Your favorite frozen ingredients

[Fat Guy]

Inspired by the leftovers thread . . .

There are a few things I keep in my freezer that I think are high-quality products even though they come from the supermarket's freezer section: The primary one is frozen peas, which I use in fried rice and risotto dishes. Another is prepackaged dough.

I always keep extra butter (for baking) and Parmigiano Reggiano (for grating) in the freezer, as well as veal and poultry stocks.

[Jinmyo]

Peas. Corn. Varities of dumplings made by a local Chinese restaurant. Sometimes some stupid calzone things that I actually like. Occasionally a Mowbray pie or two.

I actually have 5 freezers (one is a huge bin kind of thing, one is the size of a regular fridge, the others are just the upper parts of 3 fridges). These are filled with various stocks, demiglace, rare mushrooms, very carefully wrapped meats, beans (adzuki, pinto, fava, etc etc etc), herb mixtures, range of nuts.

edit full disclosure:

Here's the leftovers thread: clickety click click.

[Sandra Levine]

Not exactly an ingredient...but I store the cannister for my ice cream maker in the freezer, so it's ready to go at any time.

Frozen raspberries and strawberries are good, especially for making dessert sauces.

[Niall]

we too keep peas, stock and parmesan in the freezer; we also keep a bit of gruyere for grating, breadcrumbs, Home made Apple sauce, tomato puree, garlic butter, various meats (Chicken & pork fillets, bacon, mincemeat). I even think theres some hungarian sausage in there at the moment.

[Julliana]

I'm curious about why you freeze parmesan cheese and do you freeze it whole or grated?  I buy a big center cut slab and keep a bowl grated in the refrigerator and the rest of the chunk wrapped well. I use parmesan often - several times a week - so the grated bowl I keep is usally pretty current.

Jimmyo - do you buy the dumplings steamed or fried and can you tell me how you defrost and cook them?

I freeze soups, different types of homeade tomato sauces and Citarella's ravioli.  

Julliana

[Fat Guy]

I have "fresh" pasta in the freezer as well; forgot about that.

Why do I keep parmesan in the freezer? Probably no good reason anymore. I only use the three-year-aged parmesan from Teitel Brothers on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx because it's categorically better and cheaper than anything else I've had. Between cars (we were car-less for about two years), I got into the habit of going there maybe twice a year and buying about five pounds. Once the wheel is cut, I don't think the pieces hold well refrigerated for more than a month or two, so I needed to use the freezer. Now we have a car and can go to Arthur Avenue anytime we want, but I still buy three or four pounds a time and freeze big chunks of it. I've not noticed any taste difference when grated, and it's nice to know I always have plenty around.

The pasta in my freezer is also from Arthur Avenue, from Borgatti's. I usually pick up a couple of boxes of 100 ravioli and freeze them 20 to a Zip-Loc (that's a single serving for me; am I a pig?) and maybe four pounds of the linguine-width egg noodles (I freeze those in 1/2 pound portions; also probably obscene).

I wish I had five freezers, though I'm not sure why. I guess I'd just like to be able to say I have five freezers. I think in reality I'd rather have five dishwashers.

[mamster]

I'd rather have five pounds of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

I have some duck stock in my freezer.  I would have more but there was a little mishap involving slippery ziploc bags and stock-soaked socks.

Costco some pretty good frozen ravioli.  We had some for dinner tonight.  They're the triangular ones with the little packet of parsley-cheese topping.

The precut frozen green beans work well in Thai curry, I find.  At least as well as the stringy ones I usually see fresh in the off-season.

[Julliana]

I thought it might have something to do with accessible sources but thought either way I could learn something:)  I dont have a car so I shop around and make do. Agata and Valentine has regular parmesan and a more aged parmesan that is quite wonderful and whenever I get over to that side of town I buy it. I'm not sure how long its aged but 3 yrs sounds right.

I buy a center cut pound about once a month so the freezer issue has never come up but its good to keep in mind if I want to stock up on the A&V parmesan.

I happen to like Citarella's ravioli -they're not very doughy or gummy and the pasta is very  light.  My favorites are the eggplant and either the sweet potato or pumpkin, served with butter and lots of parmesan - it became an addiction.

I spread wax paper on a sheet tray and line up the ravioli and individually freeze them -  in an hour I take them out, put them in a container and take out as many as I need.  My little Obsessive Compulsive freezer rituals - of which I have many.

Dont feel bad, I used to sometimes polish off almost the entire pound of ravioli and when I found out that after boiling fresh pasta,  it weighs less so it wasnt really a pound I ate - hat made me feel better for a few minutes.

I would be happy with the one freezer and one dishwasher if I could have ONE decent supermarket on the UWS so when I decide to cook something I dont end up going to 3 different stores to find only 6 of the 10 items I need for the recipes.  I guess a car would solve that, but then I'd have to learn how to drive.

Julliana

[Fat Guy]

The grass is always greener . . . I live on the Upper East Side and I'm insanely jealous of Upper West Siders' ready access to Fairway and Zabar's.

