When I decided to undertake the Food and Wine 100 Tastes to Try in 2007 challenge, I didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to obtain some of the items. Maple Flakes, for one, aren’t found in the US. They are sold only out of Canada and they don’t have an online store. Some wines, like a wine from the Tasmania region, seems to be next to impossible to locate (I still need to talk to my trusty wine guy about this one). I thought for sure in this day and age of web stores and online shopping, finding anything and buying it would be a breeze.
Since we are into month two of 2007, I’m looking over the list and realize I need to get busy! Unlike Rachel and Kate who are full speed ahead on this little venture, I’m taking a slow and steady approach. Why? Time, for one. With work, the three kids, and Mommy Brain, I keep forgetting to sit down and order items. Second reason? Finances! Some of these things are expensive to ship and we are still feeling the crunch from the holidays.
Even so, I will persevere. I’m having a great time discovering new tastes and I am having an even better time being able to "shop" in the name of research.
Taste number 65 on the list is Freeze Dried Flavors. When I think of freeze dried food, I think about the dried ice cream that my parents brought back to us kids after a trip to NASA one year. To find freeze dried food, I went to the Honeyvillegrain
website. They have an enormous selection of freeze dried food. I decided to go for a can of freeze dried bananas and a can of freeze dried strawberries.
The delivery arrived yesterday. I quickly ripped open the package to discover two very, very large cans of freeze dried fruit. I immediately opened them up and took a taste. I don’t really know what I was expecting, but what I tasted was definitely not what I had anticipated. The bananas had an almost peanut flavor. My five year old could guess that they were bananas, but he really wasn’t a fan. The strawberries tasted exactly like the sour strawberries in the Special K with Berries cereal.
I know they aren’t meant to be eaten straight out of the can (and now I know why!). Instead of letting disappointment set in, I decided to do what the back of the can suggested and add the water back into the fruit. I soaked some of the strawberries in water for about thirty minutes and what they promised came true. The strawberries plumped up beautifully! I ended up adding sugar and processing the strawberries into a delicious and sweet strawberry ice cream topping! My husband, who loves strawberries and ice cream, was thrilled.
I have a long list of recipes to try with my new purchase. One such recipe is over at Bakingsheet. She has a delicious looking recipe for Strawberry Whole Wheat Pancakes. I have a lot of these to use up, so if you have any great recipes for me to try out with my new freeze dried fruit collection, please send them my way!
mmm…freeze dried strawberries!
i’m glad you liked them, once you got the hang of them. freeze dried strawberries are a great treat. and now available everywhere! check your local supermarket, mine stocks lots… and there’s always berry burst cherrios!
How interesting. Never thought to order in quantity. Wonder what they would be like (the strawberries) mixed in to Lemon Curd as it cooks? Or add to waffle batter? Stirred into Pound Cake batter. Yum!
I’m not a big dried bannana fan, but in Peanut Butter Cookies they might be good.
I"m a little iffy on the freeze dried thing…yes, because of the astronaut ice cream! Also, I’ve never really cared for reconstituted food stuff though I never thought about putting in a recipe.
I apologize for the grammatically incorrect post, my keyboard and I had a fight. It one. It also decided that it needed to post my thought. Crazy technology!
This is fascinating! I can’t wait (but I will, of course) to read about the other things you test.
in the first glance I wasn’t thrill, I thought, oh the same ol’ dried food… until I read almost the end, these fruits are really amasing!
I’ve never heard of freeze dried fruit but it seems cool! I’m glad they plumped up and were better than your first taste. 🙂
Beautiful photo, Kristen.
I admire you for tackling this project. I would be unable to find most of the items locally. I’ll got back and check, but the first time I looked at the list, I thought I might be able to maybe 1/5 of them locally.
Seems to me I’ve had freeze dried fruit in the past, but I cannot recall where or when.
That’s pretty cool that they plumped back up and tasted like real strawberries again! Science. Gotta love it.
That bananas look just like regular dried one!
I can’t believe how hard it is to find some things either! What the heck were they thinking when they published that list? I’m sure they thought no one would really try to taste all 100, but they really should have listed more attainable items. I’m keeping track of how much I’m spending and I’m going to post about it at the end of the year. It’s not cheap.
I have some things I can share if you’d like. I’m sending a little care package to Kate.
I was kind of surprised after reading this post.. not so much because of how the bananas and strawberries tasted, but that freeze dried food would be on the list! It’s kind of the last thing I imagine anyone saying to me.. "OMG You MUST try freeze dried fruit before you die!!" hehee You’ve got my respect for giving the list a go – I hope you succeed in all 100 items! =)
I don’t really care for freeze dried fruit but my BF loves them, he will eat them straight outta of the can or cereal box. Good luck with the 100 items, I think you are doing well!!! You just might be eating a lot in Dec to finish 🙂