Putting Food By - Janet Greene [126]
Prepared gelatins tend to lose color and get uneven in texture, but they are fine if they are used merely as layers to hold the other ingredients in shape.
Fresh pineapple contains an enzyme that prevents a gel, so it may not be one of the fruits used in a fruit-salad mold.
Frozen gelatin salads keep for only 2 weeks in the freezer; then they start to lose quality.
They may be served still nearly frozen on a bed of lettuce. Or they can start thawing for 1 hour before being served.
Whipped cream, whipped softened cream cheese, whipped cottage cheese, a little mayonnaise, sour cream—these all combine well in a gelatin salad to be frozen.
Canned fruit salad, mixed cooked vegetables, flaked fish, even minced leftover chicken or turkey make tasty salads.
GENERAL PREPARATION FOR FREEZING GELATIN SALADS
Save woe by freezing in the old standby square metal 8 × 8-inch cake pan. Line the pan with plastic wrap if you wish to lift the gelatin salad, when set, out of the pan, wrap it for freezing, and then unwrap it and return it to its original pan for brief thawing and cutting in 6 generous serving portions. This size may be cut smaller, to serve 9, if the salad is to be a fruit dish on the side, rather than a hot-weather mainstay of aspic, vegetables and meat/fish, etc. You can always use a ring mold after your technique is perfected.
Prepare a lime or lemon or raspberry gelatin base; refrigerate until it becomes syrupy. Meanwhile prepare anything else that you wish to add to the salad: chopped apples, minced celery, raisins; or fresh fruit (except for pineapples, and some varieties of grapes can get soft). Treat apples with ascorbic acid (see Anti-discoloration Treatments in Chapter 5). Pour some of the nearly-set gelatin into the pan, and put it in the freezer for a few minutes to thicken further. Remove it; fold together the solid ingredients and any whipped cream, softened cream cheese, etc., with the remaining gelatin mixture, and pour all gently into the pan. Refrigerate or freeze until well set, then complete the wrapping in freezer plastic wrap or moisture/ vapor-proof materials. Seal and freeze.
Freezing Dabs and Snippets
The following can be frozen in little packets and stashed in the door shelves of an upright freezer. Label each packet with the name of the food, the measurement involved, the date, and sometimes the purpose. You’ll note that most of the items are prepared to the point needed for combining them with other ingredients to build a particular dish.
FOR SOUPS
Two-serving portions of the base for Borscht, Green Pea Soup, and Fish Chowder are handy. Also handy is sautéed sorrel chopped in ½-inch strips, in ½-cup amounts; each little bag can be added to clarified Chicken Broth, to become a serving of shav (with sour cream and chopped dill leaves, the latter also on the door-shelf). In summer the shav can be chilled in the refrigerator and poured over a cold boiled potato in its jacket for a hottest-evening-of-the-year supper.
Half-pint freezer jars of Clam Broth (this also was canned, in Chapter 12) will strengthen the character of scalloped oysters, or perhaps go into an oyster stew or clam chowder; or be served hot in its own right as an appetizer. Reduced further, it will help stretch the white clam sauce that goes well on homemade spinach linguini.
HELP FOR MAIN DISHES
Concentrated Shrimp Stock (again, it was canned as well) can be used in a jambalaya or paella, or a deviled seafood filling. Pan juices of chicken, lamb or pork can be used to make a sauce or gravy, added to fried rice, or combined with peeled roasted chestnuts as a special stuffing for something.
Roast chicken taken off the bone can be turned into chicken and dumplings or a chicken fricassee for two plus two. Slices of roast meat in gravy, each slice in its own flat little bag for