We have collected useful material for those who love to use the summer harvest in their winter cooking. The case when in December you want to cook a New Year’s cake with summer currants
The season of berry and vegetable harvests is in full swing, which means (as experienced summer residents say) winter is coming. Farming has long ceased to be archaic: fashion bloggers and influencers from all over the world pick berries and vegetables in summer cottages and even from garden beds on the balcony.
It’s all about the trend towards sustainability: nothing rationalizes consumption like growing your own product and careful storage. In addition, the benefits of making your own preparations are obvious to everyone: frozen berries and vegetables can diversify the diet and save the budget in the cold season (which can be spent on shopping or beauty treatments). We have collected 5 life hacks that will allow you to make profitable winter frosts: go to the cottage or to the vegetable market, now there is everything for your winter culinary masterpieces.
1. After picking or purchasing berries/vegetables, separate whole from overripe or spoiled. They can give unwanted juice and spoil the entire workpiece.
2. Prepare freezer bags and a cutting board that will fit into your freezer. On it you will lay out your vegetables and berries for shock freezing, which will allow them to remain whole and not turn into a lump.
If your freezer is too narrow for a board, then before freezing berries and vegetables, you need to make sure that they are dry. And then freeze in bags.
3. Before freezing vegetables, cut them into portions. So, tomatoes can be cut into slices (they are useful for soups and stews), eggplant and zucchini into rings, pumpkin into cubes.
Make sure that the vegetables are firm and without excess moisture on the surface. After making sure of this, lay them on boards for shock freezing and put them in the freezer for 5 hours. After that, put it into bags. If the freezer does not fit the board, put it immediately in portions into bags and mark the date. Then put it in the freezer.
4. The best berries for harvesting: currants, sea buckthorn, raspberries, cranberries, blueberries. It can be used in pastries, desserts, compotes and fruit drinks.
Among the vegetables, the main leader is the tomato. Right now, the markets sell the most delicious and juicy tomatoes, which in winter can be an addition to soups, spaghetti sauces, stews and scrambled eggs.
5. If there is not enough space in your freezer to fully freeze the berries, then you can make portioned preparations of berries with sugar. To do this, put currants (or any other berry) and sugar (1 kg of berries – 100 grams of sugar) into the blender bowl, and then beat. The resulting puree can be poured into bags and frozen or poured into jars and used as jam (best stored in the refrigerator).
