Freezing home made mash & also re heating batch food

hulahoop09

Hiya

I am planning on making a few bath meals and was wondering can I freeze my home made mash? Do I put the milk and butter in before I freeze or when I take out to use? How would I heat frozen mash when I want to use it?

Also if I make chilli, curry etc and freeze, how do I then re-heat/cook when I want to eat it?

Thansk!!!

Sammy-Jo_2

I often freeze home made mash - especially if I am getting to the end of a large bag of spuds from the greengrocer and they wont last much longer. Just cook as you would normally adding butter etc. freeze them in containers of the size portion that you would use and then i re-heat in the microwave. Also use this method for bulk cooking mince, spag bol etc. Also I have cooked and then frozen roast potatoes too. When you want to use just put them in a relatively high oven to re-heat - no oil needed.

spike7451

I freeze mash quite a bit,make it as normal then chill in the fridge before freezing,I find that this helps it freeze better (I reckon it helps the butter in the mash become more solid,like you know when you take the butter out of the fridge its harder than at room temp?..like that)
Meals freeze very well & you just need to take them out a few hours before you want them,I freeze them all in those plastic boxes the Chines take aways come in.
Now you will find a bit of 'defrost water' at the bottom of the meal,I just drain this off & microwave as normal.
HTH.

hulahoop09

Thanks! So when I need it if I take out on the morning before I go to work then come home and can just put in the microwave? I can also make smaller portions like this for my baby using her soya milk!!

Linda32

hulahoop09 wrote: »

Also if I make chilli, curry etc and freeze, how do I then re-heat/cook when I want to eat it?

Thansk!!!

Hi, I've never frozen mash so I can't help with that. But with chilli, curry etc the process is the same. Cook the whole meal first, then divide into portions. I have previously used plastic boxes from Poundland, however, the last batch I bought we not very good at all. So I would recommend Tubbits which I have used before.

You can find these in supermarkets with the foil/greasproof/foodbags etc. The stack brilliantly in the freezer and you can wash them out and re-use them :money:

So you have your meal and your containers. Put a portion into each container and label accordingly. I use address labels from Wilkinsons, cut each one in half to make two :money: You then get two for one

When it comes to defrosting, take out the portion, say at tea time on Sunday and pop into the fridge for tea on Monday. Then re-heat until piping hot, in my case its gas mark 6 for 30 minutes. You will get to know how long your oven takes.

HTH