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FREEZING FOODSTUFFS

Someone asked me recently about freezing foodstuffs and was amazed at the variety of goods that I keep in my freezer - so here is a list of them. Some foodstuffs can be frozen for months and years and others only for weeks. Milk, yellow cheese, white cheese, cottage, choco, pastrami for short periods, butter and margarine for almost as long as you like and the same for: Flour (including self-raising), potato flour, corn flour, rice, breadcrumbs, matzah flour/meal and all kinds of dried peas, lentils, barley etc. and dried fruits such as figs, prunes, apricots, and nuts. Dried parsley and dill, as well as fresh parsley, dill, chives, celery and other small leaf herbs. Fresh lemon juice will keep for a year or even longer. And of course we must not forget all the fresh fish, chicken and meat goods, as well as those which we buy already frozen. As far as cooked foods are concerned there seem to be differences of opinion amongst chefs. However, I keep cooked meats, chicken and soups for months, but I have found it best to keep cooked rice, pasta and other cooked vegetables no longer than a couple of weeks as they sometimes change their consistency. A cooked quiche also keeps quite a long time in the freezer. Fresh cream cakes can be frozen, defrosted and frozen again (usually this will not repeat itself too often in our family!) as well as all kinds of bread and cakes, including yeast cakes and ready-made burekas. This is very useful, as it means that I am not too often caught out by unexpected visitors. LETTUCE How often when you buy a lettuce do you find that the outer leaves are not nice enough for that salad you are making? Once I accidentally froze two beautiful round lettuces, which left me with leaves that could not be used. I have since found an easy recipe for a wonderful soup where you can use those not so nice leaves which you can freeze until you make the soup. It takes very little time to prepare, and the soup can keep up to 3 months in the freezer:

SQUASH-LETTUCE SOUP

1/2kg squash, unpeeled and sliced 1 tblsp. dried onions or l medium sized fresh onion, chopped 3/4 liter vegetable stock or chicken powder soup 1 medium lettuce shredded 4 tblsp. chopped parsley or chives salt, pepper to taste. Put squash, onions and stock in saucepan and simmer until squash is soft (about 15 minutes). Add shredded lettuce and cook for 5 minutes. Cool and then blend until smooth. Leave to stand for 3 hours or overnight. When reheating add milk or cream and stir in parsley/chives or add these to the earlier cooking, which I prefer.

BARGAIN HUNTING

I am a bargain-cum-discount buyer by nature. A very large percentage of the food in my fridge, freezer and food cupboards has been purchased when there were sales on for frozen, fresh and tinned goods. Main ingredients for being a bargain buyer:

1. Having a good memory for prices - never believe what is written on the sales notices where they cross out a price and show a marked-down price.

2. Knowing what items you usually buy on a permanent basis and noting how often this sale is repeated, because in most supermarkets, about 70% of the time, this item will come up again for sale in about 6 months or even less. For example we go through a lot of Velveta body and hand cream and nearly every half year it is available at 1+1 at the correct price. So I buy sufficient to last me 6 months.

3. Checking the newspaper for current discounts on items that are important to you, and in particular noting the expiry dates of these offers and whether you have to purchase a certain amount of other goods before being eligible for these offers. In these instances I very often buy together with a friend, so that if we have to spend NIS150 to make use of a particular offer, it is usually quite easy for each of us to buy our ordinary needs for NIS 75 each.

4. Vegetables for daily usage: here I try to buy only what is in season, when the prices are far lower. A very big variety of fruit and vegetables is inexpensive in season and you can usually adapt your salads and cooking accordingly. So go bargain hunting