The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home - Janet Chadwick [17]
Cool the vegetables quickly in ice water. Cooling time is approximately the same as blanching. Do not immerse the blanching utensil in the ice water — this will warm the water unnecessarily, requiring more ice or a longer cooling time; and when you return the blancher to the boiling water, it will require more time and energy to return the blancher to the boiling point.
Drain the vegetables thoroughly, removing as much water as possible by lifting them from the ice water onto towels and patting them dry with another towel. While one batch of vegetables is chilling, pack any previously drained batches, and blanch another.
blanch the produce
cool in ice water
drain produce on towel
freeze on cookie sheet fill meal-size bags
Line cookie sheets with waxed paper, place cooled, drained vegetables on sheets, and freeze until solid. Then package loosely in plastic bags that have been labeled with the date and product. Be sure to remove as much air as possible. You can package these vegetables in large bags and remove just the number of servings needed at a time. You can also package the vegetables in freezer containers.
Freeze vegetables in a single layer in the coldest part of the freezer. Clean up when all vegetables are in the freezer. Wipe ice packs dry and return to the freezer.
Drying
DRYING FOODS IS A NATURAL ALTERNATIVE for people with limited time and limited space for storing frozen or canned foods. Compared with canning, the process is much less complicated — and the only special equipment is a dehydrator, though it is possible to dry without one. Compared to freezing, it is less expensive and worry-free; power failures represent no threat to dried foods. Many foods can be dried, but I will focus on those that are most popularly dried: fruits and a few vegetables, including mushrooms, and herbs.
TO PRETREAT OR NOT TO PRETREAT
Drying foods, like freezing, does not stop the enzymatic action that causes fruit to mature and eventually decay; it only slows it down. Some foods keep well without pretreatment, but others will continue to deteriorate in color, flavor, texture, and nutrients for months after they have dried unless they are treated. Pretreatment can mean blanching, as you would do before freezing vegetables, or dipping the food in ascorbic acid, fruit juice, or a commercial preparation that contains ascorbic acid or sodium sulfite. Specific pretreatment recommendations are found with each vegetable and fruit listing in chapters 4 and 5.
Blanching. If you have a boiling-water blancher, immerse the vegetables in boiling water, 1 pound at a time. Start counting as soon as the water returns to a boil, and blanch as long as the chart on page 220 indicates. If it takes longer than 2 minutes for the water to return to a boil, blanch fewer vegetables at a time.
If you have a steam blancher, blanch 1 pound of vegetables (arranged in a single layer) at a time in a steam basket or blancher suspended over boiling water. Steam the vegetables for half again as long as you would if you were blanching in boiling water. Start counting time as soon as you cover the pan. You can stack three blanchers to process up to 2½ pounds of vegetables at a time. Add 2 minutes to the blanching times, and begin counting time as soon as the pan is covered. It is a good idea to put the larger pieces of vegetables on the bottom and the smaller pieces at the top.
If you have a microwave, arrange 3 to 4 cups of vegetables in a container and add ¼ to ½ cup water. Set the timer and blanch.
Specific amounts for vegetables and water, as well as specific times, can be found for each vegetable on the chart on page 221.
Cool the vegetables quickly in ice water. Cooling time is approximately