Blanks For The Winter, Recipes For Freezing And Preservation + Video

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Making preparations for the winter

Summer is coming to an end, and it's time to prepare for the winter. Now our goal is not only to preserve the harvest, but also to give vegetables, fruits, berries, herbs a special taste that will remind your family of summer on long winter evenings.

From time immemorial, people have been able to prepare food for future use and store them for a long time. There are many techniques and methods for this, and each housewife can boast of her own recipes for canning, boiling, drying, freezing, and more.

The most important thing when preparing for the winter, whatever methods you choose for this, strictly adhere to the rules in your work and use only proven recipes so that all efforts are not wasted. I will tell you about the methods that I use myself, and help me with this blender, pots and freezer.

Content

• 1 Using deep freeze
• 2 Mushroom caviar for the winter
• 3 Cooking cucumbers and tomatoes
• 4 Ready dressing for borscht
• 5 What can be made from apples for the winter

Using deep freeze

This is the easiest way to harvest some vegetables, fruits, berries, mushrooms and all types of greens. This method does not require any special skills or time investment from you. Personally, I use freezing most often, and I call this method "lazy".

Rinse the berries thoroughly, discard in a colander and let the water drain. Pack the dried berries in bags or plastic containers and place them in the freezer. Thus, cherries, strawberries, currants, raspberries and much more can be stored for several years. At any time you can get fresh berries, defrost them and use them both for cooking compote and for decorating cakes, muffins and other pastries.

You can just as easily do with greens. I used to freeze dill, onion, parsley separately from each other. But this year I decided to try a new way. I had a lot of small carrots, so I cut them up and mixed them with a lot of chopped greens. You can choose the ratio of the amount of onion, parsley, dill, cilantro and other herbs at your discretion, it does not matter. But now, during the winter, you will always have a ready-made mixture for cooking soup, gravy, side dishes at hand. Chop fresh cabbage, add a mixture of greens and carrots, after defrosting, season with salt, oil, vinegar or mayonnaise, and you have a delicious salad rich in vitamins.

In order to freeze the mushrooms, you just need to peel them, rinse them thoroughly and boil them for 5-10 minutes. Too large mushrooms, before sending to boiling water, cut into small pieces. Even if you don't, the final product will not suffer: boiled frozen mushrooms are easy enough to cut.

You can prepare mushroom caviar for freezing. Usually it is rolled up in jars, but if you have a freezer, you will not need to spend a lot of time sterilizing dishes and working with a seaming wrench.

Mushroom caviar for the winter

The big advantage of freezing mushroom caviar compared to canning is that you don't have to strictly adhere to a recipe that includes salt, sugar, vinegar and vegetable oil when preparing it. Accordingly, freezing will be cheaper. In addition, proportions are not necessary.

For this mushroom caviar, you will need:

• Mushrooms (honey agarics, boletus, chanterelles, aspen or brown mushrooms, you can use a mixture of mushrooms, but remember: chanterelles are best consumed separately from other species);
• Bow. The amount matches your taste, and even if you use a lot of onions, it will only improve the quality of the caviar;
• Carrot. Just like onions, this vegetable acts according to the principle "you can't spoil porridge with oil." Carrots will give your mushroom caviar taste, aroma, pleasant color and additional bulk;
• Herbs: dill, parsley, green onion and garlic feathers, cilantro and whatever you see fit according to your taste preferences.

Rinse and chop the mushrooms thoroughly. Chop onions, carrots and herbs. After mixing all the ingredients, put them in a saucepan, fill with water so that it slightly covers the mushroom and vegetable mass and put on fire. How long to boil caviar is a matter of taste. After the caviar is boiled, let it cool, drain the water, fill it in plastic bags and put it in the freezer drawer.

If you want the mushroom caviar to be completely ready to eat, add salt, pepper and any seasonings to taste during the cooking process. In winter, you only need to defrost the product, and use it both for sandwiches and as a side dish for meat dishes or frying in soup.

A blender is a great helper in preparing mushroom caviar and vegetable salads for the winter. You don't even have to chop the food yourself, chop it coarsely and cook it longer than usual. When the cooked vegetables have cooled down, put them in the blender bowl, press the button - and in a few seconds you have a homogeneous mass that can be frozen and rolled into jars. Add a little 9% vinegar (1-2 tablespoons per 1 liter of vegetable mass), and the product can be stored in the refrigerator or basement under a regular lid, without sterilization and seaming.

Cooking cucumbers and tomatoes

These vegetables are traditionally the most common on the winter table. Usually they are pickled and rolled up in jars. Personally, I prefer the simplest recipe that has proven itself since the days of my grandmothers. For him you will need actually cucumbers, tomatoes, salt, water, dill, currant and cherry leaves, horseradish, garlic and several cans.

