Content
- Freezing porcini mushrooms - How to preserve the aromatic forest mushrooms
- Freeze or dry?
- Properly prepare porcini mushrooms before freezing
- The best methods for freezing porcini mushrooms
- Freeze raw porcini mushrooms
- Freeze steamed porcini mushrooms
- Freeze blanched porcini mushrooms
- Freeze finished mushroom dishes
- Tips
Porcini mushrooms can be frozen raw or cooked
Freezing porcini mushrooms - How to preserve the aromatic forest mushrooms
In appropriate weather, it is sometimes already in June so far - the first summer mushrooms can be collected and processed. Finally, far into the autumn, the aromatic forest mushrooms can be found everywhere where there are plenty of light mixed and beech forests. So you can enjoy the healthy treat even out of season, you can freeze a portion of your finds - preferably already ready to pan.
Freeze or dry?
Porcini mushrooms are - like all mushrooms - fresh only for a very short time. The high protein content ensures that the mushrooms quickly become bad. For this reason, you should prepare the fruiting bodies immediately after purchase or walk in the forest or, if immediate use is not possible or not desired, preserve them. Porcini mushrooms are ideal for freezing because they - unlike some other types of mushrooms such as chanterelles - experience no change in taste. Freezing is the fastest and gentlest way to preserve fresh mushrooms - which can also be used like fresh mushrooms. Dry the mushrooms, however, they gain greatly in aroma. For this reason, you should always give some dried ones to mushroom dishes to the fresh mushrooms.
Properly prepare porcini mushrooms before freezing
However, you can not transport the mushrooms directly from the forest into the freezer. First, it is important to clean the finds thoroughly and cut into bite-sized pieces - after all, frozen mushrooms should not first be thawed and then made ready to pan, but immediately ready to pan and frozen into the hot fat or hot broth. Thawing the mushrooms first (to be able to cut them roughly afterwards) will later make them gummy in consistency in the pan. Only mushrooms that are intended for baking, for example in dough, can be left as a whole.
The best methods for freezing porcini mushrooms
There are several ways to freeze cleaned and cut porcini mushrooms. But no matter whether you want to preserve raw or prepared mushrooms - first freeze them at temperatures of at least minus 20 ° C in a suitable freezer (if possible with the option of shock freezing). The freezing should take about a day, then you can keep the frozen mushrooms at minus 18 ° C. Use a freezer to freeze, as the freezer compartment of the refrigerator can not produce the required temperatures - here "frozen" mushrooms last only a few days to weeks.
Freeze raw porcini mushrooms
Porcini mushrooms can be frozen raw like mushrooms and appetizing in thin slices. All you have to do is clean them (do not wash if possible!), Cut away bad spots and finally split the fruiting bodies into thin slices. If the fruiting bodies are too big or if there are no more slices due to the gnawing, simply cut them into bite-sized bites - the thinner they are, the faster they will freeze. At temperatures of about minus 18 ° C, the raw boletus mushrooms are stable for up to one year. If you want to process them, simply add the desired frozen quantity directly from the freezer to the hot fat or hot broth. Then prepare them like fresh mushrooms.
Freeze steamed porcini mushrooms
Of course you can also prefer this step and freeze already steamed porcini mushrooms. To do this, fry the cleaned and sliced mushrooms in a little butter or a mixture of butter and vegetable oil (for example, a good olive oil) until they are just before the cooking point. If desired, you can already salt and pepper at this time. You can also add finely chopped onions and / or bacon cubes to the mushrooms. Finally, cool the stewed dish in a water bath and freeze it as described for the raw porcini mushrooms. If the steamed porcini mushrooms are to be thawed and prepared, simply put them in a hot pan.
Freeze blanched porcini mushrooms
Instead of frying the frozen porcini mushrooms in hot fat, you can simply blanch them in boiling water for three to four minutes. Add plenty of salt and a little lemon juice to the cooking water - the salt prevents the mushrooms from absorbing too much water and the lemon acts to prevent it from darkening. Blanching is especially suitable for very large quantities of mushrooms to be frozen. Incidentally, do not pour the cooking water away: this can also be frozen as a mushroom broth and used to prepare later mushroom dishes; it is very aromatic.
Freeze finished mushroom dishes
If you are in a hurry, instead of raw or prepared porcini mushrooms, simply freeze a finished dish. Porcini mushrooms in cream sauce, a porcini mushroom ragout u. Ä. is thawed quickly and gives an excellent meal even for surprisingly emerging guests. Prepare the frozen mushroom dish as if you wanted to consume it right away, but instead cool it down quickly in a water bath and freeze it as described above. Keep in mind, however, that prepared boletus mushrooms can be kept frozen for only two to three months even when frozen.
Tips
It is also very delicious to fill homemade pasta (for example ravioli) with a porcini mushroom paste, to blanch and then freeze it. The filled noodles are simply thawed in a hot broth or roasted in the pan.