Challenge: Cook your way through your freezer (part 2)

[Miriravan]

It does, indeed, Anna N!  Mostly, I am pleased that I have so far not stuck anything new in either freezer.

[ElsieD]

Messy Capon sandwiches for John's lunch.  Sliced some stuffing, sliced capon and put that on top, heated in the CSO for about 20 minutes on steam 210 unti hot.  Poured gravy over the top and served with (thawed) cranberry sauce.  I thought it looked like a dog's breakfast, he loved it.  The stuffing is now gone.

[Kerry Beal]

Sous viding a half rack of beef ribs for a couple of days that I hauled out over here in the Great Freezer Clean: 2019. Also a couple of nice boneless skinless chicken breasts that came to hand.

[kayb]

Freezer challenge today was a big fail. I used nothing from the freezer. I added three pork tenderloins, because Aldi had them on sale.

 

[Okanagancook]

These are sous vide'd lamb ribs which were reheated in a hot CSO covered in Thai peanut sauce.  They were very tasty.....just to go with cocktails.

[lemniscate]

I got through 1 package of parsley/walnut pesto cubes, served over pasta.  I have an over abundance of red chile sauce cubes.  I want to make a ground turkey red chile but I don't want to buy ground turkey just to make it and then need to put the leftovers back into the freezer.  A conundrum wrapped around an enigma.

[sartoric]

Does it count if I served some Pork belly, with Pal (canned dog food), to Patch ? He said it was very tasty.

 

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, sartoric said:

Does it count if I served some Pork belly, with Pal (canned dog food), to Patch ? He said it was very tasty.

Absolutely. 

[Anna N]

 

 This took care of the chicken livers. They had been in the freezer quite a long time but had been vacuum packed so they survived very well. I winged the preparation using garlic chives, Campari tomatoes and the usual suspects of Japanese seasonings – – soy sauce, sake, mirin,  and a final drizzle of sesame oil.  

 I cooked up the whole half pound so I have another meal in the fridge. 

[liamsaunt]

Icy conditions and a nasty fall kept me home from the office today so I decided to inventory my freezer.   I have a lot of chicken to use up. 

 

[BeeZee]

As has befallen others, one step forward and two steps back. Over the long weekend we had tomato soup which had been leftover from Thanksgiving, but I managed to deposit two new containers with leftover quinoa and wild rice. Even so, the freezer is getting better overall, since this has made me more conscious of not having things languish too long...

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, BeeZee said:

As has befallen others, one step forward and two steps back. 

Yes, it is a difficult juggling job. I notice that @liamsaunt has lots of chicken in her freezer whereas I just took out the last two thighs. I can’t live without chicken so some more  will need to go in there!   But staying on top of what’s there will help I am certain.  

Edited January 22, 2019 by Anna N (log)

[Anna N]

 

 My freezer contains no more chicken. I am not celebrating.  

 

Chicken thighs  dredged  in potato starch and fried. The sauce was tomato and ponzu. The garlic in the sauce was not a good idea in my opinion and if I were to repeat it I would leave it out.

 

 There is rice under there also.  It came from my freezer but is constantly being replaced so I don’t figure it into any equation related to the challenge.  

 

 

[suzilightning]

2 packages of 4 frozen homemade cheese stuffed shells just went IN  after defrosting along with 2 lbs of ground bison.

 

 

 

 

 

[Okanagancook]

Shanghai noodles and chicken thigh for a stir fry tonight.

i will get out some shrimp for the other half of the Shanghai noodles for Thursday dinner.

[Dejah]

@Anna N: You've mentioned a few times about rice from your freezer. I have never frozen cooked rice.

Do you just cook and freeze in ziplock bags?

We are not eating rice these days, but once in a while, there's a real need. These are times when hubby must have rice with his Hot'n'Sour soup.  He usually likes about 1/4 cup in a big bowl of soup. Would be great just to pull some out of the freezer.

Tell me what you do. Thanks!

[heidih]

Not Anna but I freeze rice all the time. Cool it, put in a container and re-heat usually in a bowl with a damp paper towel on top. Remarkably similar to fresh - even has that lovely scent.

