Salaam Gori Wife :)
I was wondering, you mentioned a couple of times on your blog that your MIL cooks a bunch of food for you and then freezes it. I'm going to visit my brother in 2 weeks and wanted to do the same for him. What kind of stuff does she cook for you? How about vegetables? Do different kinds of daal freeze well? Also how exactly does she freeze the stuff? Does she use proper containers or Ziploc bags? Any advice would be helpful...
Thanks so much,
Faiqa
Can I just bask in the glory of having the great Faiqa ask ME a question?
I'm going to need a minute.
(....)
Okay.
So, my MIL cooks everything for us when she's here and almost all Pakistani food freezes really well. The only vegetables I can think of that don't freeze well are things like potatoes & shaljam, maybe predominantly starchy things? Potatoes come out of the freezer falling apart - really powdery - it screws up the texture entirely. Carrots are a bit like this too, in fact most vegetables will come out a little mushier, but in general bhaji is supposed to be kind of mushy, so the only ones that I think are so bad that I won't do it anymore are potatoes and shaljam.
Also things like dhunya and hari mirch left on top of the food, sometimes we would put some on top and then freeze it, but the leafy stuff doesn't come back out well unless it's already mixed into the dish. We also always make sure to mix in all the lawazmatt - all those things (hari mirch, ginger, dhuniya, lemon, browned onions, etc.) used as toppings on dishes like Nihari, Haleem, Khichri and stuff because getting all that stuff together can be a real pain later and as long as you know the ratio of toppings that the person likes, it doesn't effect the dish to have it frozen in there.
Daals are really good in the freezer, but they get a little smushier. So like, a really gloppy moong/masoor mix will come out almost the same but a Daal Gosht with channa where the channa is supposed to mostly hold its individual shape will come out a bit smushier. (Also, sometimes my MIL will do a second tarka for daal, not because it thaws out blander, but because she says it makes it smell fresher. I never do that, but then again I generally add a lot of tarka in the first place.)
And ground meats are like that too, like shami kabobs and kofta, will get a little smushier after thawing out.. I find that as long as I freeze it cooked (rather than raw kabobs) and I let it thaw out completely before I start messing with it, it makes the reheat better. Trying to fry up raw, thawed out shami kabobs has always ended in heartache for me, so I always cook them first, then freeze them. And I (try to) let most things thaw out completely before reheating. So with Daal Gosht or Kofta, microwaving it and stirring it before it's totally reheated will result in a lot more broken kofta/daal. Although, if you're in a hurry it still tastes as good, though! And the koftas end up broken anyway, right!
Suprisingly, rice also freezes pretty well. Freezing doesn't seem to affect the texture or flavor of the rice, it just seems to affect the size - the rice will break up a little after thawing. We freeze briyanis and pulaos and even plain white rice. Before I had a kid, I make huge pots full of rice and then froze them into single portions or dinner-for-two size portions so that M could just take some out in the morning along with an entree of his choice and I wouldn't have to make his lunch or our dinner at all while we were dealing with the newborn stage.
Another thing that freezes remarkably well is any kind of naan/roti/paratha, so whenever I make daal ki roti or aloo ki roti (the aloo is mashed so the consistency thing doesn't matter so much) I always layer them on a large plate with a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap in between, then stick the plate in the freezer for a couple of hours. I've always frozen them raw, but when my MIL was here this time, she halfway-cooked them first and that seemed a lot easier. When it's frozen, I just pop the whole stack into a big ziploc bag and then over the course of several months, I can use the paper layers to just peel off one or two as needed rather than have to go through the whole hassle of making such a difficult dish again. Otherwise we'd probably never eat daal ki roti or paratha.
My MIL always just uses ziploc bags, but be careful to fold the edges down, like how you would fold down the edges of a garbage bag when you put it in the can (<------ sorry if that's not very explanatory) so that as you're putting the salaan in the bag the zip part of the bag doesn't get all messed up. Also, we always make a place in the freezer where the bag can lay completely flat as it freezes so it doesn't turn into some unwieldily thing that takes up all your freezer space. When we're really stocking up the freezer with lots of ziploc bags, we just keep laying them on to of each other so they freeze (relatively) flatly, and then when you just have only a few left you can even store them vertically. We do always use the freezer variety of bags, in both quart and gallon sizes.
