Well-known chefs are often asked to name their secret weapon in the kitchen: the tool they credit most with transforming the way they cook. The responses are inevitably revealing — whether it’s a state-of-the-art sous vide machine or the cast-iron skillet they inherited from Granny.
For Ashley Christensen, it’s her freezer. That’s an answer you might expect from a retired home ec teacher, but probably not from a James Beard award-winning chef. Yet she contends that the ability to maximize the potential of this everyday appliance saves time and money, preserves seasonal flavors and avoids waste both at her restaurants and the home she shares with Kaitlyn Goalen, her wife and business partner in the AC Restaurants hospitality group in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Goalen collaborated with Christensen on her first cookbook about her flagship restaurant, “Poole’s: Recipes and Stories From a Modern Diner.” During the recipe testing, they got adept at making “workhorse elements” of recipes that could be made ahead and frozen, such as certain sauces and doughs. That led them to build a game plan that could be customized for any kitchen situation, which they detail in their newly released second book: “It’s Always Freezer Season: How to Freeze Like a Chef With 100 Make-Ahead Recipes” (Ten Speed, $30).
“Our world exists on inventory and the most imaginative way to use it,” Christensen told me on a Zoom call with Goalen. To them, organizing and preplanning are part of the creativity and the fun.
Both come from families of avid cooks who knew the value of a well-stocked freezer. “Growing up on the coast, we did a lot of pier fishing and regularly fit whatever we caught into our full-size freezer in the garage,” Christensen said. “We also had two huge gardens and did pickling and fermenting and all kinds of putting things up. My dad was into making fresh pesto and had one of the original Cryovac machines.”
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Goalen, a Dallas native, learned the art of make-ahead meals from her working mom, who also gave her the idea of freezing balls of raw cookie dough so they could be baked fresh, a few at a time, whenever the sweet tooth struck.
Today, they combine those early lessons with Christensen’s professional experience in maintaining their three home freezers — one in the kitchen for daily meals, and two in the garage for long-term storage and recipe testing. The book details how they manage their contents to avoid a “freezer black hole scenario,” the best materials for packaging, and the safest ways to thaw.
The recipes fall into the last two sections — one for the “freezer pantry” (a large batch of stove-top pulled pork, for instance, that can be reincarnated into Carnitas Tacos or Potato Pork Cakes), and the other for fully made dishes such as Deviled Crab Rigatoni and Zucchini-Poppyseed Bread.
As Goalen puts it, “It’s really just about making the most of what you’ve got using these easy and flexible techniques so you can truly feel the joy of cooking.”
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
RECIPES
Setting up a “freezer pantry” can save time and labor in the kitchen while producing bonuses to kick-start many other meal possibilities on a moment’s notice. I tried it out with Tomato and Greens Minestrone and its “subrecipes,” and also made room for a slushy big-batch cocktail.
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Braised Greens
It doesn’t take long to cook down a large batch of greens to stuff into multiple baggies that fit easily into your freezer. Simmer them in soup, layer them in lasagna, or serve them as a simple side dish with a squeeze of lemon juice or cider vinegar, or a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.
All recipes adapted from “It’s Always Freezer Season.” Copyright @ 2021 by Ashley Christensen and Kaitlyn Goalen (Ten Speed Press, $30).
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Tomato and Greens Minestrone
Pre-made Braised Greens and Parm Stock add layers of flavor and an unexpected velvety richness to this immensely satisfying soup. I doubled the greens and beans to make it a hearty main meal that needed only crusty bread and a simple salad to complete.
Parm Stock
Chefs who keep their restaurant kitchens stocked with Parmesan are accustomed to saving the flavor-packed rinds to add umami to broths. Ashley Christensen and Kaitlyn Goalen recommend freezing rinds as you go. Once you’ve accumulated a couple of pounds, simmer them into a stock that can be used as a vegetarian base for all kinds of soups, sauces and more.
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Credit: Lauren Vied Allen
Boulevardier Slushie
Ashley Christensen and Kaitlyn Goalen employ their freezer in numerous ways for instant cocktail parties. They like to pair this drink with salty potato chips and olives.
Tips for freezing (Adapted from “It’s Freezer Season”)
1. For best flavor, use ingredients at peak freshness in all dishes to be frozen, and freeze immediately after cooking and cooling. Freezing halts the decaying process — it won’t reverse it.
2. Blanch raw produce (including herbs for pesto) briefly in boiling water, then shock in an ice-water bath first to kill enzymes that turn fruits and vegetables brown and decrease nutrients and shelf life.
3. Catalog your contents: Label everything with the name of the dish and the date. Also helpful: suggested expiration date, reheating instructions, and yield/quantity. Expiration dates vary but anything after a year should be tossed. Even though it may be safe to eat, the flavors will be muted and texture deteriorated.
4. Make sure your freezer is set at 0 degrees or below. If it’s having trouble staying cold enough, you may need to defrost it, clean the filters and fan, have it serviced, or a combination.
5. Biggest no-no: Never put hot food into the freezer or the refrigerator. Not waiting for it to cool could result in bacteria growth in the dish and raise the temperature of everything inside it. Foods should not be held for more than a few hours between 40 and 145 degrees. Hot food should be cooled completely, ideally to 40 degrees, before transferring it to the freezer.
6. Rather than freeze all in one container, divide into quantities according to how you plan to use them and how many you plan to serve, so you pull only what you need for the next use.
7. “Formative freezing” is a helpful technique for single portions, such as biscuits, meatballs or individual slices of pie. Freeze them on a flat surface like a baking sheet until solid, then transfer the hardened portions to a baggie or other container.
8. Air exposure is the enemy of frozen food, so proper packaging is critical. Vacuum-sealed packaging is ideal. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, plastic and glass can work well. Glass is odor- and stain-resistant and oven-safe; plastic is lightweight and cheap. Zip-lock plastic bags (the extra-durable kind labeled for freezer use) are hard to beat for convenience.
9. Choose containers that are the right size for your portions. Food should fill the vessel completely to avoid excess air exposure, which can lead to freezer burn. Too small and they could spill when thawing or reheating.
10. Wrapping in plastic wrap rather than foil creates a better seal. The key is doing a complete 360-degree wrap over and under the dish, as if wrapping a present, so that the plastic adheres to itself and not the dish.
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