It's harvest time!!!!! Now I'm a summer girl, which is why I haven't posted in months but I just love the end of summer and beginning of fall for one reason, Harvest!!! Seeing all my hard work in these beautiful lovlies, knowing all the watering, weed pulling, fertilizing and nurturing has been worth it. Now the problem is I live alone and cook for one, sometimes I cook alot and have leftovers if I know it's gonna be a rough week. So there is no way I can consume everything fresh so I can, vacuum seal, freeze and dehydrate! So I've done a few blogs on dehydrating so let's talk about freezing!
Supplies:
Vegetables of your choice, I'm using Okra in this instance. These were given to me by a co-worker!
Pot and bowls
Cutting board and knife
White vinegar or veggie cleaning product
Freezer bags, I use Ziplock gallon freezer bags
Ingredients to bread (if you choose too). You can freeze them whole or I like to pre-bread mine. I'm already doing most of the work now, might as well save time later! I use a combo of gluten free "flour", cornstarch, my pepper powder (there's a blog post on that too) and spices. I don't use salt but you can use whatever you like according to your tastes and any dietary restrictions or allergies.
Baking sheets
Water/Ice
Collander
Directions
So first we wash the okra (or whatever you're using). I use equal(ish) parts white vinegar and water. I never measure anything in cooking (sewing I HAVE to) so I just dump water and white vinegar in a bowl and wash then let soak for a few minutes. This removes any bugs, wax (if store bought), chemicals, bacteria, etc.
Now cut the ends off. The best way to do this is to cut right on the line under the stem. Make sure you don't see any holes or seeds. In the dozen or so I cut too far into just went into supper which was a veggie gumbo . Here's an example of good and bad.
So throw them in a pot of boiling water for roughly 3 minutes then throw in an ice bath. This stops the cooking process and keeps them from getting too limp.
Dry them off and then bread them.
Put them on a baking sheet, careful not to overlap them and flash freeze. I do about 15 minutes. This will ensure that when you put them in freezer bags they don't all clump together! I do this in stages. While one batch is freezing I'm either cutting or breading another batch. I am limited on space so I kinda make an assembly line of sorts.
Throw in a bag and freeze! I put enough in each bag for a meal and since there's only one of me I have lots of bags. This way I only use what I'll eat so no waste!!
Side note: I wash my bags (gently) and reuse them. The same bags I've been reusing for FOREVER! I just make sure they don't leak!
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