Tips To Freeze Food For A Week(lunch/dinner)?

Discussion in 'Recipe Central' started by anika987, Jun 25, 2022.

  1. anika987

    anika987 IL Hall of Fame

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    I am leaving to India in two weeks.I am planning to freeze food both lunch and dinner for hubby atleast for one week.I have never frozen food before.

    1) He wants more of lentils and legumes (chickpeas,rajma stuff like that) to be frozen.will those foods taste good and not go spoilt if he takes frozen food to office?

    2) Can I cook vegetables and also aloo and freeze it?

    3) Will paneer/tofu be good for a week?

    4) Can I leave the cooked food in regular fridge or it should be frozen?

    5) What foods should not be frozen?

    6) what kind of containers to use to freeze food?

    Freezing tips 101 please:)

    My worry is after all the work..I do not want food to go spoilt:( it has to be good for atleast a week.


    Also,what others foods can be cooked and frozen for more than a week?
     
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  2. MalStrom

    MalStrom IL Hall of Fame

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    Chickpeas, rajma and dal will freeze well. Potatoes won’t. If you’re just making for 1 week then fridge will be fine. Just put it on the colder setting.
     
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  3. Vedhavalli

    Vedhavalli Platinum IL'ite

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    Check this youtube channel Lifeadmin 365
     
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  4. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Have a fun trip! I know you were looking forward to it.

    It’ll taste good but he has to take it to office frozen and warm it during lunch time. In those hours between going from the freezer to thawing it won’t have time to get spoiled.

    I’ve tried everything aviyal, sambhar, dals, mutter paneer, parathas, Payasam etc. Everything except Aloo. All those other things froze well.
    Not in the fridge but kadai paneer freezes very well.
    Freezer.

    Except thayir, nothing else comes to mind. Even idli batter, I’ve frozen.

    ziploc freezer bags alone.

    . In single use quantities. In freezer safe ziploc quart bags. Cook, cool properly, portion to Ziploc bags. Flatten the ziploc bags. Remove all the air and seal well. Food should be flattened. Now freeze it in the flat format on a plate or some oven dish. Once it’s completely frozen, you can take it out and keep it standing in any sort of plastic storage basket in the freezer, one after the other. That’s how you save space and keep enough food

    I’ve come back to a freezer full of food minus batters because Daddy decided to cook for the kids so always check before you embark on this. He told me when I came back that the kids didn’t want any of those things.

    Dry subzis, dals, sambhar, lentils, etc. I also suggest upma mix and adai mix that can be easily mixed with water and cooked. Podis, chutneys, thokku etc are also good to keep. Again ask before you make it all!
     
  5. 1Sandhya

    1Sandhya Platinum IL'ite

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    Sorry to hijack thread Anika but this caught my attention
    Hey Laks ,
    How??!!! Can you explain the procedure for this? I’m not going anywhere abut even at home my idly batter goes flat within 2-3 days in my fridge.
    My process is that I make around 32 idlies worth of batter (for two times), ferment the lot in a huge steel vessel (to contain overflow because it rises quite a bit). Batter rises beautifully, idlies are like fluffy pillows. I use up half the batter (get great idlies) and place said giant vessel in fridge covered with plate. 2-3 days later when I do second batch the idlies are flat. In desperation I’ve resorted to making all the idlies on the first day itself (in which case they come out fine) but then storing 32 idlies becomes a problem. What or where am I going wrong? Ideally I want to be able to make extra batter and store it and get puffy idlies the second time also.
    Note: If I mess around too much with risen batter by transferring it here there also the idlies go flat, which is why I minimum disturb the batter and leave it in the vessel it fermented originally.
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2022
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  6. Laks09

    Laks09 Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    I grind and ferment the batter well. I add salt to it and mix it up. I split batter in fourths. I add it to gallon ziploc bags. I don’t flatten these. Double bag it without air. Freeze it.
    When required, I have the DH remove it and put it on the counter top in a dish full of room temp water overnight. By morning it’s fluffy and nice. If it’s summers, I can put it in the garage and use it within a few hrs. I don’t do this often. Only when I’ve travelled when both kids were little.

    But I live it the boiler here. Not sure how it will turn out where you are at.

    I always have to get the batter back to room temperature before I can make the next batch of idlis. If I don’t, I always get idlis not as good as the first time.
    I always split it in fourths and keep it in Pyrex containers in the fridge. I don’t put a steel ladle into the batter until I’ve added salt and mixed it and portioned it out(don’t ask. Amma does it. Who knows why). Only in the last portion of the batter do I add a steel ladle and pour it into the moulds. If you refrigerate your batter, try bringing it to room temp and see if that helps.

    I also add cooked rice to my urad dal. Amma does it too. She says that’s what makes the idlis fluffy. I add a handful of cooked rice to the urad dal to soak and while grinding use that fermented water.
    Amma says it has health benefits. I don’t know. I just do it !
     
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  7. Thoughtful

    Thoughtful Gold IL'ite

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    I will tell the science behind, it's upto you on how you are able to apply successfully.

    The reason idlies are fluffy are because of the Ural daal. When fermented, urad daal raises and is on top. Rice flour goes to the bottom. We make idlies from the top where the Ural daal percentage is Max and get the soft idlies. Day 2 we are left with rice flour percentage as max and we lose the sponginess.

    Dividing the batter into smaller vessels, we split the Ural daal a bit more evenly. So better results.

    So what is the ideal way to do it.

    We have to beat the flour well ( hands might be more effective, but with ladle we have to do more). We have to do this after grinding ( which we normally do ). But spend few more minutes to get more air inside the flour and have the Ural daal mix well.

    The day of making the idli, again beat well. The thing is, the more we beat the better. Even if we leave it for 5 minutes, rice will go down. So for every 4 idlies you pour, beat again for the next four idlies.

    This way you will have the remaining flour with a good proportion of Ural daal and rice flour.

    There are few other things to it. Given that Ural daal plays a big part in fluffiness, what is the right ratio of rice and Ural daal.

    It depends on quality of the Ural daal. After grinding and before mixing, you want to make sure your Ural daal flour is risen and fluffy and spongy. I would say the urad daal flour quantity should at least be a third of the rice flour.

    This doesn't mean the urad daal we soak is one third to the rice. In my case I soak 1 and quarter cups of urad daal and 7 cups rice. The urad daal flour is about a third or a bit more to the rice flour.

    Hope all of this adds up.

    Good luck, looking forward to hearing your results!!
     
  8. hrastro

    hrastro Platinum IL'ite

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    You might get some ideas from this thread - saves a lot of prep work if people you are leaving behind can do basic stuff...
    For instance, if you boil and freeze rajma and freeze the bhuna gravy, he can thaw them, mix them together, add some powders and tadka and make some rice ?

    Many of the posts are suitable for your use case.
    How do YOU keep your kitchen always ready ?
     
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  9. anika987

    anika987 IL Hall of Fame

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    No worries :)
     
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  10. anika987

    anika987 IL Hall of Fame

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    Awesome tips guys..

    Also can I use glass boxes with compartments..I saw some on Amazon ..10 for $45..can I use those to freeze?

    I thought I will date every box by day and have dal,sabzi in the same box so that my hubby can just take it directly to office and microwave it
     

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