Preserving Summer

Blanch your corn before freezing. Please.

The last few weeks I’ve been hurrying to, as my mother says, "put up" as much of the wonderful summer vegetables and fruits as possible. I get very sad once the garden begins to die out but surveying my freezer full of home grown vegetables and the lined up jars of tomatoes, pickles and jams, gives me an incredible sense of achievement. I can’t wait to show it off to guests. Look what I did on my summer vacation!

I am planning on making a good deal of jams and chutneys and a great spicy chow chow I’ve been working on that might even please Indian cook book author Madhur Jaffrey herself (recipes to come in a future post). But mostly I have been busy doing some "speed freezing" of beans, corn, and a few other vegetables.

When I hear someone say they freeze their corn without cooking it first, though, I wince. There are reasons why home economists insist on the blanching of vegetables before freezing. It stops the degradation caused by enzymes that will create a nasty rotten flavor in certain foods. Corn is one of them.

There are a few things you can freeze without preparation and that’s seeded and sliced or chopped peppers (sweet and hot), and peeled and chopped onions. These should keep up to 6 months with not much problems. You can also freeze small whole tomatoes but as their texture suffers when freezing, they’re really best used in soups or stews.

Berries –raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries — can be frozen whole without preparation. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with waxed or parchment paper and freeze them in a single layer. When frozen solid (I’d do it overnight) transfer to self-sealing freezer bags or plastic freezer containers. You can also freeze fresh peach slices by arranging them in a single layer on a lined cookie sheet, but you need to bruch the slices with with lemon juice and sprinkle with sugar to prevent them from browning. Once frozen transfer to freezer bags.

For vegetables, follow the cooking times recommended by the Missouri State extension agency, below.

Happy freezing!

http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/hesguide/foodnut/gh1503.htm

Here are a few blanching times for vegetables you may need over the next few weeks. The times listed are for blanching in boiling water. After blanching transfer the vegetables immediately into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Drain and pat dry with paper towels before transferring to freezer bags — make sure you use heavier freezer bags and not food storage bags — or plastic freezer storage containers.

 * Green Beans, 3 minutes
 * Broccoli, chopped or stalks, 3 minutes
 * Beets, small, 25-30 minutes; medium, 45-50 minutes
 * Brussels Sprouts, small, 3 minutes; medium, 4 minutes; large, 5 minutes
 * Carrots, tiny, whole, 5 minutes; diced or strips, 2 minutes
 * Cauliflower, 3 minutes
 * Corn on the cob to freeze on the ear, small ears, 7 minutes; medium ears 9 minutes; large ears 11 minutes
 * Corn on the cob to cut for whole kernel corn, 4 minutes-cool and cut from ear.
 * Corn on the cob to cut for cream style corn, 4 minutes-cool and cut from ear, scraping the cobs.
 * Greens like spinach, 2 minutes
 * Shelled Peas, 1 1/2 minutes
 * Snow or Sugar Snap Peas, 2-3 minutes
 * Summer Squash like zucchini, slices or chunks, 3 minutes; grated, 1-2 minutes.