Freezing Foods

Cooking for one person is still a bit of a challenge for me, no matter how much I try to size down the recipe I always wind up with too much in leftovers. It is often difficult to find ingredients that are small portions, especially meats and canned foods. Once that can is opened, you're committed to using up the entire contents. After having spent the money for the ingredients, the last thing I want to do is throw food in the trash that has been left too long in the refrigerator. Finding ways to preserve my foods and meals is always on the forefront in my kitchen.

PARSLEY

My first project for this subject is going to break or confirm the suggestions about freezing certain foods for later use. My concentration on this first project will be freezing parsley. I have found many people on the Internet who say you can freeze fresh parsley with very good results for later use by putting the chopped up parsley into ice cube trays, filling with water then freeze. As you need the herb, you just take out as many "parsley cubes" as you need and thaw them and drain/dry the herb. I have a test going as pictured here. Instead of Ice cube trays, I am using the little waxy drink cups. I filled each cup about 1/2 with the curly Parsley and then filled them with water just enough to cover the herb. I pushed the parsley down a bit to release any air bubbles hanging on them. Then I placed them in the freezer. I will leave them for a week or so, then thaw and see just what the results are. Will they be mushy? Brown and wilted? Will they have any flavor? Stay tuned.....

Later in the afternoon I checked on them. The water level had decreased and some of the herb was exposed. I topped off the water level and put them back in the freezer. The color did change, they are a bit darker now.

Now that it has been frozen for more than a week, I took it out and ran a little warm water around the side of the drink cup to release the Parsley "cube".

I let it completely thaw out and then placed the parsley onto some paper towels to drain and dry. It took a long time for the herb to release all of the water, a few hours at least.

Here it is after it dried enough. You can see the comparison to fresh parsley as far as the color. It's dark and dreary as opposed to fresh and green.

The big test was tasting it. It did lose a slight amount of flavor, but overall I was pleased with the result.

I will dry this completely now and chop it up to add to a recipe, but I won't use it as a garnish due to the color reduction. It doesn't look fresh enough.

ORANGES

We had to get these used up or frozen before they went bad. I zested most of them and dried the zest for salads and toppings, then I peeled them and put sections from each orange into ziplock freezer bags. I then used the food saver sealer on them to draw out all of the air and stuck them in the freezer. One week later, I took a bag out and let them thaw and I was quite surprised at how good they tasted. They weren't mushy at all like I expected. We ate them as a side of fruit for breakfast. I have more in the freezer and will check them after a month or so to see long term effects.

Update: We thawed some out after a month in the freezer, and they were watery and the flavor changed. They reminded me of a grapefruit taste. I'm not impressed with long term freezing on these.

CELERY

Word is that you can freeze fresh celery without blanching it first. Either way, once it has been frozen it is not supposed to be as Crisp but can still be used for cooking as there is still all of the flavor.

We'll see in a week....'

The test is complete. They thawed to a very soft texture, however I cooked them with some onions and threw them in a baked recipe and they tasted fine. Definately cannot be used for crispness.

GINGER ROOT

I waste so much ginger, the roots are so big in my local store that I can never seem to use it up before it goes bad. Supposedly, you can freeze it after you've peeled it and grate it as you need it and it will last a month or more. And some say it grates easier being frozen.

I have it here, peeled and placed in a ziplock bag inside a plastic jar.

I'll try some in a week or two. Stay tuned...

I've now used the ginger in recipes on two occasions straight from the freezer to the grater. It tasted great. So, success on this one.

Waffles: I make a large mixture of Bisquick waffle mix, enough to make a couple dozen waffles. I cook up all of the waffles in the waffle maker and let them cool on wire racks. Then I freeze them, 4 per ziplock bag. I take them out as I want them and pop them in the toaster. They taste great and it's a quick on-the-go breakfast.

Rice:

I am freezing two types of cooked rice. Regular long grain rice and Arborio Rice. They have been frozen about a month now.

I'm anxious to see if there is any noticeable change in texture and taste.

Update: I did use the long grain rice for a recipe. There was a slight change in the texture, it seemed a bit "softer", but in no way mushy. I used it in a Mandarin Ham roll recipe with great success!

Update: The Arborio rice didn't fare so well. I used it in a stir fry recipe and it was mushy and clumped. Failure on the freeze test in my opinion

Carrots

Carrots will need to be blanched before freezing. Here's how I prepare them:

First wash and peel the carrots. I peel carrots and other veggies over my cutting board with a plastic grocery bag at the corner to catch the peels. Easy clean up! Then use the bag throughout the day for garbage while preparing your foods.

Chop the carrots into the sizes you want. I have 4 different sizes here, the last is little curly peels that I will save in the fridge for salads and garnish throughout the week.

Now I put each pile separately into the boiling water and let boil for 2- 5 minutes. I found that 3 1/2 minutes was my mark.

Then take them out and immediately put them into a bowl of ice water to cool them down.

Now they go into individual ziplock freezer bags.

I actually cut the ziplock part off of the bags and use my food sealer to seal up the bags well.

If you don't have a bag sealer system, just push out as much air as you can and zip the bag up.

Into the freezer they go. The bowl of carrots on the right corner is for a dinner recipe tonight.

I used up some of the frozen carrots after a couple of weeks. They were soft when they defrosted. I put them in with a baked chicken dish, and they were acceptable. I think I prefer the fresh in the baking though. They did seem to lose a little flavor as well as texture.