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July 12, 2010

Raspberry, transparency, yogurt, rose petals

So, I did all this:

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And after a total of two days of active work and dehydration time, I ended up with a leathery war wound with Band-Aid pieces strewn about:

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I screwed it up somewhere along the way.  Everything seemed to be going well up until the final step, the last dehydration bit.  It never un-leathered itself.  It never got crispy and dry.  And, the photo in the book doesn't even look like there are rose petals in this bite.  Argh.  I've eaten this thing three times in the restaurant, and I actually really, really like it.

I don't like failing at something that I know I can do.  That makes me CRAZY.

Think the raspberries heard me talking about how much I don't like them?  How I wish they were as good as blackberries?  How they're hollow and seedy and look like they misplaced their tweezers?

I'm gonna have to sweet talk my next batch of raspberries.  Put on some Barry White.  Dim the lights. Tell them how pretty they are.  Maybe THAT will work.

Actually, I just bought an even more precise digital jeweler scale (measures to the 0.01g), and I'm gonna try it again, 'cause I'm feeling stubborn.  If it doesn't work again, then I'm buying the URL ihateraspberriestheytotallytotallysuck.com.  You watch.  It'll be the next big internet sensation!

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Raspberries are wack. Perhaps you should try again with blackberries in lieu of those evil, hollow seeded drupes. Not that the chemistry would be all that different, just to show the raspberries what for.

I think the raspberries thought you gave them the wham-bam-mash-you-ma'am, while they tend to insist on the "full berry massage!" Picky little tarts they are...Anyway, you get an A for endeavor!!

I just saw a jar of rose petal gelee in the grocery store. It was mesmerizingly clear, and I swear I could smell it through the jar. (Or else someone near me smelled really good, but considering I live in France, that's pretty unlikely.) ;)

This doesn't have much to do with your raspberry woes. Terribly rude of me as a long-time reader, first-time commenter. I apologize. I know you'll get it right next time!

p.s. I think raspberries may prefer Sinatra to Barry White. They're old-school that way. :)

sometimes it's just the weather. Even with a dehydrator, if it's too humid things won't dry right. Try making meringues this summer-anywhere east of the Mississippi it will be a chore because it's just been too wet since May.
Still frustrating, though.

[It's humid as heck here in DC, so I even ran my dehumidifier the whole time I was making these, just to be sure.... :( -----------CB]

I would totally have eaten that fruit leather. Sorry it didn't work out the way it was supposed to, especially after all of that effort. Yes, I do believe that raspberries respond well to Barry White or perhaps Luther Vandross. They will be (crispy) putty in your hands.

But........raspberries are better than blackberries. They're softer and sweeter.

Another reason raspberries are superior to blackberries: Raspberry vines are opportunistic and will attempt to spread once they have a foothold, but they are relatively easy to control, whereas by contrast blackberry vines are fast-growing motherhumpers that will invade your property like howling thorn-encrusted Mongols, laughing at your best efforts to eradicate them, eventually requiring you to nuke the site from orbit just to be sure.

Yeah, come visit the PNW and see what evil blackberry vines can unleash. Invasive, much?

Carol, what sort of dehydrator do you use?

[It's an Excalibur, and it's been fantastic. ----------CB]

By the way, love the blog - it's been both educational and entertaining. I'm nowhere near brave enough to cook all of it, much less publicly, but don't let some not-quite-crispy fruit bits bring you down!

When we made this, we used rose petals that were a whole lot smaller. They looked like this:

http://www.twohillstea.com/store/green-tea/tea/org_wild_dried_rose_petals/

By the time we were done, they were basically pulverized and so they looked more like itsy-bitsy nubbins than like actual rose petals. Picture here:
http://gallery.mac.com/dan.powell#100501/AUS_0312&bgcolor=black

(Why, yes, my husband does cook barefoot, and why yes, we did drink a whole lot of wine that day. Good times!)

As for the getting dried part, we wound up dehydrating them for almost twice as long as the book called for.

I love that you tagged this under "Damn it." Just made me giggle.

Hang in there. When you do give it another shot and succeed, you can tag it under "There, I Told You So."

My beautiful Mother-in-Law, who passed away 2 years ago from breast cancer never understood my aversion to raspberries. Through all of our years together, 27, she kept trying to sneak them into my food and couldn't figure out how I always knew. I'll go in halfsies (halvesies) for your Ihateraspberriestheytotallysuck.com site.

I still think it looks purrty.

How did it taste?

[Like a Fruit Roll-Up with parts of the wrapper left on it. :( ------------CB]

I'm with the food ninja. Blackberries, while having sweetness potential, are at all times, ready to prick you (I said prick) even when you're being nice. Nasty, nasty weed.

Plus, out here in the PNW, lunatics from all over yank their cars over to the side of the road and pick those berries with no thought to the traffic congestion they are causing.

It's frackin' humid. I bet that's got something to do with it. So, you're a blackberry fan, hey? *walks off scheming*

[Yeah, it's humid, which is why I ran my dehumidifier in the kitchen/laundry room area while I made this. *wonders what all this scheming is about, missy* ----------CB]

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