You can imagine, then, how thrilled I was when I got a call from Therese Madden, a reporter for WHYY in Philadelphia, who wanted to do a radio piece on freezing vegetables. The piece aired this morning, but you can also catch a listen here. What excites me about freezing vegetables is how utterly easy is it. In most cases, you blanch the vegetables, cool them off, stick them in a bag, and toss them in the freezer. Some vegetables, like peppers and corn, don’t even really need to be blanched. If you’re feeling fastidious (and I encourage this), you’ll keep a list of what you’ve got in there so you’ll remember to eat it later. And that’s it.

There are only so many ways to say “blanch, cool, bag, freeze,” so rather than repeat myself, I’ll link back to some older posts where I give this same advice, but with pictures. (oooh! ahhh! Oh, wait. They’re just pictures of freezer bags. Still: Illustrations!)

Beet greens, turnip greens, and greens in general (the last with a discussion of canning and dehydrating, too)
How to Freeze Pesto
Green Beans
Applesauce vs. Applesauce (hint: applesauce wins)

Enjoy, and happy harvesting!

Picked beets were a staple in my house as a kid growing up. My mother always goes for your basic pickled beet: nothing but white vinegar, water, and sugar. I usually do, too, but on Saturday my CSA included several heads of fennel. Fennel and beets are a natural pair, so the few dedicated beet-loving souls who attended the Saturday class left with a slightly more sophisticated product. If you don’t like fennel, no problem—just leave it out. If, on the other hand, you like a spicy pickled beet, feel free to add any of the following (but probably not all at once) to your pickling jars: peppercorns, cloves, allspice, star anise, dill heads, garlic, or strips of hot pepper.

Beets are a low-acid food, so please don’t change the proportion of vinegar to water. You can, however, use cider vinegar, so long as it’s at least 5% acidity. Finally, the purpose of the sugar is merely to counteract the tartness of the vinegar and preserve the color—it’s not really involved in the safety equation. Feel free to add more or less, depending on your taste, or to substitute brown sugar, raw sugar, or a sugar substitute. I can’t predict what making all of these kinds of changes will do to the color and texture of your beets, but so long as your acid is 5%, it’s safe for water-bath canning. Finally, be sure to wait several weeks to let the beets develop their full flavor. Then devour at leisure.

Pickled Beets with Fennel

About five pounds of beets
One long fennel frond, cut into seven pieces
7 peppercorns
3 1/2 c. distilled white vinegar (5%)
1 1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. sugar

1) Wash your beets, leaving the roots and 1″ of stems attached. Cook your beets your preferred way. Some options: pressure cooking, boiling, roasting, or wrapped in foil in the crock pot. Cool. If your beets are thoroughly cooked, the skins should slip right off. Leave small beets whole, but cut larger beets into bite-sized pieces (or slice, or quarter, or whatever appeals to you).

2) Make your canning solution. Combine the vinegar, water, and sugar in a small pan and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, heat water for a boiling water bath, warm your jar lids, and have 7 pint jars ready.

3) Place a piece of fennel and a single peppercorn in each jar. Transfer the beets to the jars and cover with hot syrup. Remove air bubbles and add more syrup if necessary, leaving 1/4″ headspace. Adjust two-piece lids. Process in a boiling-water bath for 30 minutes.

4) After the jars have cooled and you’ve checked for seals, be sure to remove the rings. The syrup is sticky, and the rings become difficult to remove if you leave them on too long. Once you’ve opened the jars, you might want to switch to a plastic lid, as the vinegar will quickly corrode a standard canning lid.

Can I just tell you how delicious this yellow mole is, and how grateful we should be that Rick Bayless exists to tell us hopeless gringos how to make such things? You really, really must make this. Besides being absolutely delectable, it’s a great use for frozen green beans! Heavens! This version turned out especially well because I used fresh, extra fatty chicken broth. I’m sure it’s still good and will do less damage to your arteries if you skim your stock. Warning: four guajillo chiles (pictured below) were too much for me. Two were too few. So, um, use three, or to taste?

Chicken with Yellow Mole (paraphrased and ever-so-slightly adapted from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Everyday)

3 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and torn into several pieces
1 pint roasted tomatoes
1/2 small white onion
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 t. ground cumin
4 c. fresh chicken broth
2 T. canola oil
2 c. cooked chicken (if you’re making broth, bingo! you’ve got chicken!)
1 T masa harina, or coarse cornmeal in a pinch
2 c. green beans (frozen are fine)
2 large or 4 small Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1″ pieces
Salt
Cilantro

1) Combine the torn chiles, tomatoes, onion, garlic, cumin, and 1 cup of the stock in a blender. Puree until smooth.

2) Heat up the oil in a large, heavy pot. Add the tomato-chili mixture and cook until it looks like a thick paste. Rick says it takes about 5 minutes; I needed closer to 20. Maybe that’s because I’m using about twice the tomatoes that he recommends. In any case, dragging a spoon through the mixture should leave a track.

3) Whisk the masa harina or cornmeal into the remaining stock, then add that to the chile-tomato mixture. Bring to a boil and simmer until it starts to get thick. Add the cooked chicken (ideally shredded), the green beans, and the potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are tender, then taste and adjust the seasonings.

Serve with warm tortillas. Hint: if it’s too spicy, eat it with yogurt. This gets better and better as it sits in the fridge, though I doubt it will last that long.

