Saturday, August 31, 2013

Blanching broccoli: A MayB learning production

I have a love hate relationship with all things canning, freezing, and all things garden. For most of my childhood and early teens, my mother and I spent weeks and weeks dealing with the bounty of our shared garden. A co-worker of my father had an acreage where we had a garden.  It stretched as far as our eyes could see and caring for it took up most of every Saturday of every summer.

Did I mention how tough my childhood was? Seriously. EVERY SATURDAY.  Of my summer!!

The rest of the week was then spent shucking corn, snapping beans, shelling peas, and getting every vegetable known to man ready for freezing.

If I thought I hated weeding and picking, I hated this more. In fact, after one particularly harrowing time making apricot and peach jam, I didn't eat either for over 10 years.

But I digress.  Despite my horrific childhood, apparently I learned something.  I know.  Who knew?

So, when I was finding I could not get through all the vegetables we had on hand, I realized I needed to do something I hadn't done in years.  I needed to blanch and freeze broccoli.

Since many people didn't learn the art of freezing from their prison guard mother, I thought I would share so you too don't throw away vast amounts of vegetables.  As far as I know, this works best for things like: broccoli, cauliflower, greens, beans, corn, and the like.  You know, hearty stock.

First you prep your veggies the way you want them.  Then, get a pot of water boiling and another large bowl full of iced cold water.

See this?  It's a pot. 
Once the water boils, dump as many veggies as will fit into the water.  Keep them in there for about 1 minute, give or take.  (added: apparently 3 minutes is best!) Immediately transfer them into the bowl of ice water.  I did this by dumping them into a colander and then straight into the water from there.

Broccoli all cooled off.
From what I remember or understand, this stops the cooking process.  Why do we do this? I have no idea.  Mom always did.  I assume there is a reason.  Why do you make this so difficult? Once they've cooled significantly, I dumped them back in the colander.

Finally, lay out the cooling broccoli on dish towels until it's cool enough to put into meal sized bags.

Look at the pretty green things.

 Once the bags stop steaming altogether, toss them in the freezer.  When you need broccoli, pull some out.  It will be almost just like it's fresh!

12 comments:

  1. Curious: does this keep it nicer than store-bought frozen broccoli? That is, with a little snap/crunch?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it's much better. The produce I used is better and fresh so it freezes better and is nicer when used later!

      Delete
  2. What a very cool tutorial! I've heard of blanching, but never for freezing! Love this idea!

    If only I could grow broccoli, instead of the giant leaves and a NO broccoli blossom. Tease. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh man, don't kid yourself. I didn't GROW this stuff. It's Costco special!!

      Delete
  3. You can buy a blancher, which is a large deep pot with a colander built in. They are not expensive if you do any amount of freezing. The trick is small amounts so the water returns to a boil quickly after you add the veggies and then boil THREE minutes then into multiple batches of cold water to get the temp down as fast as possible. Boiling activates then kills the enzymes that will otherwise work slowly even while the food is frozen. Cooling the veggies quickly and thoroughly stops the cooking process so the vegetables stay fresh and crisp while frozen.
    Your system more or less does this and I certainly wouldn't change it if it works for you. There is a danger of over cooking if it takes too long for the water to boil.
    And you never had to weed Ron's garden; he did that. We just had to pick and preserve. 200 bags of broccoli one year as I recall.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now that you mention the blancher, I remember using it. I don't have one and I won't do enough at a time to get one, but that would certainly be easier. Thanks for letting me know about the 3 minute thing. That makes a lot of sense.

      I couldn't remember weeding, but it was all so terrible I figured I blocked it. Grin.

      Delete
  4. That will be fabulous in the winter months. Good for you. I just shove stuff in freezer bags and throw it in the freezer. LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've done that too! It went very badly one time. VERY badly. Smelled like death when I cooked it. *shudder*

      Delete
  5. I've always wished I'd had the opportunity to learn canning and preserving as a youth, but my family didn't do such things. Having read this, perhaps I should be glad I didn't spend my childhood on such chores! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You really should count your blessings on that one!!

      Delete
  6. I also think that dunking in the ice bath keeps the colour nice and green instead of the veggies turning that sort of green-brown colour. But good for you for being all healthy and ready to eat broccoli through the winter. Have you tried nutritional yeast? I just found a new broccoli recipe that has a miso dressing and nutritional yeast to give it a cheesy flavour....it's become one of our new favourites (yes, I can't actually believe that I just typed that miso+nutritional yeast+broccoli = our favourite)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hate to waste such a huge bag, but it's so worth it to have in the house. We will see how I do with it. I'm totally going to check out the yeast thing. Though, I still love regular cheese!

      Delete

As much as I like to hear myself talk, I like to hear from you too!