When I made my Beef Bourguignon video a few months ago (weeks ago?) my mom said: “There was enough there to feed an army!”
She was right. Unfortunately, my army left me after I instituted a mandatory manicure policy, and that stew went to waste. Well tonight I encountered a similar situation: I had a ton of leftover Kadjemoula (I ate more of it for dinner, and it was even more delicious than it was yesterday. It aged extraordinarily well.) I know I can’t eat it tomorrow or the next day (late classes, etc.) so I decided to freeze it. I have no idea if this is a good idea.
Is this a good idea? Is this safe? How long will it freeze for? Answers to these questions will be most appreciated and may help me avoid getting dysentary. Much obliged!
Hi Adam,
Whenever I make stews or casseroles I always make more and then freeze it in seperate portions.
One it cuts down the price of the stew and two its nice to know in the morning you can take it out the freezer and in the evening you just have to heat the food through – very good for those lazy days when you want to eat well, but can’t be bothered to cook.
In terms of safety, if it’s a seperate freezer rather than one in your fridge (this may be a british thing) then it should be fine for a couple of months or so. Just make sure it’s thoroughly defrosted and warmed through before you eat it.
Enjoy.
PS. Love the blog.
Yah, ditto what Sarah said minus the British separate freezer thing. NYC mod-income apartment = no room for extra large extra appliance like freezer. But freezing, yeah, I always make soups and stews in quantity and freeze them for later consumption. The only thing is that cooked potatoes tend to deteriorate and get nasty in the freezer, so I either freeze potato-less things or I leave the potatoes out for the freezer portions. Once you’ve done it for a while, you begin to figure out which dishes freeze well and which ones suffer in the freezer.
Get a FoodSaver. No freezer burn and you can freeze things for up to two years. Screw Ziplock – FOODSAVE!
I freeze things with potatoes all the time. They fall apart a little but not enough to worry about.
Frozen mashed potatoes taste just fine if you add a little butter and cottage cheese when reheating. The cottage cheese melts so you don’t notice it but it somehow helps restore the flavor.
You might want to freeze it in smaller portions … enough for one person. This way you can thaw whichever amount you need rather than have to thaw that whole chunk. Those cheapo ziploc type containers work very well. Plus if you find yourself freezer-space challenged, its better to use square containers than weird shaped ones as you make better use of the space you have.
I have no clue about that “different freezer” issue though. I’ve frozen stews and casseroles and eaten them later without a problem.
Listen to my man: FoodSave. I bought my husband a foodsaver 4 years ago and it has made our lives so much easier. I swear – he food saves everything. He makes chicken stock on the weekends, and foodsaves it in 2 or 4 Cup packages – makes things so much easier when cooking. He does the same for spaghetti sauce. We also FoodSave left overs – they can be boiled, nuked or defrosted without sacrificing the integrity of the ingredients and/or meal. If my husband could FoodSave me, he would. I swear by my life on it. My husband would swear by our marriage on it. Just FOODSAVE IT. FoodSaver is available at Target or Amazon or any other major retailer.
Wait a second…do you guys work for FoodSaver?
;)