Best for freezing?

Her highness has finally jumped on the band wagon

I've now got to grow as much freezable and preservable produce as I can, (she's been watching repeats of the good life" :( )

I know brassicas and legumes can be frozen easily enough and I've sown a lot of them, spuds can be stored, lots of them too. I can dry and store my chillies with no problem BUT what should I do with my tomatoes and squashes?

Is it Shiney who makes passata? Gimme the recipe/method please!

With 13 mouths to feed, mealtimes are a bit on the expensive side. :(

Any suggestions welcome as long as clean and productive

 

Hi Vince,

I freeze a lot of French Beans too, just blanch em for 2 mins before.

With tomatoes you need to get as much of the liquid & seeds out first, doesn't have to be clinical, I just squash them over a sieve with a bowl underneath, discard the seeds & drink the tomato juice.

Pack the remaining flesh into freezer bags & squeeze as much air out as pos. They are good for making pasta sauce out of then.

Squashes will last a long time if you can keep them in a frost free shed.

 

my mom buys in bulk, and has a pantry that is larger than many people's kitchens (it looks like a shop) .... if coffee is on special, she will buy 20 bottles ... same for sugar, oil, canned foods etc

she buys meat and veg in bulk (she will buy 2 full lambs, a hind quarter of beef, several chickens and a pig from her local butcher)

she has an industrial vacuum pack machine and uses this on all meat/veg before freezing

lasts for ages if frozen, retains all nutrients and tastes as fresh as when bought ... no need to pre-cook

 

I make and preserve passata:

If you allow that to settle and pour off the top 30% of clear (but tomatoey) liquid on top (and use for cooking) you will have a thicker sauce, or just preserve the lot and do that later if required.

There's 2 ways of saving passata:

1) Pasteurising - you need the right equipment + get the acidity right. We pH test and add lemon juice - google it. It looks like this after processing/preserving:

2) Freezing - Easy and nothing special required, and some people who pasteurise will also freeze passata from known low acidity toms - especially black/purple/etc. toms.

For dehydrating I find the best toms to use are 'beefsteaks' with sooo much less seeds than cherry toms, also much easier to peel (after pouring boiling water over or microwaving), and then use an electric dehydrator overnight on Economy 7, then vacuum pack.

P.S. If you don't have a passata machine, blitz roasted cherry toms in a kitchen food processor to break up the skins.

 

I use courgettes and onions and a few herbs to bulk up mince meat so I can have things like bolognese or shepherds pie but cheaply, and perhaps more healthily than if it was mostly meat.

I just fry the mince with finely chopped veg (usually courgettes but it can be most veg). Some herbs, garlic, and tomato. This cooked up mix then freezes well. I don't make it strong flavoured, that way it works as a base for a range of different meals. On defrosting, you can add a stock cube to make it 'mince' for British classics like mince and mash or shepherds pie, or chuck some spices in for a more lively Mediterranean themed (but probably not authentic) dish.

I do this mostly to use up stuff that isn't going to last much longer, but the point is it freezes well and works with most veg, especially anything chunky like roots or courgettes etc.

 

If you stew the leeks before freezing make sure you lable them.

Leeks & custard is not as nice as Rhubarb & Custard

 

in the USA, there are community canneries
http://www.pickyourown.org/canneries.htm

snip:
Commercial canneries, county canning centers and community (or shared) kitchens are facilities where you can take your fruit or vegetables and use their equipment to quickly and easily process your foods.

Make 100 jars of applesauce, salsa, spaghetti sauce, pickles or jam in no time! Now you can keep the mess out of your kitchen and you don't need to buy any canning equipment! Some are designed for beginners to can with some guidance, classes and assistance, others are aimed at those who want to try to sell their home canned products.
-----------------------------------------------
something like that could work here in the UK

 

Scrungee, so sorry, I knew the name began with an "s". Many thanks! I'm growing quite a few plum and beefsteak tomatoes along side the "dessert" types.

Can I just de-skin, de-seed, add some basil and garlic, BLITZ, boil and vacuum pack after say 10 mins cooking, then freeze? After cooling ?

JWK, as you probably know, I do know my onions and I'm growing sufficient long storing varieties to hopefully see us through, thanks though.

Ziggy, I HATE custard! I assume I cut the leeks up, blanch and freeze?

Clueless, great hint there, adding courgettes and onion to a bolognese sauce, bung in a few peppers and add to Scrungees passata?

Dim, saw that site only this morning, NO plans to export my veg across the Atlantic - YET!

Thankyou so much for all your suggestions, I'll pass them onto Carol who'll order me to take appropriate action

 

I didn't try and hand de-seed cherry toms (before getting a passata machine) because there'd be hardly anything left, and they were blitzed after oven roasting. Don't see any need to vacuum packing passata (just freeze in bags sitting in plastic tubs to get space saving 'bricks', only do that with dehydrated toms.

 

How about potatoes and carrots? Could I just blanch and freeze? I've seen a method were you don't need to blanch, but I'd be better if I did wouldn't I?

 

Interesting thread - Ive been thinking about getting a passata machine - one of these - but its quite expensive - any cheaper recommendations ?

 

£34.99 + £4.99 P&P from Franchi/Seeds of Italy (but suppose might be worth it if also ordering other stuff from them) N.B. They shut down on 2nd Aug for 2 weeks.

http://www.seedsofitaly.com/PASSATA_MACHINE_PASSA_POMODORO/p1834925_8313432.aspx

Lakeland no longer sell them, but they were a real bargain when they sold off their remaining stock for £9.99 each! http://www.lakeland.co.uk/12165/Tomato-Master

Westfalia used to sell them, but I can't find them there any more http://www2.westfalia.net/

ebay looks the cheapest (by pennies) @ £32.98 incl P&P http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Passata-T...pt=UK_Home_Garden_Food_SM&hash=item4856c3d960

£33.20 from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Intelligent-Garden-V562-01-Passata/dp/B000LE7UA8/ref=pd_sim_sbs_kh_3 (using the Jumpstore option)


P.S. Don't worry about it being plastic, we've got 2 plastic ones and they'll stand up to loads of (cooked) toms going through them.

 

We freeze when we have a glut, but in the main we do not eat vegetables out of season, and we most definitely do not grow-in-order-to-freeze. Frozen vegetables are nothing like the real thing IMHO. OK for soups, but defrosted Courgette is useless - it will thicken a soup I suppose, but its better served in the BBW season.

 

Just a quick update - made my first four and a bit jars of passata today, the red machine as recommended does a fine job of getting the bits out.


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All the spare Toms so far + three courgettes + a bulb of this years garlic, basil, salt, pepper, sugar, olive oil. Roast for an hour, wiz with the stick blender, put thru the red machine & bottle. Easy !