You freeze quickly – you get a tasty meal!

The season of fruits and vegetables grown in our area, unfortunately, lasts only a few months. With the help of the refrigerator you can extend this fertile time and enjoy fresh berries and fruits all year round.

The refrigerator – the cellar of the XXI century

In recent years, most practical-minded people look with bewilderment at those who like to make jam for the winter from their own grown berries and fruits. Big jars fill up the cupboards and are forcibly given away to relatives and friends.

In order to use home-made jam, people start baking pies, jam makes them sugary, their appearance is not tempting and they are eaten reluctantly. There has to be some place to jam, so they put it in the porridges and cottage cheese, recklessly trying to get children used to the sweet stuff…

Despite all efforts, many jars remain unused, and migrate to the next fruit and berry season. How much sugar and your work is wasted on this – and for nothing!

If we’re talking about vitamins, then only a fraction of them reaches the finish line after an hour of boiling or sterilizing berries and fruits, as it’s supposed to by the instructions. What has miraculously survived is diluted with huge amounts of sugar syrup, and as a result the content of precious vitamins in a bowl of jam comes close to zero.

But to prepare for the winter time compote sterilized in jars is nonsense in general. Well what normal person would deny himself and his family in order to eat plenty of ripe berries directly from the bush, instead of saving crops for juices, and even spend time, energy, energy, to then store all winter in jars sterilized water and sugar!

After all, the basis of the compote – the usual water. Why boil it, pour it into jars of berries and fruits, sterilize it on the stove or in the oven, seal it hermetically, carefully cool it down to keep it in the house all winter then? For the vitamin content of such compotes, see the paragraph above.

Normal people all over the civilized world have long acted differently. Harvested vegetables, herbs, berries and fruits are best put away for winter storage in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator.

Not spending a single gram of sugar to preserve preserves, rejected by all nutritionists, you can spend the whole winter and “avitaminose” spring to prepare from summer stocks of vitamins and other usefulness kissels, compotes, mousses, marmalades…

After all, frost is a better preservative than sugar. You want compote, kissel, fruit mousse – take the necessary amount of frozen berries out of the freezer and cook them according to recipes for fresh berries see the cookbook .

You get as much fresh, “live” compote or kissel or other berry and fruit treats with the flavors of summer and with a much higher vitamin content than in sterilized compote or in jam!

RULES OF FREEZING SCIENTIFICALLY

Simply packing fresh food and putting it in the freezer is not enough. You have to take care of the right freezing regimen. Otherwise defrosted berries will look more like kissel and less appetizing and vegetables will float in a puddle of their own juice.

All of this can be avoided if you freeze your stock the right way. Modern refrigerators have a special function super-freezing, which allows you to improve the preservation of food.

Here are the rules. To be successful in the case, it is necessary to create conditions for fruits and vegetables to freeze as quickly as possible. Even the freezing temperature is not as important as how quickly the temperature changes from positive to negative. Slow freezing will produce fairly large ice crystals from the moisture in the food.

These crystals, gradually increasing in size, tear the membranes of the plant cells. That’s why, for example, when thawing improperly frozen berries, they will float in the juice of ice-cracked cells. And the appearance is deplorable, and the taste of berries will be changed, and the flavor will disappear altogether.

How to avoid it? Freeze food in the freezer a little at a time. Each next portion to load only when the previous one is frozen. Otherwise if you load a lot of food at once having a room temperature, it will first raise the temperature in the chamber and it will take a lot of time for the frost to set in. Temperature jumps are also harmful for the food, which at this time is already stored in the freezer. That’s if you don’t use the super-freezing mode.

In order to cross the line between “plus” and “minus” as quickly as possible the majority of modern refrigerators have a special key with the lettering “Super” or “S” on the control panel. This is a super freezer key, and using it by the rules, you can load a lot of food into the freezer compartment at once.

Pressing this button activates the mode in which the cooling system operates at full power and the temperature is reduced to 24-26 degrees Celsius. The super-freezing mode allows food to freeze very quickly in large quantities.

