I started by freezing berries to use in smoothies. I was having to buy fresh berries regularly because I only want a few for a morning smoothie, and I wouldn't be able to use them fast enough. Seriously, freezing them is the way forward. This also means that I don't have to use ice to cool down said smoothie! Win win!
So I have compiled this handy list of things that you never really thought you could freeze, but definitely can, and it will revolutionise your life. A few of these I did pick up from my FMIL but mostly I just chucked things in the freezer to see what happened.
Cheese
Yes that's right, you can freeze cheese. Cheese falls into that category of stuff that I can bulk buy but was always scared to because I wouldn't want it to go off before I had a chance to use it. Since having discovered that you can freeze it, I have been stocking cheese like a pro! My tip is to grate it and then freeze it, if you freeze it whole, it tends to crumble when you defrost it. I have a grater in my food processor so I can grate whole blocks at a time. I then store it in 100g portions in little sandwich bags and use the frozen stuff straight into lasagnes, sauces, pizzas etc and you don't have to worry about defrosting it first because it's going to be cooked anyway. Seriously, revolutionary.
Bread Crumbs
(FYI, you can also freeze bread too). I use bread crumbs a lot. I like to make my own home made chicken kievs and breaded prawns. I like to put bread crumbs on top of macaroni cheese and pasta bakes too to make them crunchy. Like a noob, I always whizzed up bread crumbs as and when I needed them. I now do this in bulk. I buy a loaf of bread purely to use as bread crumbs, whizz the whole thing up in the food processor and then store in small portions similar to how I store the cheese. I can then take it out the freezer as and when I need it.
Milk
Now I know what you're thinking, I wasn't sure about this one either. But now we always keep a bottle of milk in the freezer. For us it's more out of necessity. You see, we live in the middle of nowhere and it's easy to get cut off during snowy winter periods. To prevent my family and I from starving, I keep a bunch of stuff in an emergency cupboard and a bottle of milk in the freezer. Be sure to open the lid and let a little milk out of the bottle before you freeze it so that the milk doesn't expand and split the bottle. To defrost, just simply leave to stand at room temperature and shake every so often. Simples
Wine
Now, hear me out on this one before you all shout sacrilege at me. Sometimes I have, say, a quarter of a bottle of wine left that I want to use for cooking but won't use all of it. So I did some research...and guess what. You can freeze it! What I do is freeze it in an ice cube tray, that way it's in handy little portions so that when I need to chuck it in a sauce or some bolognese, I can just take what I need! Genius! Freezing does not affect the quality of the wine at all so nothing is compromised.
Herbs
If you follow me on instagram, you'll see pictures of my herb corner posted regularly. I love cooking with herbs! Especially home grown ones! To keep herbs healthy, they need cutting back regularly. While I do use herbs in cooking regularly, with only two of us, it's not enough just to trim a bit for the pot every day. They sometimes need a good hack back. Sometimes I will dry them. This is fine and they make great christmas presents. Sometimes though, you just need to fresh herbs for a recipe. So when I've given my herb plants a good trim, I will freeze them. I bunch them together in sandwich bags and stick them in the freezer as is. It's really simple. I have seen an interesting trick, although I haven't tried it myself, where you chop them up, mix with water and put them in ice cube trays to create handy, cook sized portions. Sounds like a good idea to me!
Garlic
Ordinarily, garlic doesn't last long enough in my house to need freezing. I put garlic in, quite literally, all my cooking. I love the stuff. To the point now where I think I'm becoming a bit immune to it and need to add about 7 cloves to a dish before I can even taste it. However, this being said, last year I did grow a bumper crop of garlic. I had 32 heads that needed storing somehow. They will store dry, but only for so long. To ensure that none of this lush stuff went to waste, I split the heads down into cloves and froze them in tupperware pots. I didn't peel the cloves, although you can if you like. Nothing was compromised, all went into cooking perfectly well. I recommend it!
Pizza Dough
This is one of my most useful things to freeze. Rick and I both LOVE homemade pizza. But making your own dough in the evenings after a day at work can be a bit tiresome. So I always have some pizza dough in the freezer ready to defrost at a moment's notice. When you make your pizza dough, make sure it has risen fully before you put it in the freezer (otherwise it continues to expand and does crazy things). I wrap individual portions of dough tightly in clingfilm or in sandwich bags and freeze that way. Allow to defrost at room temperature for 2-3 hours. An alternative method is to roll the dough out, and part cook it before freezing. Either way, it means that you can simply take the dough out to defrost in the morning, and by the evening you just need to chuck on some tomato sauce and some cheese and you're away! Which brings me on to my next tip...
Tomato Sauce
When I had a wonderful glut of tomatoes last year, I made a lot of tomato sauce. This sauce is great for pizza and for pasta too. It doesn't tend to keep terribly well though if you just keep it in jars. So what did I do? Yep! Freeze it! I literally just put a bunch of it into plastic tubs and whacked it in the freezer. I didn't manage to grow any tomatoes this year so I won't have any home made tomato sauce...booo!
Chicken Stock
Yes, I have many, many pots of frozen chicken stock in my freezer. I love the stuff! Whenever I make a roast chicken, I will always slow cook the carcass afterwards and make a good stock out of it. We all know that stock can be used for all sorts of things such as soups, sauces, risotto, cous cous, gravies and so many more things. I just put it in tupperware tubs and freeze it in stacks. Something else it's also good for is during the hot summer months, we'll break a little chunk off and give it to Bosun to play with to cool down. He loves it. I don't add salt to my stock to it's ok for him.
So I know now that you're wondering just how big my freezer is...well I have a very large chest freezer! And also a mini freezer for Bosun's food. But I am very happy in the knowledge that I have a big big big stock of food in our freezer in case we should ever get cut off for whatever reason!
Do you have any tips on freezing weird and wonderful food?
Some great ideas here Ellie. I always have some milk frozen in addition to the dried milk powder in my store cupboard. Do be careful with your bread dough if you keep it unbaked for very long as freezing does not kill yeast but simply slows down its metabolism. I always part-bake my doughs(she lied). I love reading your blogs; they are so varied.
ReplyDeleteGood tip! Thankyou!
DeleteMy house mate at uni used to freeze cheese.
ReplyDeleteI have heard of freezing wine in an ice cube tray to literally use as ice cubes in wine that hasn't been refrigerated. As for berries, I tend to just buy frozen ones because they're so much cheaper than fresh here!
Ooooh I hadn't even thought of that! What a good idea!
DeleteI've heard of most of these, great that you can do this! I froze stacks of peppers and tomatoes before we went away as didnr have time to use them.x
ReplyDeleteAlso a fantastic way to use the freezer! Shove all your stuff in there before you go away!
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