Posted by Janet Harriett on Jul.29, 2009

ⓒ iStockPhoto - tforgo

Whether you have a garden, shop the farmer’s markets or get a weekly CSA box, this is the season when fresh vegetables abound. Home food preservation helps you enjoy that bounty well after the season ends. In this series, I will discuss freezing, dehydrating and canning as methods of home food preservation.

Freezing is the easiest way to preserve produce, and provides the best approximation of the fresh-produce taste at serving time, although frozen produce will be softer than fresh and best suited for cooked dishes, smoothies or other applications where texture isn’t an issue. Berries and grapes are exceptions, which make great snacks served frozen or slightly thawed.

You probably already have everything you need to start freezing your vegetables and fruits: a freezer, a large saucepan and freezer-safe containers such as tupperware or zip-top freezer bag. To store the occasional CSA box overflow for a few weeks, your side-by-side freezer will do fine. If you are going to freeze garden or farmer’s market produce on a large scale to eat seasonally out of season, the freezer attached to your fridge is going to prove inadequate quickly. A chest or upright freezer is essential for large-scale food preservation by freezing. Chest freezers are more energy efficient, since the cold stays in when you open the lid, but upright freezers are easier to organize.

Easy One-Step Freezing

Freezing peppers, onions, tomatoes and berries is as easy as cutting them up and putting them in freezer containers. Tomatoes peel easier after freezing, and can be added to soups, stews and sauces. Blueberries shouldn’t even be washed before freezing, since the moisture toughens the berry skins.

Blanching Vegetables Before Freezing

Most vegetables need to be blanched first by cooking the vegetables very briefly in boiling water. When preparing vegetables for immediate consumption, you would want to preserve all the vital enzymes and vitamins, but preservation is another matter. Some enzymes promote deterioration in the vegetables, and those need to be deactivated through brief cooking to maintain the overall quality of the produce in long-term freezer storage.

To blanch vegetables, bring 1 gallon of water per pound of vegetables to a boil. For large amounts of vegetables, a wire blanching basket is handy, but a large slotted spoon will do for small batches. When the water is boiling, add the vegetables and boil briefly. Different vegetables require different lengths of time in the blanching water. At the end of the blanching time, remove the vegetables and plunge them into icewater to stop the cooking process. For a full list of vegetables and blanching times, check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation.  Some foods that have blanching times listed may freeze fine without blanching. I find summer squash, peppers, celery and spinach keep well enough for several months without blanching, but green beans, carrots and edible-pod peas deteriorate noticeably.

Some of the nutrients come out in blanching.  To save the nutrients that leech out but aren’t destroyed by the heat, use the blanching water to make vegetable broth. Alternatively, you can feed used blanching water, cooled, to potted plants.

Packing and Freezing

For meal-sized portions, simply pack the prepared produce into freezer containers and place in the freezer until frozen solid. You use zip-top freezer bags, vacuum sealing bags (like Seal-a-Meal or Foodsaver), or rigid containers with tight-fitting lids. Anything that provides a moisture-proof barrier will preserve your frozen produce. Glass jars can break. Always leave headspace in rigid containers and some slack in bags to accommodate expanding food and liquid.

Tray freezing, also called Individually Quick Freezing, is great if you are only going to need a handful of a vegetable at a time and want to store a quantity in a larger container in the freezer. To tray freeze, line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Arrange the vegetable pieces on the cookie sheet so they are not touching one another.  Freeze 1-2 hours on the tray, until the pieces are frozen.  Remove the pieces from the tray and pack into containers for long-term freezer storage.

Always label your frozen produce. When frozen, many vegetables and fruits look alike. While mixing up frozen spinach and frozen kale might not be much of a problem, you don’t want to confuse tomato sauce and hot sauce, or applesauce and roasted yellow tomatoes. Trying to remember what kind of puree you froze six months prior can be tricky.

Freezing Fruit

Fruit doesn’t need to be blanched. You can just cut up and freeze the fruit for smoothies or desserts. You can freeze fruit sweetened or unsweetened. Sugar prevents a bit of discoloration, but is primarily for flavor and to help maintain the texture of some fruits. It doesn’t extend the storage life. Pears and other firm fruits can benefit from being frozen suspended in liquid, either a sugar syrup, unsweetened fruit juice or water. Berries and other fruits eaten whole can be packed as-is. Freeze cherries pitted or unpitted, but label the container to ensure you don’t bite down on a pit.

Freezing Herbs

You can even freeze herbs. Broad-leafed herbs like basil can be frozen by the individual leaf. You can also blend the herb with just enough olive oil to make a puree and freeze flat in bags, where you can break off pieces for recipes as needed. Another popular method of freezing herbs is to pack chopped herbs into the sections of an ice cube tray and cover with water, vinegar, lemon juice or lime juice depending on the herb and the intended use. Frozen herb cubes are stored in zip-top bags and added to soups and sauces whole, without defrosting. Use a dedicated tray for herbs unless you want your drinks tasting like cilantro.

Recipe: Quick Frozen Apple Crisp

Freezing the apples fresh and raw, then cooking from frozen, gives this the fresh apple crisp texture no canned filling can match!

Ingredients:
6 cups thinly sliced cored apples (peeled or unpeeled)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
pinch ground clove

Sprinkle the apple slices with the lemon juice to prevent browning. Toss the apples with the spices until coated. Line an 8×8 baking dish with plastic wrap, extending at least 6 inches over either side. Pour the fruit filling into the plastic wrap-lined dish and spread evenly. Fold the edges of the plastic wrap over the top of the filling. Freeze 4 hours or until solid.

When the fruit filling is frozen, remove the filling from the baking dish and wrap in freezer paper or heavy-duty aluminum foil. Label and date.

To bake the crisp, unwrap and place the frozen filling in an 8×8 baking dish. Combine 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (not instant), 1/4 cup honey, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons flax seeds. Sprinkle the oat mixture over the apples and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until the topping is toasted and the apples are warmed through.

Recipe: Watermelon Slush

Ingredient:
1 Watermelon, seeded and cut up

Puree the watermelon in a blender until smooth. Freeze in 1 quart portions using quart freezer bags. Label the bags before filling and freeze laying flat on a cookie sheet.

To make the slush, remove a quart container of frozen puree from the freezer and thaw just until you can break it into chunks. Break up the frozen puree into chunks. In a blender, process the chunks and frozen liquid watermelon until it is smooth but not melted (the consistency of a slurpy). Add a dash of key lime juice to enhance the watermelon flavor.  Serve immediately. One quart of puree makes 2 adult servings or 4 child-size snacks.

Share

Posted under Cooking Healthy, Food, Nutrition & Recipes, Organic Garden.