Urdu words used above, in order of appearance:
Shaljam - Turnip.
Bhaji - Any kind of cooked mixed vegetable curry.
Dhunya - Cilantro.
Hari mirch - Green (hari) chilis (mirch).
Lawazmatt - Accessories.
Nihari - A Pakistani spicy beef curry dish. We've talked about it before.
Haleem - A dish of meat, spices and various pulses (barley, rice, etc.) cooked until it's all mush.
Khichri - Like Haleem without the meat, various pulses (mostly lentils and rice) cooked into mush.
Daal - Lentils, or a Pakistani dish made predominantly of lentils, usually cooked into a mush.
Moong/Masoor - two different kinds of lentils. There are lots of different kinds of lentils.
Daal Gosht - A dish of lentils cooke with big chunks of meat in it. (gosht = meat)
Channa - Another kind of lentil, a bit bigger in size. Like a "split pea" but yellow.
Tarka - A garnish added to daal before it's served, usually some fried spices.
Shami kabob - ground beef with some ground lentils in the mixture, shaped and fried into patty kabobs.
Kofta - Pakistani meatballs and gravy.
Briyani - A Pakistani dish of layered rice and curried meat and/or veggies.
Pulao - A Pakistani dish of meat and/or veggies cooked with rice, kind of less spicy and kind of more soupy than briyani.
Naan/Roti/Paratha - 3 different kinds of Pakistani flatbreads.
Daal ki Roti - a flattened, thin pita-like bread (roti) stuffed with a spicy lentil mixture.
Aloo ki Roti - bread stuffed with spiced potato (aloo) mixture.
Salaan - soup or gravy that accompanies many Pakistani curry dishes.
*Urdu speakers, p lease feel free to correct any inaccuracies.
7 comments:
I also cook and freeze a lot. I never freeze any veggies cuz of the texture issue. I'll have to try freezing rice next time to see how that works out.
Daals freeze really well. I would say cook and partially season but add a fresh baghaar and garnishes after re-heating, don't know if Faiqa's bro is up to that, but you can freeze with the baghaar on already. Big legumes freeze wonderfully, lobhia, raajma, cholay, and all.
Meat saalans of any kind freeze well, koftas (never had a break apart problem), all meat kabaabs. With chicken it gets risky, the re-heater has to do it oh so gently so that the chicken doesn't fall apart. Chicken kabaabs are okay, tho.
For me the main issue with freezing is preventing freezer burn. I use tupperwares and put a layer of saran wrap on the top, also make sure the food is totally cooled before covering and freezing.
That's so sweet of Faiqa to want to cook for her bro. Good luck to her w/that.
Wow! You seem to have covered it all so well! I felt right at home with this post! If you're a little pickier about your rice, you can always freeze biriyani masala and just make the rice fresh on the day. Something my Mum does often!
Channa is also known as Chickpea. :)
my mom freezes cut raw veggies. it makes it easier to throw them in to cook.
I also found that no matter how well wrapped, meats freezer burned faster than everything else.
The other thing my mom used to do when I was in grad school was to freeze grated, seasoned and cooked pyaaz, so that I could just take it out and spoon some into a daal I was making on the slow cooker, so that besides adding the lentils and water, I was pretty much done with cooking it and could come home to it after class. I never thought about freezing flatbreads before. I'll have to try that the next time I make paranthas to see how it goes.
The vast majority of vegetables can be frozen raw & come out fine for cooking. They're often healthy than fresh actually, in the US - fresh vegis lose their nutrients fairly quickly. So unless you're planning on cooking fresh vegetables within a day or two of purchasing them, you're better off with frozen vegetables that were flash frozen hours after being picked.
Yep I have more of these but it is more for working cooks who have little time, and I don't know how Faiqa's bro does in the kitchen so some of the tips like making a biriani ka saalan and then freezing it and layering it w/ fresh rice are super time savers...but only if the cook can do the rice.
I love that word lawaazimaat, I am guessing it is from laazim, maybe it means necessities? I have never heard it used like that before, I just called the garnishes "hara masaala," but I am gonna say lawaazimaat from now on cuz it sounds super cool and extra Urdu-ish.
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