Home cooks consider mushroom dishes to be very healthy and necessary. Of the many varieties of mushrooms, they gave pride of place to oyster mushrooms for their versatility. Oyster mushrooms, subject to any type of processing, fit perfectly into the diet. Preference is given to young ones, because the old ones are tougher and less tasty. You can prepare different dishes from oyster mushrooms:
- stewed;
- fried;
- boiled;
- baked;
- pickled, salted and pickled.
Oyster mushrooms are amazing in salads, toppings and first courses.
To prepare mushrooms for the winter, housewives choose the freezing method. This is the fastest and easiest way, but it has its own subtleties. How to freeze oyster mushrooms to preserve their nutritional value as much as possible?
Preliminary preparation - useful tips
The recipe for the freezing process itself is simple and straightforward. But choosing raw mushrooms requires care. What criteria must be met for freezing to be successful? First of all, you need to pay attention to the appearance:
- Freshness. Any signs of spoilage, rot or mold should be a reason to refuse to freeze such specimens.
- Integrity. Severe damage and fractures with blackness are also criteria for rejection.
- Smell. A specific aroma or small cracks along the edges of the caps indicate that the product is not fresh.
- Leg length.This part is not useful, so a high-quality mushroom has a short stem.
- Age. An overgrown product is difficult to visually identify. For accuracy, break off a piece of the oyster mushroom cap and look at the fracture line. It should be white, juicy and soft.
For freezing, we select only fresh, elastic, intact and dense mushrooms.
If you need to wait to freeze, then you need to store them in a cool place. It is not recommended to wash or cut the product before freezing.
Freezing process at home
There are two types of mushrooms that can be frozen at home – boiled and raw. Fresh fruits retain more nutrients than heat-treated ones. Therefore, freezing raw mushrooms for the winter is preferable for many housewives.
How to freeze fresh oyster mushrooms:
- We conduct a thorough inspection of purchased mushrooms. How to do this correctly? It is necessary to ruthlessly remove spoiled, rotten or damaged specimens from the general mass. You should not cut off the rotten part, hoping that freezing will save the mushrooms from rotting. After defrosting, such fruits will not have a very pleasant taste.
- Selected specimens are cleaned under running water. They do this quickly, because the mushrooms quickly become saturated with moisture. They should also not be soaked. In the freezer, the water will turn into ice and break the integral structure of the mushroom.
- Now the total amount is divided into portions and placed in a container for freezing. Plastic containers and even cling film will do. This technique allows you not to defrost the entire amount at once, but to take it in portions.
You can freeze mushrooms with preliminary heat treatment. To do this, the product is washed, cleaned of dirt and placed in boiling water. Cook for 15 minutes. The water is salted 5 minutes after the oyster mushrooms boil. Then the product is laid out on a board and the excess liquid is allowed to drain off. Next, the oyster mushrooms are divided into portions and sent to the freezer.
Is it possible to freeze already cooked mushrooms? A fully prepared product will lose some of its nutritional properties after defrosting, but alternative methods exist:
- Dried. Cut the washed mushrooms and dry them in the oven. After cooling, place in portions in the freezer. Defrost slowly!
- In the broth. Place the bag tightly into the container. Place boiled mushrooms in it and add broth. Freeze in the refrigerator, then once frozen, seal the bag tightly.
- Fried. Fry the oyster mushrooms in butter or vegetable oil and place in the freezer. This type is used first. Fried oyster mushrooms do not last long!
Why can oyster mushrooms taste bitter after defrosting? This happens sometimes. Most likely they were stored for a long time. Frozen mushrooms should be used within 3-4 months. Bitterness is removed by abundant washing and adding spices during cooking.
Properly frozen oyster mushrooms will help out the housewife more than once during the winter months, so treat yourself to a healthy preparation.
