Many, just hearing about frozen potatoes, immediately remember those disgusting kind of tubers that are obtained after the frozen potatoes bought on the market thaw in the heat. But frozen potatoes by all the rules have nothing to do with those sold in the winter on the market.

Potatoes are perfectly frozen not only raw, well, or almost raw, but also fried.

But in order to get a high-quality semi-finished product, you need to choose for this the right potatoes... After all, the result depends on which variety will be chosen for freezing. Potatoes with less starch and sugar are suitable for freezing. Feels very good in freezer seven-eyed or pink-skinned potatoes. Potatoes should be dense, even, without eyes and all kinds of depressions (from pests or mechanical stress).

How to prepare potatoes for freezing

• Tubers wash well. To do this, they are poured with cold water and kept in it for some time. After that, all the dirt is very easy to wash off, armed with a brush.
• The potatoes are then peeled and immediately placed in cold water. If this is not done, the potatoes turn black. And also, due to soaking, part of the starch passes into the water.

How to freeze whole potatoes

For freezing whole potatoes, it is better to take small tubers.

• Prepared tubers are blanched before freezing. Prepare two pots of water in advance. Ice water is poured into one pan, and the second is put on fire.
• Clean potato tubers are dipped in boiling water and blanched for about five minutes.
• Then they are taken out with a slotted spoon and immediately placed in cold water, in which it is desirable to put pieces of ice.
• The cooled potatoes are laid out on a towel and dried well. Potatoes can be blotted with paper towels. If the potatoes are frozen wet, they will be covered with an ice crust.
• The dried potatoes are placed in freezer bags or zip-fastened plastic bags, deflated and sealed.
• The bags are placed in the freezer.

If the potatoes are large, then they are cut into several pieces or into cubes and frozen in the same way.

To prevent potatoes from sticking together into one large lump during freezing, they can be frozen in two stages. First, the potatoes are laid out in one layer on a tray, placed in the freezer and wait until the potatoes are frozen. And then they are packaged in packages.

Before cooking, potatoes are not thawed, but immediately put either in broth or in a pan with butter. You can also put such potatoes on a baking sheet, season with various spices, sprinkle with oil and bake in the oven until light brown.

How to freeze potatoes in strips

• Peeled and washed potatoes are cut into strips or grated on a special grater.
• To prevent the potatoes from darkening, they are immediately dipped in a bowl of cold water. The potatoes are washed, placed in a colander, and then immersed again in clean, cold water. This is done so that some of the starch is washed out of the potatoes.
• Then potato strips put in a colander and directly in it dipped in boiling water for three minutes. After blanching, the same potatoes are immersed in cold water and cooled.
• Spread the chopped potatoes on a dry clean towel and dry.
• The potatoes prepared in this way are laid out on a tray covered with foil and put into the freezer for a while so that the slices freeze.
• Then the potatoes are laid out in small portions in bags, air is removed from them, if possible, and sealed or tied.

Video recipe for the occasion:

How to freeze French fries

To make the straws long, take large potatoes - the length of the intended straws.

• Peeled and washed potatoes are cut into large cubes or strips and poured over with cold water. Rinse thoroughly to remove the released starch and transfer to new clean water. It is advisable to change the water two or three times.
• Then water is poured into a saucepan, brought to a boil and a colander is placed on it so that the bottom of the colander does not come into contact with the surface of the water.
• Pour some potato straws, cover the colander with a lid and leave the straws in this peculiar double boiler for three to four minutes. During this time, the potatoes should be slightly stewed.
• After that, the potatoes are sprinkled sunflower oil and mix.
• The straws are laid out in one layer on a tray and put into the freezer.
• When the potatoes freeze and become tough, they are poured into portioned bags, well closed, after removing the air, and put into the freezer.

To prepare French fries, the frozen straws are taken out of the freezer and, without defrosting, dipped in hot boiling oil.

You can also freeze ready-made fries by placing them on paper napkins to drain off excess fat, then wrapping them in a freezer bag and putting them in the freezer. Such potatoes are also not defrosted, but heated in the microwave or oven.

