It turns out that you can freeze not only berries and vegetables. Here are 20 foods that can happily wait in the freezer, and how to freeze them the right way.
The freezer can be filled not only with meat, fish and berries. There are many foods that can be frozen without losing their taste. Frozen foods will calmly wait their turn, and you won’t have to throw them away or quickly finish them to avoid spoiling. Here are 20 foods you can freeze and how to do it.
Cheese
You can freeze a large piece of cheese and it won't fall apart once defrosted. If you prefer to slice your cheese before freezing, add a teaspoon of cornstarch or flour to the container to prevent the slices from sticking together during defrosting.
If you like to add grated cheese to your dishes, you can buy a large piece of Parmesan, chop it in a food processor and put it in the freezer in special freezer bags. It can be stored in the freezer for several months, and while preparing it, all you have to do is open a container or freezer bag and remove a couple of teaspoons of cheese.
How to preserve this wonderful fruit for a long time?
Like many other berries and fruits, pears lend themselves well to freezing. For lovers of pies, pies, desserts, etc. You can safely freeze these sweet and juicy fruits and enjoy them all year round.
The texture and color of a ripe pear will be preserved if, after peeling, you soak it in a solution of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Then everyone can decide what to do: freeze the fruit by placing it in sweet syrup, pureeing it, or simply cutting it into pieces and leaving it dry. You can use your maximum imagination; any method will keep the fruit fresh and tasty.
Fruits
It is better to freeze fruits on parchment paper, and only then place them in freezer bags. It is better to immediately freeze the cut pieces so that you can take them out for desserts and smoothies as needed.
If you're a smoothie lover, you can make your own frozen fruit blend right away. Separately freeze pieces of apples, pears, peaches, bananas and other fruits you like. At any time, you can make yourself a new smoothie by mixing different types of fruits.
If you don't like cooking slimy, thawed banana pieces, freeze them whole, skin and all. When you decide to cook something with a banana, you need to take it out of the freezer, defrost it in the microwave, cut off the top and squeeze the contents into the cooking mixture.
Fruit puree for children: frozen puree
If you have a large freezer (a very useful thing, by the way) and you can freeze everything you could want, then it’s easier, faster and, probably, even healthier to make frozen baby fruit puree. All fruits and berries are the same. We simply clean them of unnecessary things (the peel and core of apples and pears, the pits of peaches, apricots and plums, the tails of strawberries), beat them fresh in a blender, put them in small bowls and voila! Place in the freezer. In winter, all that remains is to take out all this splendor, defrost it at room temperature (not on the stove, not on the radiator!) and feed your happy child something delicious!
Ksenia Poddubnaya
Homemade casseroles
When you're making a casserole like lasagna, why not make a big batch and freeze half for a home-cooked meal during the work week.
There are several freezing options you can use:
- Freeze the whole casserole in a dish lined with freezer paper. When the casserole is frozen sufficiently, remove the dish, repack the casserole in freezer paper, and place it back in the freezer. The advantage is that you can use the dish while the casserole is stored in the freezer. When you need it again, place it in the same dish and cook it.
- Freeze in parts. Prepare the casserole, let cool, cut into pieces and freeze. Can be reheated in the microwave.
Fish fingers
Semi-finished products sold in stores can hardly be called tasty, so why not make homemade fish fingers?
To do this, you need to buy fresh fish, cut it into small pieces, roll it in egg, flour or breadcrumbs, place it on a tray and freeze.
After this, you can store homemade fish sticks in freezer bags - they are much tastier than store-bought ones, which contain strange minced meat instead of fish.
Have you tried freezing any foods?
Freezing homemade semi-finished products saves a lot of time, and if there are several types of homemade products in the freezer, then, if necessary, you can quickly prepare lunch or dinner. Potatoes can also be frozen, but they must be pre-cooked before freezing. This article contains information on freezing potatoes in cubes and in the form of ready-made puree.
Freezing raw potatoes
First you need to prepare the potatoes for freezing. The tubers should be washed well to remove any remaining soil or sand.
Peel the potatoes and rinse them well again.
Next, cut the potatoes into bars, strips or cubes. The cutting method is arbitrary and depends on the dish in which this workpiece will be used.
Place the chopped potatoes in a deep bowl, cover with cold water and leave for 15-20 minutes. This must be done so that as much starch as possible is washed out of the potatoes. During this time, it is advisable to change the water 2-3 times.