Thus, if you are planning to make big preserves and are going to load 5 to 20 kg of fresh food for long-term storage in the freezing chamber, you should turn on the super-freezing button 24 hours before the loading. This will accumulate enough cold reserve in the freezer. It is quite possible to foresee in advance such a big amount of food to be frozen, because a large amount of food does not just drop out of the sky, you have to collect or buy it. And do not forget to press the Super key beforehand.

If you are going to freeze 2 to 5 kg of fresh food, turn on the super-freezer button 4 hours before loading.

And if you need to freeze up to two kilos of fresh food the S button can be left on, the capacity of modern refrigerators is quite enough to freeze this volume quickly in the normal mode.

The same rules are valid for freezing meat, fish and poultry.

But it is advisable not to keep the super-freezing mode on for more than a day in a row.

You can print out a sign like this and stick it on the inside of the freezer compartment door.

So, what’s in the dry leftovers?

• To ensure that frozen foods retain their flavour for a long time, you need to follow some rules when handling them.
• Store-bought meat should be washed with cold water, remove inedible parts, lay on a dry towel and dry at room temperature. After that they should be packed in small portions, carefully packed and only then put into the freezer.
• Fruits, vegetables and berries that you intend to freeze should be hard, unspoiled.
• Fish can be frozen whole or in portions, pre-cleaned and gutted. The same way you can prepare chicken or game for freezing. Of course, frozen meat and fish must be fresh. It is recommended to remove the fat, bones and sinews and then cut the pieces into small portions. Do not dry meat and fish products more than 15 minutes.
• Often hostesses cook for a long time, and in this case a part of the finished dish can be frozen for several days. If you want to do the same, you should not salt and pepper the food very much during cooking. Spices and aromatic herbs in the freezer produce a strong flavor and aroma.

THE AMOUNT OF FOOD TO BE FROZEN

Pre-activate the super-freezer button

From 5 to 20 kg: turn it on 24 hours before freezing

From 2 to 5 kg: in 4 hours

Up to 2 kg: you don’t need to use the super-freezing function

If you follow these rules, you will be more than satisfied with your seasonal produce!

Cherry Winter

Strawberries, raspberries, black and red currants, blueberries, gooseberries, plums, apricots… Fast frozen, they are very good in winter. First, it is better to freeze them without packaging, laying them out in thin layers.

The freezing compartment of modern refrigerators usually has a low but spacious shelf where they freeze ice cubes in tubs or store ice accumulators. Spread berries in a single layer on a flat tray.

If your fridge does not have such a shelf, you can put the berries on a tray or a flat large plate and put them in the freezer.

Berries frozen in one layer look fresh and natural. They are carefully poured into plastic bags and kept at least until spring.

Frozen strawberries, strawberries will taste better if they are poured over with sugar when placed in bags. Slices of apples and pears, quickly frozen on a dish, pour into bags and cool liquid sugar syrup 3/4 cup of sugar per cup of water . Plums, apricots cut in half and remove pips before freezing.

And what prevents you from cooking in high season and freezing in the same way first spread in the freezer compartment in a single layer, and then put into a bag dumplings with cherries?

And in order to keep in the freezer as much as possible such summer and fall berry preserves, one should take care of their compact packing. It is good to use for this purpose rectangular plastic containers of the same size with lids – they are tightly, without gaps, lie to each other. These containers are widely available in stores, but you can save a little on quantity by using them to shape them into plastic bags for convenient storage.

Place each bag, where the frozen berries are already poured over, in a rectangular plastic container and place in the freezer compartment. When the contents of the bag have frozen into a rectangular shape, the container can be released for reuse as a freezer mold. The rectangular packages obtained with that are placed in the freezing chamber compactly enough.

Greens are sometimes best frozen!

Almost all vegetables, except for those with high percentage of moisture these are green onions, zucchini, passerines, eggplant, tomatoes, sweet peppers, celery , can be successfully frozen. Blanch the vegetables, prepared for freezing, i.e. keep them in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. This operation destroys enzymes substances contained in vegetables that accelerate spoilage .