Many people ask if it is possible to freeze potatoes without pre-blanching. This is where opinions differ. Some say that it is impossible to eat potatoes after such a freeze, as they turn black and become sweet.

Others, on their own, were convinced that potatoes practically do not change either color or structure. If, of course, you immediately cut the potatoes, wash them in several waters, rinse off the starch, dry them quickly with a towel and just as quickly place them in the freezer for primary freezing, laying them out in one layer on a tray.

Apparently, the result depends on the variety of potatoes, and on the power of the freezer, and on the agility of the hostess. If the hostess doubts the effectiveness of this method, you can freeze a small batch of the selected potatoes, and then check in practice how it will behave after defrosting.

With the arrival of autumn, thrifty housewives begin to prepare food for the winter. To all famous recipes canning and pickling vegetables, allow you to make tasty preparations in banks. But fruits and vegetables can not only be rolled up in jars, but also frozen in an ordinary home refrigerator. Moreover, absolutely any vegetable, including potatoes, can be frozen. This method of preparing semi-finished products will save time for cooking delicious dishes for the whole family. But before you send the vegetable to the freezer, you need to carefully prepare it.

To freeze potatoes you will need:

• Potato tubers.
• Grater.
• Bowl, saucepan, colander.
• Plastic containers with lids or bags.

Let's start freezing

Fill a deep saucepan with half of the water and put it on fire. We put a bowl of cold water next to it. The diameter and depth of the bowl must be large enough to allow a colander to be lowered into it.

Carefully peel the potatoes, grate them with large holes or chop them on a food processor. At home, you can prepare a semi-finished product for making French fries. To do this, cut the peeled and washed potatoes into cubes. Place the chopped vegetable in cold water.

After that, take out a colander and place it in a bowl of cold water. After dipping the potatoes in water, sprinkle them on a paper towel for final drying.

As soon as all the moisture is absorbed into the towel, we move the vegetable into plastic containers or bags, and send it to the freezer.

A few subtleties of freezing

Potatoes, frozen for the winter in a raw, not boiled until half cooked form, quickly become sweet and unusable. Therefore, proper preparation is very important in this case.

Even if the freezing process at home was correct, if necessary, the potatoes are not thawed, but immediately sent to the pan or oven.

Before you freeze a vegetable, you can not boil it, but simmer it in a double boiler. However, before that, it is very important to keep the peeled and chopped potatoes in cold water for an hour. Moreover, it is recommended to change the water every 15-20 minutes.

If you made fries from fresh vegetable and it turned out that it turned out to be a lot, you can freeze the prepared dish in the freezer. To do this, lay out the vegetable on a paper towel to get rid of excess fat. Then we place the product in a bag or container and send it to the freezer compartment.

Especially creative housewives recommend freezing mashed potatoes. To do this, we place the finished dish in a pastry bag and use it to create beautiful nests. We put the resulting blanks in bags and send them to the freezer. If necessary, the semi-finished product is sent to the microwave or to a frying pan, and the middle is filled with an egg. The result is original appetizer or a dish for breakfast.

Thus, freezing potatoes is a great way to preserve the product for a long time without losing everything. beneficial features vegetable. In this matter, the preliminary preparation of the product is very important, which consists in cooking potatoes until half cooked.

Making blanks for future use by freezing is an excellent solution. Most housewives harvest vegetables, fruits or herbs for the winter. Not many people know, but potatoes can also be frozen, which will significantly save time for cooking. Frozen peeled product is prepared in various ways: whole, chopped, fried and even boiled. But certain conditions must be observed during preliminary preparation vegetable so that it does not spoil.

Of course, this vegetable can be stored in the freezer. But there are certain conditions that must be met in preparation for freezing. If you ignore these rules, the potatoes will simply go bad. In addition, not all potato varieties are suitable for storage in this way.

How to choose the right potato

For storage in winter, choose young potatoes with a low content of starch and sugar. This is due to the fact that during the freezing process, the starch contained in the tubers is converted into sugar, as a result of which the vegetable will change its taste qualities... The potato will develop an unpleasant sweet taste.

It is important to pay attention to the condition of the vegetables: the density of the surface, the absence of eyes and indentations from the effects of pests indicate that the vegetable will be perfectly preserved.