Pumpkin Pear Soup

1 quart frozen pumpkin
1 quart chicken broth, preferably homemade, or vegetable stock if you want a vegan soup
2 T olive oil or butter, if you’re doing local
1 large onion, chopped
3 ripe pears, peeled and diced, or 1 c. dried pears, chopped
2 or 3 sprigs fresh thyme
salt and pepper
1/2 c. white wine
parsley or cilantro for garnish

1) If you’re using dried pears, soak them in hot water for 20 minutes. Then drain and set aside.

2) Put the pumpkin and the stock in a soup pot and bring to a boil. Add some salt. Simmer for at least 20 minutes.

3) Meanwhile, heat up the oil or butter in a skillet. Turn down the heat to medium low and add the onions. Cook slowly until they start to caramelize, about 20 minutes. Now add pears (dried or fresh) and the thyme sprigs and keep cooking. You want everything to be soft and delicious and slightly brown. Salt helps.

4) Puree the pumpkin/stock mixture in a blender (you can skip this if your pumpkin is very smooth). Stir in the onions and pears (remove the thyme). Pour the wine into the skillet to deglaze it and let it cook for just a couple of minutes. Then toss the wine into the pot, too. Adjust the seasonings and garnish as desired.

This keeps several days in the fridge and freezes well.

My best latke tips:

1. Really wring out those potatoes. You’ll ruin a kitchen towel, but you’ll be much happier with the results.

2. Add a tablespoon or so of cottage cheese. Just trust me on this one.

3. Make sure your oil is really, really hot. Few among us have a deep frying thermometer these days, so I’ll characterize it like the Spanish would: it needs to be hot enough to brown a breadcrumb in 30 seconds.

4. Scoop out the latkes in a 1/3 c. measuring cup. Really pack it in there, the better to keep it together in the frying pan.

I’ve never met a latke that I didn’t like, but I’m especially partial to cheese latkes, potato and sweet potato latkes, and regular potato latkes with a handful of shredded carrots thrown in. Yours?

A note on meat vs. non-meat: I like my pork. Sometimes I throw in a ham end. Sometimes I use bacon. Sometimes I use bacon fat. And sometimes, I make it vegan. What you do is up to do.

Split Pea Soup in the Pressure Cooker

2 c. dried split peas
1 T. bacon fat or olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium or 1 large carrot, chopped
1 medium turnip, chopped
1 medium potato, chopped
1 medium sweet potato, chopped
a few sprigs of thyme
salt and pepper

1. Put the split peas with 4 c. water in a covered heat-proof bowl on the steamer rack in your pressure cooker. If you don’t have an appropriate bowl with a lid, just use a small mixing bowl covered with foil. (See pictures of this technique on this post on barley in the pressure cooker.) Add 1 c. water to the pressure cooker to create steam. Cover and lock the lid. Cook at 15 pounds pressure for 10 minutes.

2. Release the pressure and take the bowl out of the pressure cooker. Drain the liquid at the bottom of the pressure cooker, but keep the liquid in the split pea bowl. Set it aside.

3. Meanwhile, saute the onions and garlic in your chosen fat. I let mine get fairly brown. If you want to save time, do this in a separate pan while the split peas cook; if you want to save dishes, wait, and fry them up in the pressure cooker itself once you’ve taken out the bowl.

4. Combine the onions, the split peas and their liquid, the thyme, and all the vegetables in the pressure cooker. Add another cup of water or so. Close and lock the lid. Bring to pressure and cook for 3 mintes. Let the pressure drop of its own accord, then add salt and pepper to taste.

Variations: It’s soup. It’s mean to be flexible. Add or subtract soup vegetables as desired.

Beans: Let them hang on the plants for a very, very long time, ideally until the pods are brown. You probably won’t want to do this during the middle of the growing season, as it will discourage further bean production. Unless, of course, you’re trying to discourage bean production.

Tomatoes: The jury’s out on whether or not your plants will cross-pollinate. The internets tell me that tomatoes planted close together mostly self-pollinate, but that you should expect a cross-pollination of 5 to 10%. Also, remember that seeds from hybrid plants will not breed true. It’s only worth saving the seeds from heirloom tomatoes. Tomato seeds are encased in a protective coating that needs to be removed before you save the seeds. To do this, squeeze the seeds and pulp into a jar with some water and let it sit a few days. When it’s foamy and smells nasty, you’re done. Pour off the tomato bits and any seeds that float, rinse the remaining seeds in a few washes of water, and transfer them to a plate to dry.

Peppers: Alas, peppers are promiscuous. If you’re growing a bunch of peppers together, or if you garden in a community garden, chances are that your plants have cross-pollinated and the seeds will not breed true. Of course, if you’re interested in hobby plant breeding, save away! Just cut out the seeds and let them dry.

Cukes, zukes, and melons: No idea if they cross-pollinate, since mine almost always die. I did, however, get one gorgeous melon. Melon seeds also benefit from fermentation. Just treat them like tomatoes. Who knows what will sprout from those seeds next year?

Lettuces, arugula, spinach, basil, etc.: Just let them go to seed and collect the dried flowers.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes: Set a few aside for next year.

Flowers: Cut off the heads of some you like and dry them.

These are the only things that I’ve tried, but I’m curious to hear your experiences. Any words or caution or wisdom?