Tips for freezing your stews

I love cooking with my cocotte and with my casserole . I enjoy cooking stews and casseroles for my family and friends. I get excited every time I try new recipes. But I'm not always right with the measurements and sometimes I cook for 30 instead of 4.

I give you some tricks to freeze your stews without losing their texture, flavor and properties. Come on, when you thaw them it looks like you just took them out of the stove.

A detail that we must take into account: when you put your stew in the freezer, it should not have potatoes incorporated. The problem with freezing stewed potatoes is that the potatoes, once frozen , lose texture and become gritty. I am not saying that dishes that contain potatoes cannot be put in the freezer. Don't worry, if your recipe has potatoes, the day you reheat it, add the cut potatoes and let them cook over low heat.

To freeze a stew with a guarantee, it is also important that you have not thickened the sauce with starches or thickeners such as cornmeal, the same thing would happen as with the potatoes and it would be pasty. And what do I do to get a thick sauce? I add more vegetables to the sauce and part of it, I crush it adding it back to the pot.

Another solution to thicken the sauce after freezing is to do it with express thickeners, these melt when hot and do not form lumps, so while you reheat the stew, you get a sauce with the desired texture.

Last but not least: all stews to be frozen, both meat and fish, always need to be thawed in the fridge from one day to the next, since meat, fish and vegetables are sources of microbial contamination.

With these practical tips you will be able to keep your stews, and you will not waste them. Also, you will not be eating the same dish for 4 days in a row for fear that it will spoil.

Also, knowing the most appropriate and effective technique for freezing stewed dishes, you can take advantage of the day that you have time to spend hours in the kitchen, cooking your best recipes and then being able to enjoy them any other day that you do not have so much time to cook. I do it whenever I can. With this custom I have saved many unexpected dinners and I have indulged in the occasional treat after a hard day's work. I recommend it to you!

How about starting with this delicious and irresistible beef stew ? You can cook it both in the iron cocotte and in the ceramic casserole.

Source: My experience, the Le Creuset website and the Directo al Paladar blog