Vegetable preparation

Preparation begins with cleaning the potatoes from dirt. To do this, you need to place the tubers in water so that they get wet. After that, with the help of a brush, the vegetables are perfectly washed.

Then, having rid the product of the peel, it is required to immediately place it in cold water. This treatment prevents the tubers from darkening and also helps to reduce the starch content (it goes into the water).

How to freeze potatoes?

It is possible to prepare potatoes for the winter, taking into account home conditions, not only whole, but also in finished form eg freeze mashed potatoes. Several are suggested below. step by step instructions for freezing potatoes.

Wholly

For freezing whole potatoes, small tubers are acquired. More large vegetables cut in half or in four parts - depending on the size of the vegetable.

• Washed and cleaned raw potatoes, for starters, blanched. To do this, you need to put two pots on the stove, bring water to a boil in one of them, and pour ice into the other.
• First, the tubers are dipped in boiling water and blanched for 4-5 minutes. The vegetables are then immediately transferred to a pot of cold liquid and left to cool completely.
• The cooled potatoes are laid out on a towel to dry. Paper towels can help speed up the drying process.

Important! Before sending the tubers to the freezer, they must be completely dried to avoid an ice crust during the freezing process.

• Cooled and well-dried vegetables are laid out in bags and put into the freezer.

Straws

Potatoes prepared in this way will speed up the process of preparing various dishes.

1. Clean and peeled tubers are chopped in the form of straws with a knife or using a special grater.
2. To prevent browning, as well as get rid of excess starch, the chopped potatoes must be placed in cold water. Then rinse using a colander, and then again place in clean chilled water.
3. The next step is blanching. Since the potatoes are cut into strips, it is more convenient to use a colander for blanching. In it, chopped vegetables must be dipped in boiling water, then in ice water.
4. The straws are laid out on a towel until they are completely dry. After that, it is laid out in packages and sent to the freezer.

Attention! To prevent the sliced ​​potatoes from sticking together, you must first lay out the dried straws in a tray, cover with foil and send them to the freezer for 1.5-2 hours. When the potatoes freeze, arrange in bags.

For fries

1. Chop the tubers peeled from dirt and skin in the form of straws.
2. To prevent the potatoes from darkening, they need to be salted.
3. In a prepared bowl with wheat flour the chopped product is laid out and mixed thoroughly so that everything potato sticks were covered in flour. This is done so that the potatoes acquire a golden crust during frying.
4. As in the previous case, potato straws, for a start, are laid out for distribution and sent to the freezer to freeze. And then they are packaged in packages and sent back to the freezer.

Puree

Among housewives, it is actively gaining popularity to place potatoes in the freezer for storage in the form of mashed potatoes.

When the dish is fresh, you need to wait until it is completely cooled. If you freeze a warm product, then the steam particles remaining in the puree will turn into ice. Defrosting will give excess liquid.

The cooled potatoes are laid out in containers and sent to the freezer.

Important! Only a dish that is no more than two days old is well stored.

Fried

Fried potatoes also keep well frozen.

1. The peeled product must be cut into several parts.
2. Fry the potatoes in a pan using oil, salt and spices.
3. The dish must be cooled, then, with the help of paper napkins, remove excess fat.
4. Arrange in containers and send to the freezer.

Boiled

Whole cooked vegetables are frozen in the same way.

1. Select small tubers, wash and peel.
2. Boil in salted water, then let cool completely.
3. Pack the cold potatoes in bags and store them in the freezer.

How and how much is stored?

Potatoes from the refrigerator do not require defrosting, you must immediately subject them to heat treatment (fry or boil). Storage times vary depending on the method of freezing. For example, mashed potatoes and fried potatoes retain their taste for 10-15 days. As for whole frozen vegetables, their shelf life reaches 3-6 months.

Defrosting rules

Tubers stored as cubes, straws, halves or whole are not thawed. It is enough to take a bag of frozen food out of the freezer and immediately send it to the boiling broth, fry it in a pan or put it on a baking sheet and bake it in the oven, after mixing the potatoes with spices, salt and oil.