Edited January 24, 2019 by heidih (log)

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, Dejah said:

@Anna N: You've mentioned a few times about rice from your freezer. I have never frozen cooked rice.

Do you just cook and freeze in ziplock bags?

We are not eating rice these days, but once in a while, there's a real need. These are times when hubby must have rice with his Hot'n'Sour soup.  He usually likes about 1/4 cup in a big bowl of soup. Would be great just to pull some out of the freezer.

Tell me what you do. Thanks!

So here’s my system learned from various  Japanese websites. Cook your rice as usual and then while it’s still hot, and this is important, wrap portions in plastic wrap.  Don’t compress it too much but make sure it’s properly wrapped. Allow it to cool (do not refrigerate it) and then put the wrapped portions in a Ziploc bag and into the freezer.   I freeze approximately 150 g of cooked rice in each parcel and  when ready to use it put it in the microwave for about two minutes and it’s usually perfect. Depends of course on the power of your microwave as always.  

[ElsieD]

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

So here’s my system learned from various  Japanese websites. Cook your rice as usual and then while it’s still hot, and this is important, wrap portions in plastic wrap.  Don’t compress it too much but make sure it’s properly wrapped. Allow it to cool (do not refrigerate it) and then put the wrapped portions in a Ziploc bag and into the freezer.   I freeze approximately 150 g of cooked rice in each parcel and  when ready to use it put it in the microwave for about two minutes and it’s usually perfect. Depends of course on the power of your microwave as always.  

 

This is great.  Goodbye Uncle Ben's!  Do you just freeze white rice or other rice as well?

[Anna N]

11 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

This is great.  Goodbye Uncle Ben's!  Do you just freeze white rice or other rice as well?

 Just white short grain Japanese rice but my reading suggests it works with most rice varieties. I’m just not prepared to swear to it since I haven’t tried.  I think the real secret here is to make sure that you capture the steam when you wrap it so the rice does not dry out. Refrigerated rice will dry out very quickly. 

[Dejah]

@Anna NThanks for the information. Cooking some rice now as I am making Hot'n'Sour soup!

[Kerry Beal]

I just scoop the rice into ziplock bags, let it cool in the fridge then put it in the freezer. Nuke for a minute or so from frozen.

[liamsaunt]

two pieces of the turkey breakfast sausage came out of the freezer and went in to this breakfast sandwich.  Unfortunately, they were replaced by two more bone-in chicken thighs.

 

[ElsieD]

Yesterday I pulled out a chicken breast that was dated April 19, 2018.  I made butter chicken with it.  Tonight I took out the last chunk of the Christmas capon and am making a spicy Asian noodle dish using zeroodles.  A big thank you to whoever it was who suggested dry frying the noodles.  It makes a huge difference. 

[Okanagancook]

Plugging away at the inventory.  Eating mostly prepared foods containing veggies from the garden.

 

Today I took all but one bag of frozen garden chilies out of the freezer.  They have been sliced and are on four trays in the food dryer.  These took up a lot of room.  Also took out a bag of grated cucumber...found a recipe to use this.

 

Yesterday out came four beef shanks....4 lbs. This morning I put two in the IP with onions, garlic and beef stock.  The other two are becoming goulash in a clay pot on the stove....this tastes beautiful.  Two packages of garden spinach and a container of soup also came out for today’s consumption.

 

A few days ago I took out two large packages of lamb ribs which were slow roasted then slathered with garlic, rosemary, salt, lemon juice and olive oil.  The cooked ribs are half the size.

 

This past week I took out a pkg of beef jerky, six bratwurst,  lentil stew, a jar of duck fat 😍, box of crackers, pasta sauce and two cups cooked pasta, two litres of asparagus soup and a small container of pizza sauce.😁😁

 

Now the bad part, what went back in😓

 

two cups of braised red cabbage

one cup cooked spatzle

the lamb ribs.....packaged in six rib portions to be eaten as appetizers, one litre of vegetable stock,