Yes, it's that time of year again. It's time to get ready for whatever lame excuse for winter Baltimore has to offer me, time to preserve what the summer has brought.
I did a bit of this and that last year, mostly freezing pesto because it's easy and convenient to drop a gob into sauces, soups, etc and so on. Today I did a crapload more, I really took it to the next level kind of just to see what happens and kind of because I really am interested in putting food by.
Yesterday HN and I harvested carrots from both of our gardens. His had an obnoxious amount, because he is an obnoxious person. Ok, it had tons because he has the patience to let them alone while they grow. My style is more pull one a week while asking them if they are done yet. In the majority of the cases the answer was "No, and now you just wasted me" because if there's one thing I have learned it's that you can't unpick a carrot. Even though it seems perfectly reasonable to me to think so. They just never get over it.
Anyhooo, I did manage to get some carrots to grow to adulthood, by cleverly tricking myself. I took a bunch of carrot seeds at the beginning of the year and hid them in my herb garden, where they were most likely to grow unnoticed by me, and on the times when I did notice them it was because I was in the herb garden, already picking something so I was able to curb the urge. Gaze upon and be in awe of my harvest:
several of them would totally pass for store bought!-shredded a bunch and put them into ice cube trays for freezing. Most popular in rice pilaf, sometimes soup.
-chopped a bunch and froze in bags. V popular in soups, stir fry and the occasional casserole (shepherds pie, chicken pot pie, etc)
-cut up a bunch, cooked them in veggie broth and pureed them. This is carrot soup, just add spices etc. I kept some out and froze some in individual portions. I have a fantasy that I make bread to accompany this with dinner tonight.
Other preserveds include:
Parsley, magic bulleted with water and put into ice cube trays. Good for adding to soup. Thawed and drained can be tossed with veggies (onions and carrots) before baking.
Oregano, parsley, rosemary and basil. Magic bulleted with olive oil, also frozen in ice cube trays. For the making of delicious oven roasted potatoes. Microwave cube until thawed, toss with raw chopped potatoes, bake.
The italian gravy mix: basil and oregano magic bulleted with Olive oil. Drop one or more into sauce when cooking meatballs.
Lemon verbena and mint: Magic bulleted with water and frozen in tray. Add some to water and boil, then strain for tea and add honey. This is the shit for a hangover.
cherry tomatoes (seemingly ridiculous yes, but I grew them and I'm keeping them so fuck off) Magic bulleted and frozen in cups. Good for making delicious indian food, I do not prefer this for sauce.
The ice cube tray thing is the bomb for freezing stuff. It makes it all very manageable and allows one to decide how many to use based on what one is cooking.
I also have been known to employ this tactic for saving leftover wine (on the rare occasions when there is any) to put in soups, sauces, etc and so on. Once everything is frozen I pop it out and either put it in ziploc baggies separated by what the hell it is, or if it looks different enough that I can tell I have a monster bin in the freezer for stuff that goes ok together. I'll root around in there, grab a few of everything and drop all in the pan.
thus spake Kerry
/lesson
2 comments:
I cannot wait for KY. Just today we were talking about the possibility of fruit trees. As I know the secret to growing healthy yielding plant life is to feed, water and otherwise regard it with a seething hatred, my garden will be plentiful. A garden off mayhap?
I hope you can appreciate the effort taken to mock you.
or
I hope you can appeciate the eot taken to mock you.
Ha.
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