News from the Garden: Freezing okra for the winter

There's only so much okra I can eat.

I finally googled a method to freeze the gazillion okra (and other vegetables, for that matter) from the garden to save for the winter.

I know my future self will look in retrospect and thank me, especially when I return from Singapore with a whole bunch of sambal belachan to fry the okra in!


Method:

1. Wash and clean okra and separate them into two piles - younger pods (4 inches and under) and larger pods.

2. Carefully slice off the heads of each okra, taking care not to expose the seed cells on the inside.

3. Prepare a big pot of boiling water at the same time, so when you're done slicing off the heads you can place the okra in the boiling water immediately.

4. Start either with the younger pods, or the larger pods first. Blanch younger pods for about 3-4 minutes and larger pods 4-5 minutes.

5. After blanching, dunk okra in another pot of ice cold water to cool okra immediately. Apparently this prevents overcooking. I leave them in the cold water for about 5 minutes while I blanch the next group of okra pods.

6. Drain cooled off okra in a strainer.

7. When okra is sufficiently drained, I divide okra into meal-sized portions. I place these portions in a Food Saver bag and vacuum seal them.



Now J and I found a FoodSaver for real cheap at Goodwill. We bought the FoodSaver + FoodSaver bags for a grand total of $6.99! What a steal! And we'd seen them in the stores going for at least $100! Just buying a roll of FoodSaver bags cost about $10, so yea, it's definitely a steal!

But if you don't have a FoodSaver, you can the more common Zip Loc bags. It doesn't ensure a proper vacuum seal, but I guess it's the next best option.

Guess I'll be doing this with my zucchini and squash soon!