-saving) is to record the weights of the oven drying racks that you will be using and to record the weight of each rack with the vegetable slices on top so as to monitor the progression of the drying and remaining humidity in the vegetables every hour at the beginning and middle of the drying process and every 30 minutes towards the end. This makes the entire process much easier and quicker, as opposed to emptying out the partly-dried vegetable slices into a bowl to weigh them and then laying them back onto each oven rack to dry them further ! Trust me, a seemingly painful and time-consuming task has just gotten much easier and painless !

Three options actually exist … 1^st option : you can completely dry them out and store them in bags or jars, to be re-hydrated later depending on your intended uses; 2^nd   option : you can semi-dry or quarter-dry them and preserve them in flavored oil and finally the 3^rd option : you can use those semi or quarter-dried vegetables and blend or process them with other ingredients until smoother and heat them up again and preserve them to have an easy vegetable spread for diverse uses that will last up to 1 year (or longer if done correctly). Be reassured, I’ve tried and tested everything over the past 3 years which is why I’m sharing this with you now.

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t attempt this with other types of vegetables. And if you do and it’s great, drop me a line because I’ve heard somewhere that “sharing is caring”. 

Happy SUMMER’S end & beginning of AUTUMN to all . . . :)