Harvesting fresh cucumbers and zucchini for the winter
Pickled cucumbers and sauce zucchini in winter are very popular, with their help you can slightly diversify a meager diet. However, preservation cannot completely replace fresh vegetables that you so want to taste. In order not to wander around the shops in search of expensive imported vegetables stuffed with nitrates, fresh cucumbers and zucchini can be prepared for the season using the freezer.
Freezing zucchini
Young zucchini must be pre-processed:
- wash;
- peel off;
- peel the pulp with seeds.
Blank zucchini for the winter can be done in several ways:
- Freeze in circles... In this case, you do not need to peel the pulp, just cut off the skin. Cut the zucchini into slices at least 1 cm thick. Dip all the circles in flour on both sides, put on a board or tray and place in the freezer. Then they can be put into small boxes or sorted into packages.
- Freeze the grated mass. Use a grater depending on the further use of vegetables: for pancakes - take larger, for pancakes - less. Put the grated zucchini in a colander to drain the juice. Then spread the mass into molds. No need to add water!
- Freeze with cubes. A very convenient way to prepare zucchini for stews.
Frozen zucchini slices must be fried without first defrosting so that the vegetables remain intact during the frying process.
Another way to freeze zucchini is to pre-fry the zucchini. Cool ready-made vegetables and arrange them in trays. In this case, they should be defrosted before use.
Freezing cucumbers
The advantage of this method of harvesting cucumbers, like freezing, is that it allows you to preserve all the taste of vegetables. The aroma and taste of frozen cucumbers is the same as if they had just been plucked from the garden.
For freezing, it is advisable to use small young cucumbers.
Vegetables must be washed well, allowed to drain off excess water and peeled off, because when freezing it becomes lethargic, while the cucumber pulp itself perfectly retains a dense structure.
Depending on the purpose of vegetables, they can be cut:
- medium cubes - for Olivier;
- slices - for vegetable salads.
Put the chopped cucumbers into bags at once, squeeze the air out of them and close tightly.