This time of year -- supposedly spring, but so very far from the time when anything edible will come from the ground anywhere nearby -- good frozen vegetables are my friend. We are fortunate to have a Trader Joe's here, and while it 's pretty feeble as a supplier of fresh fruits and vegetables at the best of times, the frozen stuff is excellent. Their frozen whole-leaf spinach is great, as are their French green beans, both unquestionably better than anything I can find fresh these days.
What I'm really digging right now, though, are the Dorot frozen herbs. These products of an Israeli kibbutz come in adorable little plastic trays that make it easy to pop out one or two of the adorable little cubes of frozen basil, or whatever, on demand. If I were a better person, I would have put this stuff up myself last August, but I did not. I hope TJ's starts selling the cilantro as well as the basil and the parsley.
Also good in this vein is the freeze-dried lemon zest I bought on a whim from Penzey's. You reconstitute it by adding water in a 3:1 ratio. I've been plumping up about a tablespoon of the dried stuff at a time and keeping it in a little covered bowl in the fridge to use whenever I want it. This works out very well -- it doesn't dry out before I use it up, there's no denuded lemon to worry about, et cetera. It tastes bright and fresh, as well. You'd think this one would be a weird and unneeded indulgence, for sure, but it turns out that I find it a fine thing to have on hand even when there are whole lemons lying around. Something about the ability to have exactly the amount I want, in combination with not needing to juice the lemon it came from instantly or let it dry up forever, is very relaxing.
I agree/I freeze herbs, it's a great convenience...
Posted by: maia | 03/30/2006 at 09:29 PM
i know in california, at least, tj's stopped making the frozen herbs.
i love to freeze pesto in ice cube trays. great for one serving of pasta salad.
im scared once i start ordering penzeys spices i will never stop. i get the magazine, though!
Posted by: violet | 04/04/2006 at 01:47 AM
Oh, drat! I hope that doesn't mean they'll stop selling them here as well, though I suppose it probably does. I should be sure to save the little trays, as they're such a convenient size and would work well for freezing my own instead, I'm sure.
Posted by: redfox | 04/04/2006 at 04:17 AM
What about all the denuded lemons which the people who produced the lemon zest have left, though? (See, you haven't reached true obsessive worrier status, yet.)
Posted by: Helen | 04/21/2006 at 08:32 AM