How to freeze fresh eggplant for the winter
How to freeze eggplants for the winter while preserving the maximum of nutrients? Does their taste deteriorate after freezing? Consider in stages the process of preparing for freezing and its subtleties.
The best way to preserve the nutrients in eggplant is to freeze it.
Freezing allows you to save up to 80% of vitamins and other nutrients in eggplants. In order for thawed eggplants after defrosting and cooking to have a pleasant taste, you need to follow several rules for pre-processing vegetables.
Eggplants are frozen whole or sliced, depending on how you plan to use them later. Before freezing, vegetables are subjected to short-term heat treatment in one of the following ways:
- Blanching. To do this, eggplants, cut into cubes or rings, are placed in a metal sieve, dipped for a minute in a saucepan with boiling water.
- Baking. The whole eggplants are baked in the oven until soft, after cooling, the skin is removed.
- Eggplants, whole or cut into slices, are fried in a pan with a little oil until soft. To remove the bitterness, you can first soak the eggplant in salted water, and then fry it.
Eggplants prepared by one of these methods are dried, put in sealed trays and sent to the freezer. However, you can do without heat treatment, observing the rules for the preparation and storage of vegetables.
How to freeze fresh eggplant
It is worth freezing raw eggplants only if they are stored at a temperature not exceeding –12 ° C. The maximum shelf life without losing the taste of the product is 5 months.
Before freezing, raw eggplants are cut into cubes, strips, slices. The main thing is that the pieces are not very thick and the same size. This will ensure they are frozen quickly and evenly.
Chopped vegetables can be removed from the bitterness and excess moisture in two ways:
- Soak in salt water for a couple of hours, squeeze out and let dry.
- Sprinkle with salt and press down with a press. An inverted pot lid and a water bottle can perform its role. When the eggplant juice is released, it must be drained, the vegetables are rinsed and dried.
After these procedures, the eggplants are frozen.
Eggplants are thawed in portions, they cannot be re-frozen. Pre-fried vegetables can be reheated directly in the pan, they will be cooked in just 5 minutes. If they are frozen raw, the cooking time will be longer. Only vegetables frozen in whole or in large pieces should be defrosted beforehand.
Knowing how to freeze eggplants correctly, you can pamper your loved ones with delicious vegetable stew, hodgepodge or other dishes made from these vegetables even in winter.