Last week, we had friends from overseas stay with us, and being in Singapore, we always take our visitors on a food feast - roti prata, chow kwai teow, fish soup, laksa, bak ku teh, chilli crab, fish head curry ..... and the list goes on. Our visitors will never go hungry! On this occasion I forgot my friends were coming over and bought too many groceries for the week ie. BAD PLANNING. So, the meat and fish went into the freezer, but with the vegetables ... did you know you can actually freeze them instead of throwing them into the bin?
DIY Frozen Vegetables
Before you put your vegetables into the freezer, they need be pre-cooked, but how long do you cook them for? I had no idea until I came across this extremely useful document on the web. It is a home guide from CPMA (Canadian Produce Marketing Association) on how to freeze fresh vegetables.
I tried to follow it as closely as I could. Here's what I got.
Getting Started
Vegetables I had: cauliflower, zucchini and Chinese cabbage
Large pot of boiling water (have this ready only when you have finished prepping the vegetables
Ladle - a metal one is best
Ice bath in large pot (have this ready only after the prep work)
Strainer
Clean towels [the guide recommends a salad spinner, but I don't have one]
Containers for storage
Prepping
I shredded the cabbage, cut the cauliflower into 1inch pieces and cubed the zucchini.
Blanching
When the water was bubbling like hot lava, I put the vegetables into the pot and started the timer according to the guide.
Shredded cabbage - 1min
Cauliflower - 3 min
Zucchini - 2 min
Remember you are blanching them quickly but not for too long that the vegetables are thoroughly or overcooked. The point of blanching is to destroy the vegetables' enzymes which are capable of altering the colour, texture and flavour of the vegetables.
Note: A metal ladle will be very good in weighing down your vegetables in the pot once they are in the boiling water. It helps to blanch them all evenly.
Chilling
Once time was up, the vegetables were plunged into the ice bath to stop the cooking process.
I left the vegetables there for about 2 min before putting them in a strainer, and even used a clean kitchen towel to shake off excess water!
Freezing
The chilled vegetables were placed into containers before freezing. I actually turned the containers upside down with the lid slightly open so I could get rid of any excess water that I had missed. If the vegetables are too wet, freezing will cause them to stick together and this can be a problem if you want only a small portion to cook with. I suggest separating the vegetables into portions before freezing.
Cooking with Your Frozen Vegetables
So far, I have used the zucchini in my tomato spaghetti sauce, and cauliflower in a chickpea curry. No defrosting was needed, and because they were blanched, the cooking time was significantly reduced vis-a-vis using fresh vegetables. Hubby has given the thumbs up too. Phew!
Have you tried freezing your own vegetables? What tips do you have?