I had no idea that fresh pasta weighs less when you cook it. What's up with that?

Arthur Avenue isn't hard to get to by public transportation. We did it in the car-less days. Just take the C, D or 4 subway to Fordham Road, then transfer to the eastbound BX12 bus across the street from the station. Get off at the Arthur Avenue stop. You won't be able to buy a lot of wine at Mount Carmel (best Italian wine shop I've ever visited) and you won't be able to get the gigantic cans of fake San Marzano tomatoes at Teitel Brothers, but everything else is easily schleppable. A very worthwhile half-day trip.

I tried a sample of the Costco triangular ravioli the other day, in Yonkers. Not bad at all. Pasta freezes well. Anything starchy seems to freeze pretty well, ergo peas. Liquids for the most part freeze well (stock). Most anything where you don't care about the texture, you can freeze (parmesan that's going to be grated). It's flesh that really suffers, mostly from a texture standpoint.

Oh, I usually keep some sliced sourdough-rye bread from Le Pain Quotidien in my freezer. Coffee (don't tell Steve Klc). Also a few bagels. Plus film and batteries.

[Julliana]

I agree about my grass:)  I buy produce at Fairway and I think the quality can run from good to quite poor, depending on the item and the week. As an example, I havent been able to buy a baking potato there in 3 weeks because they're already sprouting in the store, they're not going to get better in my kitchen. The last month the tomatoes there have been rotten so I end up having to go back into Citarella to buy them there. Its that type of constant fustration here. Fairway has put the Food Emporium out of business so any grocery items you might need are limited to the 50 items Fairway stocks in whatever brand or size they carry - your option is to go to a tiny Gristedes thats 10X worse. I think the appeal of Fairway wears pretty thin when you have to live with their many shortcomings. I would gladly pay $.50 or more on an item to have the brand and size selections of a great supermarket, not to mention the running around you do trying to put together a meal.

Since the grocery stores are so  bad, I end up eating a lot of prepared takeout food from Citarella and there are some cooked items in Zabars that are okay, but very hit and miss.  With the exception of Fariway's soups (many are very good) I think their prepared foods really pales in comparison to Citarella and they're only about $1 per lb cheaper on most of their items.

I live 3 blocks from Zabars, so if your going to live in a neigborhood without 1 good supermarket, it is nice to walk into Zabars and put together an above average dinner with no work.

BTW - I think Agata and Valentina has a great produce department - very fresh and well kept,  great selection. I also find their prices are very reasonable compared to other stores of the same calibre.

I heard the water content of fresh pasta reduces the actual weight when cooked, compared to dried. I think it was in a warning about substituting fresh pasta in a recipe that was intended for dried.  I could have it backwards, but I dont think so.

I've been wanting to make a trip to Arthur Ave for awhile - I'm going to pick a beautiful day this spring and make the trip - thanks for the nudge:) I'll ask for some more recommendations when I'm ready.

Julliana

[Jinmyo]

Yang Sheng has a range of wonderful dumplings. They just roll 'em up, put them on little styrofoam trays, freeze them. So they're raw. So I defrost and do whatever nedds to be done with them. Steam those that should be steamed, fry those that should be fried, throw the wonton into a soup. They're great.

[Fat Guy]

Fairway has many shortcomings, but when you combine and give weight to the variables of price, quality, and selection, I am quite confident that Fairway is the best gourmet store on planet Earth. I'd trade you Agata & Valentina and Vinegar Factory for half of Fairway anyday. You need to come live on East 93rd Street for awhile. You'll never complain about shopping on the Upper West Side again!

Regarding freezer rituals, I freeze ravioli the old fashioned way: I take my 20 and I throw them in a sandwich-size bag. They clump together when they freeze. Then I throw that clump into boiling water when it's time to cook. The ravioli have always separated just fine, with no visible damage or noticeable unevenness. As long as you let them come apart on their own and don't try to pry them apart, it all goes quite smoothly.

[Malawry]

I, too, keep frozen peas and cheese around.

We eat a lot of different types of bread in our house...pita, hot dog rolls for veggie dogs, sandwich buns, bagels, tortillas, sub rolls...and there's no way I could keep that many types of bread around fresh and expect us to eat them before they turn. So we freeze a lot of breads. It's not optimal but it doesn't destroy them either...we go through them quickly enough that they rarely get freezer burnt. I leave sliced bread out of the freezer since we eat it quickly, and if I buy a good baguette or artisanal bread we don't freeze that, we gobble it usually within a matter of hours.

We keep a lot of meat analogues in our freezer, since these are a regular part of our diet. Boca Burgers and Morningstar Farms sausages are essential. We're always trying new meat analogues, so sometimes we have several open boxes in there.

We also store dried beans that have been partially or completely cooked and assorted leftovers. Erin (not edemuth) just bought me a new freezer so I can start using my veggie scraps for stock rather than pitching them into the compost heap directly.

I store our coffee in the freezer. We don't make coffee too often; it mostly gets brewed when we have guests in the house. So we buy really good organic coffee at the co-op we belong to and store it in the freezer where it stays fresher longer. It's easy to justify spending huge amounts per pound on coffee when it takes you several months to go through a bag.