The only difference between cooking raw and frozen potatoes is the time until cooked. Food from the freezer takes 5-10 minutes longer to cook fully.

It is recommended to defrost the tray with mashed potatoes either in the refrigerator or in the microwave using the “Defrost” mode. In the case when microwave oven no, the dish thaws easily on the stove with a little water added to the pan.

Everyone knows that ice cream tastes nasty. But it would be great to polish and cut potatoes in advance, so that later at any time they can be thrown into a frying pan or even into soup. It turns out that there are ways to store this king of all vegetables in the freezer. Below are some recipes.

With the arrival of autumn, thrifty housewives begin to prepare food for the winter. All the well-known recipes for canning and pickling vegetables, allow you to make tasty preparations in cans. But fruits and vegetables can not only be rolled up in jars, but also frozen in an ordinary home refrigerator. Moreover, absolutely any vegetable, including potatoes, can be frozen. This method of preparing semi-finished products will save time on preparing delicious meals for the whole family. But before you send the vegetable to the freezer, you need to carefully prepare it.

Recipe 1

For a long time I was interested in how frozen potatoes are made for frying. I rummaged through the entire Internet and almost everywhere it was written that it was impossible to freeze potatoes at home. But it is very convenient - threw it into a frying pan or deep fryer and the side dish is ready. Therefore, I make this semi-finished product in advance, when there is free time and a lot at once, as much as the freezer allows.

As I already wrote, they write on the Internet that it is impossible to cook it at home. Indeed, the starch contained in potatoes migrates into sugar at low temperatures. Why the potatoes are sweet. But by trial and error, I got a potato that is no worse than purchased ice cream potatoes and much cheaper.

So we need:

Potatoes

Sunflower oil (refined, odorless)

The choice of potatoes is very important. For this recipe, you should only take potatoes with a pinkish skin (red potatoes). White potatoes contain a lot of starch and are more suitable for making mashed potatoes or baked potatoes.

Throw the potatoes into a bowl of cold water and let stand. Then, using a brush, we clean it from the ground. We clean the potatoes, remove the "eyes". Next, cut it into strips. It is advisable to do this on a grater so that the straws are the same size. And leave in cold water for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, drain the water, rinse and leave for another 15 minutes. In total, the procedure must be repeated 3 times.

Then we put the potatoes in a double boiler, for about 5-6 minutes, but you have to look, a lot of factors affect this. The potatoes should be transparent, but not cooked to the end, about a third of the time when they are fully cooked. In the middle of the process, the potatoes should be gently mixed. This steaming procedure does not allow the starch to turn into sugar when frozen.

If you don't have a steamer, you can build a homemade steamer. Simply place the colander in a pot of boiling water and cover with a lid. The colander should fit snugly in the pot.

When the potatoes have risen and become a little transparent, sprinkle them with sunflower oil. We put on a baking sheet in one layer so that the straws do not stick together. And we send it all to the freezer. If the freezer has a temperature control, at this stage the temperature should be as low as possible. When the potatoes have set well on the outside, take out the baking sheet and, if there are sticky straws, separate them. Then you can pour it into a plastic bag, tie it up and store it in the freezer like a purchased potato for frying. It is very convenient to use bags for freezing food instead of a regular plastic bag. They are now readily available in many supermarkets and hardware stores. These bags protect potatoes well from foreign odors, which increases the shelf life.

In this form, potatoes are stored for quite a long time. I had a maximum of about 3 months and the potatoes were no worse than early cooking.

When you need to quickly prepare a side dish, just take the potatoes out of the freezer and without defrosting, fry them in a preheated pan with oil or in a deep fryer. I like to add dill. I add a lot of dill, it can be fresh, or it can be dried. Dinner is served!

Recipe 2

To freeze potatoes you will need:

• Potato tubers.
• Grater.
• Bowl, saucepan, colander.
• Plastic containers with lids or bags.

Let's start freezing

Fill a deep saucepan with half of the water and put it on fire. We put a bowl of cold water next to it. The diameter and depth of the bowl must be large enough to allow a colander to be lowered into it.

Carefully peel the potatoes, grate them with large holes or chop them on a food processor. At home, you can prepare a semi-finished product for making French fries. To do this, cut the peeled and washed potatoes into cubes. Place the chopped vegetable in cold water.

