The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home - Janet Chadwick [26]
Can’t preserve right away? Do not wash. Store by one of the methods suggested in chapter 2.
Freezing the Standard Way
Best method
Soak broccoli in cold, salted water for ½ hour to remove dirt and insects. Meanwhile, preheat water for steam-blanching.
Drain broccoli. Rinse. Divide into uniform-size pieces or chop.
Steam-blanch, 1 pound at a time for 5 minutes. Then cool, drain, pack, press out air, and seal. Freeze.
tip When blanching broccoli, make long cross cuts in the stalk, so that the stalk will cook in the same length of time as the bud.
Freezing Unblanched Broccoli
Quickest method
Soak broccoli in cold, salted water for 30 minutes to remove dirt and insects. Rinse well. Drain. Divide into uniform-size pieces or chop.
Pack in gallon-size freezer bags. Press out air. Seal. Freeze.
cooking tip For best flavor and texture, frozen broccoli should be steamed or stir-fried.
soak in salted water chop broccoli
pack into freezer bags
tip Unblanched broccoli florets retain good quality in the freezer for only 6 weeks, while the stalks hold up for 3 months. Save time by freezing sliced pieces of stalks without blanching, and blanch the florets for the best finished product. The sliced stalks make an excellent addition to mixed stir-fried vegetables.
CABBAGE
CABBAGE FOR WINTER keeping should be left in the garden as late in the fall as possible. Pick just before the first frost. If the heads indicate a tendency to split, and it’s too early to harvest, give the heads a quarter turn to break off some of the roots; this will slow down the growth and can be repeated every 7 to 10 days. When ready to harvest, pull the en tire plant up from the garden, roots and all.
pull cabbage with roots
hang to dry
retain leaves on heads
Storing in a Root Cellar
Best and quickest method
Pull up cabbage plants with roots intact.
Transfer freshly pulled cabbage plants directly to the root cellar, and hang upside down on hooks or nails.
Retain the outer leaves;they will form a dry paperlike covering that will help to keep the cabbage fresh.
tips Finely shredded cabbage can be made into the freezer coleslaw on page 149.
Cabbage can be brined as sauerkraut or made into relishes; for recipes see chapter 7.
Outer leaves of cabbage can be frozen whole and unblanched to be used as wrappers for baked stuffed cabbage leaves. Since the leaves will wilt when defrosted, it will not be necessary to drop them into boiling water before preparing this dish.
Coarsely chopped cabbage can be frozen unblanched to be used in soups or casserole dishes within 4 to 6 months. Steam-cook frozen cabbage for casserole dishes requiring cooked cabbage.
CARROTS
CARROTS SHOULD BE LEFT IN THE GARDEN UNTIL you are ready to store or process them. Carrots for cold storage are best if harvested late in the fall, though they should not be allowed to become oversized and stringy. A few light frosts will not harm them. Carrots stored in a root cellar will remain fresh and taste sweet well into late spring.
Storing in a Root Cellar
Best and quickest method
Dig carrots on a sunny day; cut off tops close to the carrot and let them lie on the ground all day or even overnight to kill the little feeder roots. Do not wash the carrots.
brush soil off carrots layer carrots in box cover with sawdust
Brush off excess soil. Place a large plastic bag in a cardboard box; add 2 to 4 inches of fresh sawdust (2 inches for storage areas that will remain above freezing). Add a single layer of carrots, leaving a 2-inchspace all around the sides of the box to be filled with sawdust. Cover with a 1-inch layer of sawdust. Continue until box is full, finishing with a 2- to 4-inch layer of sawdust.
Fold over top of the bag and close the box. Store in the coldest area of the root cellar or an unheated area such as a garage.
tip Mature fall carrots result in a better frozen product than young early carrots. They should be peeled before