Simple Green Suppers: A Fresh Strategy for One-Dish Vegetarian Meals by Middleton Susie

Author:Middleton, Susie [Middleton, Susie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2017-04-11T04:00:00+00:00

SLICE IT, FREEZE IT.

When you get your naan home, freeze it. When you get your multigrain or your challah home, slice it and freeze it. Hint-hint: freeze bread. I learned this simple trick years ago from my mom, Perky, who enthusiastically pursued bread baking via her James Beard cookbooks. We’d eat a few warm slices of freshly baked cheese bread or cinnamon bread, then she would carefully wrap and freeze the remaining slices for us to eat later. She froze all her sandwich bread, her rolls, everything.

Today my stomach flips a little and my teeth hurt when I see friends stashing bread in the refrigerator. I’m exaggerating. Still, because I feel it is polite not to say anything, I have to endure a bit of internal anxiety all the same: nothing makes bread go stale—and tough—faster than the fridge. (It has to do with a chemical realignment of the starch molecules that happens at cold temperatures but not at freezing temps.) You are better off keeping your bread at room temperature than in the fridge, but then you risk your bread molding before you can eat it all. So, just leave a few slices out (wrap them loosely in plastic) and freeze the rest.

Before freezing your bread, be sure to slice it first, if it hasn’t been sliced already. (A long, sturdy serrated bread knife is a purchase you won’t regret.) A thickness of about ½ inch is fine for denser breads, but a lighter, more airy loaf can be cut a little thicker, say about ¾ inch. To freeze, wrap two or three slices in a few layers of plastic wrap and put those little bundles in a big zip-top bag. Label it with the type of bread and the date. Then you can pull out just what you need and it will defrost quickly. Bread keeps in the freezer (depending on how cold your freezer is and how frequently it is opened) for several weeks.

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