by Cynthia Graber
I've been freezing. Alas, that does also refer to an unwelcome drop in temperature, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I've been on a freezing spree. I'm trying to grab a hold of as much flavor as I can, and capture it for the cold months ahead.
But I've been trying to figure out how to do this and still eat foods that I, well, want to eat. I don't particularly like frozen vegetables. And I found out why when a friend called me with a burning - er, freezing - question this summer. Her garden was overflowing. Was there a correct way to freeze? Which vegetables froze better than others? I told her to first blanch vegetables she wanted to freeze in boiling water until barely cooked, still crisp, then quickly cool them down in an ice bath. Then dry and freeze.
I directed her to Mark Bittman's excellent article on freezing from the New York Times. But, journalist that I am, I didn't stop there. I figured Harold McGee must have something to say on the subject, so I turned to the trusted On Food and Cooking.
Of course McGee had something to say about freezing. In the book, he explained that ice crystals form and puncture the cell walls of fruits and vegetables. Basically, that's why frozen food gets mushy. He said commercial freezers can drop temperatures so rapidly that the resulting ice crystals are smaller and do less damage, so vegetables stay crisper. The crystals that form in our home freezers are bigger and scarier to those fragile cell walls.
Finally, I understood why I've been so reluctant to freeze my own. See, I prefer vegetables with a serious bite. I can't tolerate green beans unless they're barely kissed with heat. Limp broccoli? Forget it.
I know this about myself. But I also want to freeze more from the markets to hoard for the cold snap ahead. So what foods am I willing to eat at a less than ideal crunch?
That lead to one easy answer: greens, particularly kale. Kale is supposed to be cooked until that cell wall is broken down, ridding it of an overly chewy texture. And kale is sturdier than spinach, so it retains some texture even when frozen.
I'm traveling a lot these days, so I've taken the days I'm home and gone on a mad greens freezing frenzy. Just last week, I froze five bunches of kale and one bunch of chard. I also considered other mushy foods, and so I made a huge batch of the roasted eggplant, summer squash, tomato, and garlic dish I wrote about earlier. I put that into two freezer bags, pressed out the air, and zipped shut. I also froze a batch of roasted tomatoes, though as you all know, tomatoes weren't quite as plentiful this season as last.
One note: don't forget to label and date your bags. That way you won't be staring at some lump, thinking, "What is this? And just how long has it been sitting there?"
There are a few weeks until the markets disappear. What foods do you enjoy even when they're not perfectly crisp? Blanch, bag, and freeze. I'm going to do that as much as I can in the brief time I'm home this month. Even if I freeze twenty bags of kale, though, they'll probably only last me through, oh, January. Maybe I should start this process earlier next year.
To freeze kale:
- Heat up a pot of water until boiling.
- As it heats, tear kale leaves off the stems and wash in a colander.
- When the water is rapidly boiling, drop the kale in and press down with a spoon, so all leaves are covered with boiling water. Boil for a minute or two until the leaves wilt.
- Remove the kale with a slotted spoon, drop in a colander, and run cold over on top. When it's cool enough to handle, squeeze out excess water.
- (Leave the water boiling if you have other bathes to blanch, because you can reuse the water many times.)
- Put the greens in a lockable plastic freezer bag. Press out as much air as possible to prevent freezer-burn. Many of the bags have places to write with a marker, so I just write directly on the bag.
- Drop the next batch of kale into the water and start all over again.
Photo courtesy of stevendepelo on Flickr Creative Commons.
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