FREEZE

BY KATIE CAMPBELL

The freezer is the unsung hero of the kitchen - not only is it where the ice cream lives, it’s also the place where you can extend the shelf life of many kitchen staples

BATCH COOKING

Batch cooking is not new, but it is a great way to cook meals in preparation for when you might not have the time, energy or resources to cook something from scratch. Done safely, it’s a great way to ensure you have hardy, nutritious food available for when you need it. Soups, casseroles, stews and curries are all ideal for batch cooking, as it’s just a case of increasing the volume of food you’re making in one instance; for this reason, it’s also a great way to reduce food waste, especially for those of us living with a smaller number of people, when much of the food in the supermarket seems to be geared towards feeding the traditional family of four! A whole host of kitchen staples freeze really well - fruits and veg, meat, rice, milk, bread, and butter can all be frozen, which means there are a whole host of meals you can make that will keep well after batch cooking and give you the potential of having something tasty and home cooked that’s safely tucked away in the fridge or freezer until a later date.

SHELF STAPLES

As previously noted, so many things can go in the freezer to extend their shelf life and preserve their freshness if you’re not needing them immediately. Bread is a classic, and - according to the good folks at Lakeland - can be kept in the freezer for between four and six months. Most modern microwaves and toasters even have a setting to defrost bread, which is perfect for making sure you’re only using as much as you need at any given time, again cutting down on food waste and ensuring freshness. We’re also massive fans of freezing fruit and vegetables to be used whenever you need them: most supermarkets have pre-sliced or pre-prepared fruit and vegetables hanging around in their freezer aisles, although it’s a good idea to check the price of the pre-prepared stuff agains the fresh veg that you can prepare yourself in bulk if you’re okay to prep it yourself. However, the ready-to-use garlic, onions, little pots of herbs, and soup vegetable packs that you can get in the freezer isles of the supermarkets are absolutely brilliant, and mean you always have what you need on hand and ready to roll when you’re set on making a home cooked meal.

THAW SAFELY

Freezer, we love you, but we need to acknowledge that there is a slight caveat to all of this: some things need to be defrosted before you use them, and they need to be defrosted safely - especially meat. For the love of all that is good in this world, if you see a TikTok that tells you that it’s completely fine to defrost something in the dishwasher or something that sounds a bit “out there” like that, remember that it’s all fun and games until food poisoning makes you have to decide whether your face or bottom is going to use the toilet first. Food poisoning is not fun. Please. Trust us. Food safety is so important, and defrosting food correctly to prevent it going bad before you even get to enjoy it. This should not put you off freezing food, but you should be checking the right way to defrost what it is you’re going to cook and making sure you give it enough time to properly thaw out before you get cooking. Usually, the safest way to defrost something is to take it out in advance, pop it on a plate, cover it and set it down in the fridge so that the temperature can gradually come back up over time, preventing food from entering the so-called “danger zone” where harmful bacteria can multiply very quickly, leading to the aforementioned toilet conundrum. It’s also important to remember that you should check if you can re-freeze something; it’s often not safe to do this with meat, so sometimes it’s best to portion meat you intend to freeze into freezer bags and defrost them when needed. If in doubt, give it a Google, and see what a trusted source (like a government website) has to say about what you’re defrosting.