Sorrel leaves can be frozen in the freezer compartment. Chop the rinsed leaves coarsely and blanch them in a colander for a few seconds. Allow the water to drain and place in jars or plastic containers for freezing. When they have cooled completely, load them gradually, one or two packages at a time, into the freezer. This method is also suitable for stocking cauliflower, string beans, roots of spicy plants.

Quick-frozen greens – dill, parsley, celery – retain their aroma, flavor and color better than other methods of preparation drying, pickling . Wrap the fresh herbs in small bundles for one-time use in foil or polyethylene, tie them tightly or put a rubber band around and put them away in the freezer compartment.

In the winter, you’ll unpack these green columns, chop them finely crosswise, and add them to first and second courses and salads. You’ll find that the flavor and aroma of these frozen winter preserves is just as good as fresh herbs.

Rhubarb is surprisingly good in compotes and pies. You can stock up on this rare delicacy in early summer, before its stems are coarse and have lost most of their vitamins. It is enough to cut the washed leaf petioles into 2-3 cm pieces, put them in plastic bags, cool them down and pour some of the sugar syrup over them. You can freeze rhubarb without syrup.

These methods of preparation are good because they retain vitamins better than jam, and require little or no sugar.

And how, for example, would you look at the opportunity to enjoy in the midst of winter fresh mushrooms? This is easy to do with a fridge. At the height of the mushroom season, select the best, strongest, healthiest mushrooms and boil them in salted water. Rinse in a colander, cool, dry, and pack tightly for freezing in single portions in sturdy plastic bags or appropriately sized plastic containers.

When necessary, it will be enough to defrost the mushrooms and fry, make a fragrant mushroom soup or mushroom caviar. The same casseroles make real home-made lightly-salted mushrooms in a day or two. Here’s a proven recipe for winter salted home mushrooms, which my family and friends have been raving about for years.

Defrost the mushrooms let them stand for a few hours at room temperature or use the microwave oven . Prepare hot brine: for 1 kilogram of prepared mushrooms take half a glass of water and add 2 tablespoons of salt without topping. In a brine for porcini, aspen mushrooms, may be added a pinch of sugar. When the water boils, put the mushrooms in the brine.

Carefully remove the foam formed during boiling. Now add spices: 1 bay leaf, 3 black peppercorns, 3 cloves, 1-2 dried black currant leaves if there are any per 1 kg of mushrooms. Do not overdo with the amount of spices, their excess causes bitterness.

Mushrooms are ready when they begin to settle to the bottom, and the brine is transparent. Mushrooms in brine cool in a wide bowl, after which they are transferred together with the brine into jars. There should be no more than one-fifth of the rhubarb to the weight of the mushrooms.

Add 2-3 peeled cloves of garlic to each jar, cover with ordinary, non-hermetic lids and leave at room temperature for a day. Then put the jars in the refrigerator. After 2-3-4 days depending on your impatience , the mushrooms can be served to the table, seasoned with vegetable oil, dill which we also froze for the winter , and half-circle chopped onions.

If you want to dry them out, freeze them first

And the refrigerator can also prepare fruits and vegetables for efficient, high-quality, quick drying and subsequent storage at room temperature!

What does this have to do with your refrigerator?? We have already established that slow freezing, when large ice crystals form inside the fruit, is wrong. And our food industry specialists have developed a method of storing fruits and vegetables, in which, on the contrary, it is necessary to specially achieve the formation of large ice crystals in their cells.

Vegetables and fruits destined for drying should first be frozen in the refrigerator and conditions should be created so that freezing takes place slowly. If such “barbarically” frozen fruits and vegetables are then immediately subjected to drying, they are of much better quality than traditionally dried. And it takes 30-35% less time and energy to dry your food.