[Wilfrid]

Another is prepackaged dough.

First a question.  I used to find pre-packaged frozen dough with ease when I lived in the UK.  I have been looking for it in New York for years, but only ever find blind pie cases, usually full of sugar.  What am I doing wrong?  Where is this stuff?

Thank you.  And also, thanks for the parmesan tip.  I have been keeping it in the fridge, and finding that it gets brown and crumbly before I ever finish it; I'll try the freezer.

I too use the freezer to keep stock, usually frozen into cubes in the ice tray.  Although frozen pastry is not ideal, I usually buy an excess of pork pies and sausage rolls when I visit Myers of Keswick, and some of them end up frozen.

One of the main uses of the freezer, however, is to keep some of my own cooked dishes which I think freeze okay - typically stews, braises, and casseroles.  If I am making, for example, tripes a la mode de Caen, braised oxtail, a cassoulet, or coq au vin, I find its worth making twice as much as I need, then freezing a few portions (I use plastic containers saved from Chinese takeaways).  I don't think these types of dishes suffer much from this treatment - and , in any case, a thawed out home made stew, if it's good, is better than a last-minute junk food purchase.

[Jinmyo]

Malawry, I thought I should mention that the FDA has approved quorn. Quorn is a meat analogue made from a kind of fungus. Very popular in Europe, it is much much much better than the Boca burger kind of stuff.

[Bux]

Not much in my freezer. Frozen Chinese dumplings for sure. most of the butcher shops in Chinatown make their own dumplings and wontons. We shop at Grand Sausage (Grand Street  beteen Mott and Mulberry) regularly and try to keep a couple of packages of dumplings on hand to boil up for a snack.

Usually some butter, as well as frozen stocks and concentrated meat glaces, tomato sauce, and home made ingredients. A portion of stews or soups will often go into the freezer for a night we don't want to cook, but now we're not talking ingredients anymore.

Bread. we'll put left over bread in the freezer. It stays much fresher.

[Liza]

Oh for a larger freezer...

Right now, there's homemade chicken, veal and beef stock in ice cube trays or ziploc bags of ice cubes. Butter. A homemade foie grase terrine that we chip pieces off of and toss into sauces. High Hope Hogs' scrapple and country sausage. Probably some andouille, too. Davy's got a collection of frozen hot peppers. And Girl Scout Thin Mints, now that they're in season. ("Hey, Pa! The Girl Scouts are runnin'!")

Interesting, I don't know if we have any plain ice. (Before 9/11 we had loads of fresh tomato sauces, too - some made from white tomatoes, some green, some red. Seriously probably lost 20 sauces. But I'll make up for 'em this summer. )

[col klink]

I think I posted this elsewhere, but I keep a lot of meats bought on sale (mostly pork and chicken) in my freezer and when the need arises, I smoke 'em.  I keep leftover stock in there and lots of carcusses (carci?) for future stocks.  I recently pulled out my smoked duck from Thanksgiving and it made a fantastic stock (my best really) for a risotto.  What else?  peas, ice cream sandwiches and leftover soups which later become lunches.

[Pitter]

In addition to a month's supply of Chinese dumplings, some stocks and artichoke bottoms (the only veg I really like frozen) I keep my tin of saffron in the freezer.  I buy it by the ounce, which is enough to last a lifetime, but usually go through it in a year or so as I give big clumps of it away as gifts.  I used to freeze Parm but found that it is then good for only grating, and since I like to eat it by the slice, I have found that triple wrapping it keeps it squeaky clean when stored in the coldest part of the fridge.

[Wilfrid]

Good practical tips which I'll actually use - thanks, Pitter.

[macrosan]

While I accept the necessity of freezing food, I have yet to find any food which doesn't taste worse for being frozen. I find the taste is blander, and in many foods the texture gets like cardboard.

My worst foods for this are fish, chicken, and bread, plus just about any cooked food.

Does anyone think freezing can improve certain foods ? (No, Tommy, you're NOT allowed to say ice-cream)

[Fat Guy]

What do you mean by improve? Is taste your sole criterion, or are you willing to entertain notions of texture, usability, and wholesomeness? For example, freezing salmon will kill off several harmful parasites, so that it can more safely be used for sashimi. Freezing is a natural tenderizer, and in some Asian recipes it is specified as the best way to get a hard-to-work-with cut of beef like the round into shape for very thin slicing. But no, I don't think freezing improves the taste of anything fresh that isn't meant to be served frozen.

[tommy]

ice cream.

[Malawry]

Malawry, I thought I should mention that the FDA has approved quorn. Quorn is a meat analogue made from a kind of fungus. Very popular in Europe, it is much much much better than the Boca burger kind of stuff.

I've heard it is now available in the US, but I haven't tried it yet. Has anybody else here?

I think meat analogues could be their own, very interesting thread. Well, interesting to ME anyways. Heh.

[Fat Guy]

Start that thread, for sure.