Freezing soup bases and the magic of Kiinde bags, plus recipes.

I'm cheap and poor and creative. Waste makes me crazy. Our family is small, just the 3 of us. When I buy celery - and my kid is an anomaly who looks at peanut butter celery like I'm feeding her a bleeding rat skull - it tends to go bad before I've used the entire stalk. Same goes for carrots. I buy a pound and end up with 3 or 4 sad, wizened orange-black things in the drawer of the fridge. The same goes for ginger root, cilantro and certain one off sauces. I went searching for useful recipes to not have to chuck dead veggies.

And the hunt began. How to freeze or use this stuff, keeping my waste as low as possible.

Recaito and mirepoix seemed to be the best options.

Mirepoix is a french thing. It's just chopped carrots, celery, onion and maybe garlic. Most of the time when I've seen it, it's a chunky frozen bag of stuff. I wanted something a little less obvious. Did I mention we have a devoted anti-veg human in the house? Yeah. So much that. Finding a way to hide the veg is a super bonus around these parts. Life has made me a ninja when it comes to hiding vegetables in stuff.

The first few times I made this, I was freezing it in star wars jello trays then sticking the cubes into a zippered freezer bag. Sadly, the frost monster kept killing my mirepoix. Freezer burned like mad.

And off on the next hunt - How to not have to freezer burned mirepoix. I tried coating it in butter or olive oil. Nope. Different qualities/brands of freezer bag. Nope. Then I found Kiinde twist bags. These are made for freezing breast milk and baby puree. It's true. They're little 6oz bags with a teensy funnel for filling them. Also reusable, so Yay! for not adding to the plastic waste in the world. When it comes to cost, if you use one bag 4x, it equals the price of individual zipper freezer bags.  Gotta say. I love these things. I now have them filled with frozen recaito, minced ginger, (not frozen) crock pot caramel, thai sweet chili sauce and of course, mirepoix. It's not all beauty, though. It does take some effort to squeeze out the last of the stuff in the pouch. I whack the little bags against the edge of my pot to shake those last bits in, then scrape the exterior of the bag and whack some more. Waste not, my darlings. Once I've emptied a bag, I rinse it well and fill with about 2oz of water, squeeze out the air and toss it back into the freezer. When it's time to use them again, I gather a handful, defrost the ice inside and wash them with soapy water just prior to refilling them. Google these suckers, it's worth it.

Mirepoix is a good base for lots of recipes. It's a savory thing. I cook it down and add it to my beans when making beans and rice. I put it in most of my soups and chili.

Mirepoix

Carrots
Celery
Onion
Garlic (optional)
Butter or olive oil

Try to go with equal parts of carrots, celery and onion. If the parts aren't perfectly equal, that's ok too. I adjust depending on what's left in the drawer, but not ranging too far from the mostly equal area. I like to throw a whole head of garlic in there as well. Put each veg into a food processor and chop until fine - almost a paste. Mix em all together until well combined. Get out the cast iron and heat your oil or melt your butter. About 1tbsp, add more if you need it as it cooks. Throw the minced veg and stir a bit. Let it cook down and start to brown. Stir occasionally. The more carmelized this gets, the more the flavor develops. I'm impatient and almost never let it cook to a good carmelization. Once it's where you're happy, take it off the eye and let it cool. Spoon into Kiinde bags or however you wanna store it. I put about 1/2c in each bag. Squeeze out any spare air and freeze it till you need it.

Recaito is a spanish base. I use it in my empanadas and anything nacho, taco, burrito or chimichanga like. When I buy cilantro, it's a huge bunch that wilts and dies and makes me sad. I don't like it enough to eat it in every other meal until it's gone, but I don't hate it enough to wish it such a sad demise, either. This isn't exactly recaito - I'm not buying culantro for it, but it's close.

Recaito

1.5 heads of garlic
1# sweet onions
1 bunch of cilantro
2 bags of mini sweet peppers (generally 1# each, but some are 12oz instead. Use what's on sale)

Remove stems and seeds of the peppers. Mince in food processor.  Quarter the onion and mince that too. Skin and chunk the garlic, then mince in the food processor. Same goes for the cilantro. Chop it roughly and mince it. Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Bag it by the 1/2cup and freeze till you need it.

Thai sweet chili sauce - kinda. I had a few of those mini peppers left and wanted to do something funky. I found a recipe for thai sweet chili sauce. I didn't have some of the ingredients, so it was time to get creative. We were out of cayenne (bad bad foodie, sit in the corner and think about what you've done!) but we did have some Mad Dog 357 with #9 plutonium. I've poured this sweet, tangy, spicy sauce on cooking pork chops as a finish. Hubs loved it.

Sweet Inferno  (my version of Thai Sweet Chili Sauce)

.5 cup White Vinegar
.75 cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 cup water
6 Garlic cloves
8 sweet mini peppers
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp Mad Dog 357 (or any hot sauce that grooves you, adjust to your heat level)
1 Tbsp Corn starch
2-3 Tbsp Water

Remove stems and seeds from peppers and skin the garlic. Toss into food processor and dice.

Put the first 4 things in the pot and start it cooking on medium heat. Stir while you are dissolving the sugar. Listen to your child complain about the smell of cooking vinegar. (Silently agree) Turn it up a little and bring to a boil. Stir occasionally and let it thicken slightly. Add everything except for the last two ingredients, stir  and turn it down a little to simmer. Make a roux of the cornstarch and water. Add the roux while stirring. The goal is to thicken the sauce until it coats the back of a spoon. You want to make sure the cornstarch is cooked in, and doesn't taste floury. Take off the eye and let cool. Bag it and tag it. Freeze what you aren't going to use soon.