Meals in a flash, part 2
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Some dishes are tastier the day after. It’s true with adobo, it’s true with kaldereta, it’s true with sarciado. In fact, it’s true with most stews. After sitting in the fridge overnight, the meat has more time to absorb the flavors of the sauce and that adds depth to the dish.
But the same thing cannot be said about soup dishes like nilagang baka. When reheated, the vegetables in the dish become soggy, if not altogether mushy. As with most Filipino soup dishes, nilagang baka is best served right after cooking when both the meat and vegetables are just right. Ergo, as a rule, it is best to cook nilagang baka that is just enough for one meal. But considering that it takes a long time (and fuel or electricity) to simmer nilaga-cut beef (eg. brisket, shank, shin, short ribs) to reach the perfect stage of tenderness, it just seems so wasteful.
What I do is to boil about three and a half kilos of beef at a time (usually good for three meals), divide the cooked meat and broth into three portions, add vegetables to one portion and store the other portions, meat with broth, in two separate tightly covered containers in the fridge. Two or three days later, I reheat the remaining portions, add vegetables and serve. That way, the vegetables are fresh.
But how long can boiled meat keep in the fridge without getting moldy? I try not to keep them for more than a couple of days. But if you freeze boiled meat with the broth, it will keep longer. Won’t that ruin the texture of the meat? No, so long as it’s just the meat is submerged in broth, and so long as you keep them in a tightly covered container. And remember to thaw everything before reheating.
You can do the cooking-meat-in-bulk technique for sauteed and stir-fried dishes. Note that freezing cooked meat only works for soup dishes, not for sauteed and stir-fried dishes.
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3 Responses to “Meals in a flash, part 2”
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good advice! i’ll try freezing the next time i make a batch of nilagang beef.
this may be a stupid question but i’ll ask anyway. i was taught to boil the beef with onions. would you consider the onions as a vegetable NOT good for freezing w/ the meat?
i suppose if i could do this w/ nilaga, i could freeze pork sinigang, too?
i tried freezing pork belly adobo once and that didn’t turn out well.
thanks, connie!
Lani, I boil my beef with a whole onion and a garlic but I remove them as soon as the beef is done. They won’t add anything if you freeze them with the beef because all the flavors are already in the broth and the beef.
Re sinigang: You can freeze the pork in broth but prior to the stage where you add everything else. If you cook your sinigang by sauteeing (garlic, onion, tomatoes) then adding the pork afterwards, freezing might not work.
Re adobo. Stews aren’t good for freezing. They are better off in the fridge.
I do freeze beef stews because of necessity when I was int e boondocks of NC. When I take it out and thaw completely, I take out all the veggies and with my hand blender, puree it. It serves as a very good “gravy sabaw”, I then add newly sauteed potatoes, carrots (and other vegs) together with onions & garlic - goes to the meat and sabaw. It comes out good and “new”. Served in piping hot white rice.