Welcome to Freeze Dried Friday on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer that we want to share some of them with you. If you have something wonderful you’ve prepared in your freeze dryer that you would like to share with SurvivalBlog readers, take a photo of it and send it in along with a description. We might just feature you here!
Asparagus Chicken Alfredo
The Latimer family is still camping this week so the freeze dryers have not been in production. However, Mrs. Latimer gave me permission to share one of our favorite meals this campout, made using the Harvest Right Freeze Drier. You can make this meal completely, then freeze dry the results if you desire, but it will not be as satisfactory. I highly recommend that you freeze dry the individual components, then re-hydrate and make the meal.
The primary reason is the Alfredo Sauce. Creamy things like sour cream, cream sauces, et cetera, do not reconstitute well. While the flavor is good, the texture is not. Since texture is a significant source of pleasure with food, it makes sense to cater to it’s strengths. To start, the meat and vegetables are all pre cut and freeze dried, the Alfredo is canned, and the pasta is dry. Obviously the oil is separate. When you are ready to start, reconstitute the meat and vegetables as you normally would.
Ingredients:
- About 1 pound asparagus, cut into 1 inch long pieces
- 1 pound dried pasta
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 12-16 oz cooked chicken, chopped
- 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
- 2-3 cups Alfredo sauce
- 1/2 cup Parmesana- Regiano cheese, shredded
- 3 Tbsp parsley, chopped
Directions:
- Bring three quarts of water to a boil; add salt Cook pasta in boiling water for time directed on package for al dente.
- While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in large skillet over medium heat; add garlic.
- Saute garlic for one minute.
- Add asparagus pieces and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes.
- Add chicken, red bell pepper, and Alfredo sauce; stirring continuously until heated and blended through. Remove from heat.
- Drain pasta; return pasta to pot.
- Pour Alfredo-asparagus sauce over pasta; lightly toss.
- Top with Parmesan-Regiano cheese and chopped parsley.
- Serve.
o o o
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This week I FD’d blueberry pancakes and burritos. I was pleased with the outcome. I saw a #10 can of FD shredded cheddar cheese on sale for $42 so decided I would try some of these cheeses I had on hand to see if I like the end product. I used blue cheese and feta crumbles and shredded cheddar cheese for the test and they each came out delicious. Since I live in the humid mid-south I didn’t have to do anything to reconstitute the cheese. They were actually good just as a FD snack and worked perfectly in recipes.
Since I’m not a mechanical person, I’m working up the courage to take the front of the pump off and clean what I can see; and hope I don’t mess it up! Have a great week.
I just finished the power flush, (do this outside it is a messy process, and wear old clothes) and because I saw corrosion thru the sight glass, I watched one of the many YouTube videos on cleaning inside and did it. There was a bit of oil even inside despite draining, and the cover came of easily, unscrewing bolts with a t-handle hex wrench. I am not sure what kind of crud is created but it was almost rust like. Using a stainless steel gun toothbrush, and non flammable brake cleaner the crud was pretty much removed. Staining of hard metal surfaces would have required a whole lot more work for nothing in return as far as I could see.
There is a steel plate on top surface of pump housing held by one hex bolt which I took off, and it gave access to a cruddy section of the pump.
Other than scrubbing bolt heads with cleaner and brush I left all other fasteners alone. Multiple warnings advise not to disassemble further, not serviceable by homeowner. I used the brush and putty scraper vigorously. Once everything was clean and solvent air dried, I reassembled, using some Vaseline to lube the black cover gasket when fitting it back in it’s channel. I refilled pump with fresh oil, and did a vacuum pump test which was fine.
I have meticulously drained out oil every batch, froze the crud and water it that was in it, and then did the Harvey filter kit to clean the oil I use. (Black Gold that came with pump, purchased at Grainger)
I just read where if I do an oil dump twice after freeze drying a batch, almost the same amount of water will come out as the first time. That remaining water may explain the corrosion I found inside my pump. The link is to a good YouTube video of taking off the pump cover and splash guard plate inside. Hope that helps.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=harvest+right+freeze+dryer+remove+pump+cover+assembly
Thank you for the guidance! I need all the help I can get!
I wonder if you make your own Alfredo sauce, or if you purchase it? If you make your own, will you share the recipe you use? If you purchase it, which brand do you prefer?
We have used both. Mrs Latimer has her own recipe for the sauce, but when I asked her for it, I received one of those looks that is a cross between a withering “over my dead body (or yours)” and a hurt “How could you?” look. So I’ll pass on that. However, we often use this one, which we get from Costco or Amazon: Classico, Alfredo Pasta Sauce, 15 oz This is the one we used for camping this trip.