What is the secret?? And in those very large ice crystals. They have so torn the cell walls of the plant tissues that there is like a multitude of deep capillary passages in them. They allow moisture to escape and evaporate much more quickly. Dried vegetables and fruits become light, porous. At the same time, they quickly regain their former shape and appearance when put in a compote or soup.

This refrigerator drying method is used in the food industry. Why not try it at home?? Wash and peel the fruits and vegetables to be dried, cut into wedges, blanch and cool. Load as much of the raw material as possible at the same time and set the thermostat to one of the first or middle sections. Then freezing will go quite slowly. You can take the frozen pieces of food out of the fridge and immediately start drying them in the normal way: on racks on the hotplate or on strings or rods in front of the fan-coil.

Dried eggplants, for example, are very good. Simply cut the fruit into one and a half to two centimetre thick slices, freeze in the freezer and then freeze to dry. Store, of course, without refrigeration, threaded like mushrooms. Great vegetable stews for winter.

Mushrooms also dry quite well in this way.

Make borscht in the fridge

Handy food processors, vegetable slicers, and mechanical potato peelers often stand idle in our homes. After all, to cook borscht for an average family, you just need to peel and chop one onion, a couple of carrots, four potatoes, half a beet and a third of a cabbage pot.

Is it worth using a food processor or vegetable slicer for such a small thing?? And then you have to wash all this equipment, put it out to dry, and put it back together again. This is longer and more troublesome than doing it by hand! That’s why excellent kitchen equipment, designed to save our time and efforts, stands idle.

Yet kitchen appliances can work very efficiently if you enlist the help of your refrigerator.

Try this. With the help of kitchen equipment we peel and shred 1 kg of beet, 1,5 kg of potatoes, 1,5 kg of cabbage, 350 g of carrots, 250 g of onions, 50 g of parsley root, 25 g of herbs.

Our technique requires even less time than preparing the vegetables for one pot of borscht. Prepared vegetables should be blanched, i.e. after putting each kind of vegetable in a colander, let it stand in boiling water for 2-3 minutes.

Now divide the vegetables into portions for cooking one pot of borscht and put them in bags or plastic containers.

Without closing the packages, cool the contents in the air, then close and put them in the freezer compartment.

Now the family is provided with semi-finished products for cooking borsch for several times, although no more time is spent than for cooking one pot of borsch.

For the same reason it is more convenient to prepare a lot of dough at once with a dough mixer, food processor or mixer and store it frozen, dividing it into single portions.

Experience shows that freezing only makes the dough better. At any rate, making baked goods from frozen dough has long been patented in the baking industry.

And the taste of deep-fried and then frozen cutlets is no worse here you can let the electric meat grinder do a good job . Then reheat a few patties in the microwave, in the oven, or on the stovetop – a minute’s work.

Dumplings are an old folk tradition – you can bake a lot of them in great quantities during the freezing season. Modern machines like an electric meat mincer or a pelmeni maker can speed up your work here as well. And you can preserve them at any time of the year. Thanks to the refrigerator.

Cold saves flowers and batteries

Electric batteries bought as a supply will get an extra shelf life if stored in the refrigerator. But before you put them to work, let them warm up to room temperature. In a refrigerated battery, the electrolytic reactions slow down, and you may at first think that the batteries “don’t last”.

If you want to give flowers a longer life, wrap them in cold-water dampened paper and put them in a large plastic bag. Keep it in the vegetable compartment for at least a few days. Put flowers in a vase during the day and “overnight” in the refrigerator.

You can do the same with bought flowers or vegetables sprouts, until you have chosen the time to plant them. There is no need to put it in a vase during the day…

Tip for the road

• 

  Fatty or salty foods with lots of seasoning tend to have a shorter shelf life in the refrigerator than lean foods without seasoning. Don’t salt and season your food until just before you serve it.

• To defrost frozen foods more quickly when you need them, put them in the freezer in bite-sized portions.
• Pack frozen foods in flat packs, then they will both freeze and defrost faster.
• Foods placed in the freezer to freeze should not come into contact with those already frozen.