While the potatoes are in the water, you need to prepare everything for blanching: put a pan of water on the fire and bring it to a boil. Also prepare another pan or container into which you should pour cold water (it is advisable to add ice cubes here so that the water is ice-cold).
Place the chopped potatoes in a colander to drain.
Immerse the potato wedges or cubes in boiling water, wait for the water to boil again and from that moment cook them for 3 minutes. If there are a lot of pieces, it is better to divide the blanching stage into two or three steps.
After three minutes of cooking, the potatoes should be drained in a colander and quickly immersed in ice water - the faster they cool, the better.
Place the cooled potatoes in a colander and wait until all the liquid has drained.
Lay out a clean towel and spread the blanched pieces in an even layer. To make the potatoes dry faster, you can blot them several times with paper or kitchen towels.
Dried potatoes are ready to be frozen, and this can be done in two ways:
- Place the potato pieces in a bag, release the air using a drinking straw (detailed video here), close or tie tightly, sign the label with the name of the product, type of cut and date of freezing, and place in the freezer. Potato pieces may stick together.
- Place the potato pieces on a flat tray...
... freeze them for 2-3 hours in the freezer.
Separate frozen potatoes from the board...
...pour into a bag, close it tightly, release the air, sign the label and...
... put in the freezer for storage.
It is recommended to freeze potatoes in portions so that you can only remove from the freezer the amount needed to prepare a dish.
It is not necessary to defrost potato cubes, strips or sticks. They can be thrown into boiling broth, fried in oil or baked in the oven. For example, frozen potato blocks can be sprinkled with a mixture of herbs, salt and pepper, placed on a baking sheet and placed in a preheated oven.
When using frozen potatoes in oven or skillet dishes, increase the cooking time by 5-7 minutes to allow the potatoes time to completely melt. There is no need to increase the cooking time for the soup, since such potatoes will defrost very quickly in boiling broth.
Freezing potatoes as mashed potatoes
If you didn't calculate the amount of potatoes and prepared a lot of mashed potatoes, you can also freeze them.
It should be noted that fresh puree must be frozen: on the first two days after preparation, and not the one that has been in the refrigerator for more than 3 days.
If the puree is freshly prepared, then it should first be cooled to room temperature, and then in the refrigerator for about 2-3 hours.
Place the puree in portions into bags, containers or jars.
Close the selected container tightly, sign the label with the name of the product and the date of freezing, and place it in the freezer.
You can defrost the finished mashed potatoes on the refrigerator shelf or in the microwave using the “Defrost” mode. You can also defrost it in a frying pan with a little water.
Thawed mashed potatoes can simply be served as a side dish for lunch or dinner. If after defrosting the mashed potatoes become denser, you need to warm them up, pour in a little warm milk, add butter and mash well again with a masher. Do not use a blender - the puree will become sticky and tasteless.
Subtleties of freezing potatoes:
- Potatoes without blanching in the freezer will become sweet and their color will turn grey.
- Potatoes without soaking will be looser.
- Potatoes without drying during freezing will become covered with an ice crust and during the cooking process will release a lot of liquid into the dish.
- It is advisable to freeze potatoes in portions.
- It is not advisable to freeze potatoes as whole tubers.
- Potatoes are a specific product for freezing because after defrosting they can change their texture and taste. Some people find it sweetish, crumbly, and grainy, and therefore you should freeze a small amount of potatoes in order to determine for yourself the acceptability of such a preparation. To a greater extent, all these properties depend on the potato variety, which is why you need to conduct a little experiment.
Fruit puree for children: sterilization of jars
I use small jars with twists, from baby food, mustard, etc. At first, the question of sterilizing jars of this size puzzled me. To sterilize them, we had to invent a simple device. In a regular canning lid, I cut a hole suitable for a small jar. All. I put the lid for sterilizing the jars on a pan of boiling water, close the hole with the “super device” I made and put the jar on top. I sterilize each jar for 5 minutes (or less - 2 minutes will be enough). I used to think that in preserves such as juices and purees, sugar was the main preservative. Fortunately, this turned out not to be the case! We close about 10-12 jars of each puree every summer. Apple - a little more. This is quite enough until spring, because... In addition to baby fruit puree, there are frozen berries in the freezer, which also go great on cold winter evenings :).