Cucumbers and tomatoes can be rolled together or separately. Rinse the vegetables, herbs, garlic and horseradish rhizomes thoroughly. First place the dill umbrellas, cherry leaves, currant leaves, horseradish and garlic cloves in clean jars previously sterilized by steam. Place the cucumbers or tomatoes tightly in the jar, while making sure that the vegetables are whole, strong, without dents, cracks or damage. Add salt at the rate of 1 tablespoon per liter, that is, 3 tablespoons per three-liter jar, pour cold water to the top and leave for a day.

The next day, drain the jars into a saucepan and boil. Pour the resulting brine into jars, leave for an hour. Then pour it back into a saucepan, boil it again, fill the jars and roll up the lids. It is recommended to hold the jars of pickled cucumbers and tomatoes in a warm place upside down for 3-5 days, and after that lower them into the basement.

Just a few years ago, I learned that fresh cucumbers, it turns out, can be frozen. To do this, it is enough to cut them either into small cubes or into slices. Thawed cucumbers do not lose their presentation, and even more so, their properties, and are excellent for making salads and okroshka.

Tomatoes must be processed before freezing. Dip them in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, remove and grind with a meat grinder or blender. You can add salt, sugar, spices to your taste, pack it in plastic containers, and in winter use it as a dressing for borscht, for making sauces, tomato soups and juice.

Ready dressing for borscht

If you spend one summer day preparing such a dressing, then in winter you will not need to spend a lot of time cooking borscht. For this dish you will need:

• 3 kg of red beet (beetroot);
• 1 kg of carrots;
• 1 kg of onions;
• 2 kg of tomatoes;
• If desired, 0.5-1 kg of bell pepper;
• 1 pod of red hot pepper;
• 1-2 heads of garlic;
• Salt, sugar, vinegar, herbs and herbs to taste.

Grind the prepared, thoroughly washed and peeled ingredients in a meat grinder and simmer for 2 hours over low heat. If you have a pressure cooker, the braising time can be reduced to 40-60 minutes.

If you want to store frying in jars, then sterilize them first, fill them with a still hot mass and roll them up. When stewing, you will need to add 200 grams of vinegar to the entire amount of vegetables.

If you plan to store the frying in the freezer, let it cool down properly before packing it into containers. Now all you have to do is add a delicious ready-made dressing to your borscht, without wasting time on its preparation. If earlier you had to stand at the stove for one and a half to two hours, chopping carrots, onions, beets, thoroughly frying them in a pan, now everything will take no more than 40 minutes!

What can be made from apples for the winter

Fruits, like berries, are used in the preparation of jams, juices and compotes. Unlike berries, apples cannot be frozen. It's good when you can store fresh fruit for a long time, for example, the cellar is ideal for this, or you have certain apple varieties. But most often you have to roll compotes into jars.

There is not always time for this either. Therefore, I chose the easiest way. I make puree from apples, which I store in jars under simple plastic lids.

This method is quite versatile. From fresh apples, I cook a regular compote, to which I add a little sugar (to taste), mint, lemon balm. This compote is not meant for rolling, we drink it fresh instead of tea. There are apples in the pan, which you don't want to eat, and it's a pity to throw it away. Therefore, I grind them in a blender until smooth, add citric acid and sugar (1 teaspoon and 3 tablespoons per 1 liter of mashed potatoes, respectively), boil and put in jars. This puree goes well as a separate dish, for sweet tea sandwiches or various fillings for baking.

Try making starchy pancakes with applesauce. To do this, you will need:

• 10 chicken eggs;
• 1 liter of milk (can be replaced with water);
• 10 tablespoons of potato starch;
• A pinch of salt;
• 1 tablespoon of any vegetable oil.

Beat eggs, pour milk into them and mix thoroughly. Add starch gradually, stirring constantly. You can use a mixer or blender. Add salt and a spoonful of vegetable oil. The dough should be liquid. Pour it in a thin layer into a dry preheated skillet. The starch pancakes are fried very quickly, just half a minute for each side.

Brush the finished pancakes with applesauce and roll into envelopes. An excellent, very tasty dessert for tea is ready, and without much time.

And, of course, apples and pears can be dried for the winter in order to cook compotes and fruit drinks from them, which do not require seaming in jars. To do this, rinse the fruits thoroughly, cut them into thin slices and spread them on a sunny, well-ventilated place, after spreading sheet, oilcloth or paper. It will take about a week to dry, stir the fruits all the time and make sure that they do not get wet with rain.

As you can see, cooking for winter is not a troublesome business, but rather pleasant. Plus, you will know that the time spent now will pay off handsomely in the winter months.