Tips on freezing food and keeping it tasty

This is sort of a “to be continued� food column: I have frozen several containers of food, for Lakeville Journal Associate Editor Jennifer Kronholm (whose baby is due in mid-June); we won’t really know how well these foods responded to the freezer until, well, mid-June or later.

I suspect that I already made one error already: I seasoned the foods while they were being cooked.

According to a tip sheet from the University of Missouri, it’s best to season your foods with a light hand if you plan to freeze them. Salt loses flavor and can make foods rancid (eek), pepper and garlic can become strong and bitter in the freezer and onions change their flavor (the tip sheet doesn’t say what flavor it converts to, but presumably it isn’t something nice).

Theoretically, cooked foods in general don’t fare as well in the freezer as their raw ingredients.

But as anyone knows who has had a newborn in the house, sometimes it’s too difficult or exhausting to make a nutritious meal. Nowadays, of course, many excellent frozen and processed foods can be found at the grocery store, and reheated in their microwaveable containers. Those foods are, presumably, preserved by professionals who actually know how to do it well.

But sometimes you just feel like freezing something homemade.

Apparently, some things work better than others.

Cream sauces and mayonnaise don’t do well; lettuce doesn’t either (no big surprise there, at least not to anyone who has a kitchen garden).

Noodles and rice, apparently, freeze well.

Broth-based soups usually do well (try adding some noodles and rice to the broth).    Eggs in their shells do not but apparently you can store egg whites in the freezer for up to a year (I’m not sure how frozen egg whites perform in a souffle, however).

Vegetables can freeze well but the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests blanching them quickly before putting them in the freezer, to slow down the natural enzymes that make produce ripen — and then rot.

Slightly undercook your meals before you put them away, because you’re going to cook them again (even if it’s just for a few minutes in the microwave).

The type of container you use does make a difference.

 I was surprised to learn you can freeze food in glass containers; having exploded many soda bottles in the freezer in my day, I guess I have a deep-seated fear of ice-cold glass.

The University of Georgia has a frozen-foods tip sheet that recommends that, if you use glass, you buy jars and bottles that are designed for freezing.

Wide-mouth bottles and cans are best; you can take the food out before it’s completely thawed.

The university also recommends that if there is any empty space in your containers you should fill it with crumpled freezer paper, to minimize the foods’ exposure to air (which shortens the life of your food and can change the color, texture and flavor). I have to confess that I didn’t heed this instruction; I will have to hope that the air doesn’t get at my frozen foods before they’re consumed.

I also don’t have enough room in my freezer to ensure that none of my freezer foods are stacked.

In a perfect world, plan ahead so that you can spread your containers out in a single layer until they are frozen (this should take about two hours).

This is especially tricky if you put all your meals into single-serving sizes (which means that there will be a lot of packages).

If you succeed in following this direction, you can stack your containers after the contents have frozen solid.

This soup is extremely yummy as well as nutritious and filling.

It should freeze well.

It is adapted from a recipe published in 2007 in Food and Wine magazine.

            Cauliflower soup

Adapted from Food and Wine

Two servings each for

two new parents

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small leek, cleaned and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (discard the darkest, hardest leaves)

1 garlic clove, peeled, trimmed and diced

1 head of cauliflower (about 2 pounds), cored and trimmed of leaves, florets cut into 2-inch pieces

1 small zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

3 cups chicken broth

2 large sprigs of thyme

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

In a large heavy pot with a lid, heat the oil and then sauté the leeks and garlic for a few minutes until they’re tender.

Add the cauliflower and curry powder, and cook, stirring, for just a couple minutes, to coat it with the leeks, garlic and oil.

Add the broth and thyme. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes.

When it’s ready, pluck out the thyme leaves and then run the soup through a food processer, or blender in batches and puree until smooth. Reheat the soup and season to taste with salt and pepper (add more curry, too, if you like). Serve with croutons or fresh crusty bread. If you plan to freeze it (in containers that are designed to hold two servings of soup), don’t season until you’re ready to reheat it.

To follow the freezer recommendations to the letter, don’t add garlic while cooking; roast a head of garlic at 400 degrees and add the soft garlic paste to the soup right before serving.