After that, take out a colander and place it in a bowl of cold water. After dipping the potatoes in water, sprinkle them on a paper towel for final drying.

As soon as all the moisture is absorbed into the towel, we move the vegetable into plastic containers or bags, and send it to the freezer.

A few subtleties of freezing

Potatoes, frozen for the winter in a raw, not boiled until half cooked form, quickly become sweet and unusable. Therefore, proper preparation is very important in this case.

Even if the freezing process at home was correct, if necessary, the potatoes are not thawed, but immediately sent to the pan or oven.

Before you freeze a vegetable, you can not boil it, but simmer it in a double boiler. However, before that, it is very important to keep the peeled and chopped potatoes in cold water for an hour. Moreover, it is recommended to change the water every 15-20 minutes.

If you cooked fries from a fresh vegetable and turned out to be a lot of it, you can freeze the prepared dish in the freezer. To do this, lay out the vegetable on a paper towel to get rid of excess fat. Then we put the product in a bag or container and send it to the freezer compartment.

Especially creative housewives recommend freezing mashed potatoes. To do this, place the finished dish in a pastry bag and create beautiful nests with it. We put the resulting blanks in bags and send them to the freezer. If necessary, the semi-finished product is sent to the microwave or to a frying pan, and the middle is filled with an egg. The result is an original snack or breakfast dish.

Frozen vegetables and fruits are very helpful in winter, when vitamins are so lacking. They also help save time when cooking. Freezing potatoes is quite simple and now we will tell you how to do it.

How to choose and prepare potatoes for storage in the freezer?

When exposed to frost, the vegetable acquires a sweetish taste, which housewives do not always like. To avoid this, for subsequent storage at low temperatures, you need to choose varieties with a pink peel. There is initially little starch and sugar in them, therefore, the change in taste will not be so pronounced.

Peel the tubers, and then hold them in cold water so that the starch goes into the liquid, which turns into sugar when frozen (hence the sweet aftertaste after defrosting).

However, hostesses need to be prepared for the fact that raw potatoes after defrosting, it will be problematic to use when frying: ordinary tasty fried potatoes in the usual sense cannot be obtained - the vegetable will become soft, the taste will change.

If you plan to prepare a product specifically for subsequent frying, then it is better to freeze the fried potatoes right away. We will touch upon this issue in our article.

Are only cut or whole potatoes frozen?

Answer: both whole tubers and cut into pieces. The preparation process will be different in each case.

When freezing whole potatoes, the tubers must be blanched. This condition is necessary, as it will help avoid the appearance of a sweetish aftertaste.

• Dip the potatoes into a saucepan with boiling water and blanch for five minutes.
• Then we take it out and immediately lower it into a container with as cold water as possible.
• We are waiting for the vegetable to cool down.
• After that, dry thoroughly so that when frozen, the root crop is not covered with an ice crust.
• Everything is ready: you can pack it in bags and put it in the freezer.

If you want to freeze chopped potatoes (for example, for fries), then there is a subtlety here:

• To prevent the slices from darkening, they need to be salted and then rolled in flour.
• The above paragraph is mandatory, because its observance will not allow the pieces to stick together when frozen.
• After that, the potatoes are placed in one (!) Thin layer on a tray or board, on which they are sent to the freezer.
• The frozen pieces can now be divided into bags and placed in the freezer for storage.

Advice! It is important to remember that you do not need to defrost potatoes before cooking - immediately use (simmer, boil, put in a double boiler or deep fryer) the vegetables that you just took out of the freezer.

Can cooked potatoes be frozen?

The answer is yes. In particular, stored at degrees below zero fried potatoes or mashed potatoes. Both dishes should cool down to room temperature, and only then freeze. Mashed potatoes laid out in packages or containers and sent to the freezer.

In case of fried potatoes it is necessary to remove excess oil (put the finished pieces on a napkin so that the excess fat is absorbed), and then put it out and put it in the freezer.

This food is stored in the freezer for a long time ( ready meals from potatoes - within 2-3 weeks, raw root - 2-3 months).