Powders are most often associated with quick-service beverage blending as a means of adding flavor or functional value, but they have a richer history as a tool of practical chefs–a treasure chest of flavors that can be accessed spontaneously to add intense flavor or appeal to any dish.
Many renowned chefs today like René Redzepi and Sean Brock are rediscovering ancient processes of preserving foods through the non-growing season, including dehydrating, fermenting, pickling and freezing.
Of these, dehydrating is one of the oldest traditions and it continues to serve many purposes in today’s commercial kitchens: to preserve precious or seasonal ingredients; to save money; for convenience or workflow; and, most of all, to add flavor.
- To preserve precious or seasonal ingredients: For example, in the northern U.S., the growing season for many types of hot peppers–ghost peppers, scorpion peppers, chocolate habaneros–is very short, but you can keep them in powder form long after the season has passed. Even five or six years later, the flavor will remain intense, with subtle shades of difference between varying kinds of peppers.
- To save money: As a chef, you have to stretch your budget, and some foods that are quite cheap in season (e.g., tomatoes) may be much more costly in the offseason. If you have an abundance of a certain type of fresh ingredient that will no longer keep, you can avoid waste by transforming it into a powder that will keep for a long time.
- For convenience and workflow: If you’re a spontaneous or creative cook, you may appreciate the convenience of pulling a powerful powder off the shelf without having to interrupt the flow of your work. You can quickly create an amazing spice rub or add depth and brightness to a sauce or salad dressing.
- To add flavor: Many foods are as intense–or more so–when concentrated as powders, for example, lemons and limes, as well as some herbs and spices, like ginger.
Processing powders
While there are variations depending on the food, spice, or herb, the process for making powders consists of basically three steps:
- Prep: Some but not all foods dehydrate more effectively if they are cut in half or in pieces.
- Dehydrating the food at room temperature (herbs), in the sun, dehydrator, convection or combi oven
- Blending or grinding to produce the powder
For dehydrating, a combi oven is ideal because you can control the humidity and vent it to the outdoors, which is important for strong flavors, including hot peppers. A convection oven also works, but it requires more monitoring than a combi oven and the lowest temperature may be a little higher than optimal. Or, in some cases, the sun is a possible (or even preferable) source of heat.
For blending, a high-performance commercial blender is preferred, because the blades will hold up without dulling, unlike those of a food processor, and the high-speed motor and container geometry are efficient at keeping dry ingredients circulating. A high-performance blender will have no difficulty turning especially hard, dried foods, such as corn, grains, and seeds, into a fine powder or flour.
Let’s take a look at a few examples.
Tomatoes
Slice and dice. Place in the blender and purée. Spread on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake in the oven at a low temperature until the tomato paste is not only dry but actually brittle. Then, place the dried slabs in the blender and produce a powder. Use in sauces, soups, or chili.
Onions
Slice and dice (no need to purée). Then, follow the same process as the tomatoes. Ramps, a type of wild onion with a short growing season, can also be preserved as a powder, following this same process.
Ginger
Peel, slice, then dehydrate in an oven. Place the dried pieces in a blender and blend into a fine powder, which will be more intense in flavor and more vibrant in color than what you would purchase in the store.
Lemons and limes
Blanch in boiling water for no more than 90 seconds, then place in an ice bath. Punch small holes in the rind, then dry completely until black and hard over two to three days in the oven or in the sun, or some combination of these. You can micro-plane the zest off or put the whole, dried fruit in a blender and grind to a powder. The powder will have a savory, smoky quality on top of the citrus flavor.
Grains, seeds, and legumes
Grains are a large category that is widely under-utilized as a freshly ground powder or flour. You can transform any dried grain, seed, or legume, including wheat, oats, rice, corn, flax seed, or garbanzo beans, into a flour or meal by blending it quickly in a blender. The flour is useful not only in doughs, breads, and batters, but also as a light dusting or breading for meats prior to frying, or as a thickening agent in sauces.
Hot peppers, mushrooms, thyme, cumin, cinnamon sticks, and other herbs and spices
Many herbs and spices can be pulled from the ground and hung upside down to dry at room temperature. Once dried, they can be warmed in a pan to bring out the flavor and aroma (if performing this step for hot peppers, it’s important to have an effective vent hood that can pull the capsaicin up from the pan and out of the building, because otherwise it can become airborne in the kitchen and cause irritation). Then, your herbs and spices can be turned into a powder in a blender, and used in various combinations as a spice rub, among other purposes.
The power of powder
Many chefs are drawn to tradition because it represents wisdom and encourages many of their natural inclinations toward seeking out flavor and making the best use of their existing resources. Creating powders is part of this tradition, a method of capturing and preserving especially useful or intense flavors that can, at a later time and within an instant, bring zesty, spicy, or savory qualities to your recipes.
