The Freezer Experiment Part 2, aka: Mexican night!

Yesterday, I finally ran low enough on leftovers to necessitate having to cook again. As much as I love Aunt Lenke's paprikash, it was a huge relief to have it out of my fridge.

I had been talking about making sweet potato fries for weeks (I've never made them before) and I had even bought all of the supplies before my trip. I also bought the fixings for quesadillas and a jicama salad, which is why the freezer experiment erred on the Mexican side of things. Yep, all of these ingredients were already in my pantry, and the one question left was: Are they still edible?

And thus we have the results of the great Freezer Experiment of 2011. I should note that I waited a week longer to consume some of my food than I had originally planned, and that some foods that I was very worried about ending up being perfectly fine. I've reprinted the original list with a short description of what I found when I went to use each food item.

Group 1: Foods I know are freezer-friendly:

• chicken tenderloins - fine
• leftover arroz con pollo - fine

Group 2: Foods that should (hopefully) last in the fridge:

• fresh mozzarella (unopened) - fine
• mexican cheese blend (also unopened) - fine
• soy milk - fine
• lemon wedges - some were fine, others weren't, probably due to different ages in the fridge. The uncut lemons were fine, though.

Group 3: Foods I froze:

• Collard greens - look fine, but haven't cooked yet. Will report back later
• half an onion - the front was a little freezer burned, but otherwise fine.
• cut-up peppers - fine
• cucumber - had to be thrown out
• hot green pepper - had to be thrown out (didn't unfreeze well)
• a lime - unidentifiable
• fresh parsley - fine

Group 4: Foods I decided not to freeze

• Garlic - fine
• Avocado - had to be thrown out (very moldy)
• Jicama - had to be thrown out (even more moldy than the avocados)
• Yams - fine. There were growths on the skin, but the inside was fine.
• Dates - looked fine, didn't try them. I read that I should have refrigerated them, so I got nervous and threw them out without a taste test. I know that it was against the spirit of the experiment, but I rationalized that it was a small price to pay to avoid food poisoning.

What this all really means is that 1) I didn't have to re-buy my dairy, 2) my jicama salad was a non starter, 3) I had everything I needed for my Mexican night.

First, I made my sweet potato fries using a modified version of Paula Deen's recipe. And before you say anything, no, it didn't contain any butter. It also didn't look wildly unhealthy. Instead of following it to the letter, though, I used it as inspiration to find out what might go well together and estimate temperature and cooking time. The recipe basically calls for you to make a blend of spices that you can store for up to 6 months and use on a whole range of items. Instead, I winged it and added most of what I had in my kitchen: salt, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. She suggests that you toss the fries in olive oil before adding your spices, so I threw them in my largest pyrex bowl and mixed with my fingers. As I am a 6 year old trapped in a 22 year old's body, this was hands down my favorite part of the process.

Here's a picture of the fries before they went into the oven:

The fiance and I cooked them at 450 for 20 minutes (as per the instructions), but they weren't done yet so we put them back in for 5 minute increments, turning them every time the timer went off. They came out flavorful, but soggy. When I lamented this on Facebook, the Food Yenta suggested that I use whipped egg whites instead of oil. 

The quesadillas took longer to make but were similarly uncomplicated. Since I was unsure about the viability of most of my vegetables, I started by heating up my defrosted peppers and onions separately. The orange pepper was cut before I put them in the freezer, which made it a lot easier for me when I went to use them. It turns out that I had an onion and a half in there, so I waited for them to thaw and then roughly chopped them. It was easier than cutting raw onion because there was enough freeze to keep them together and my eyes didn't sting, but it was also a strange texture. I'm not sure if it was because of the nature of the veggies or the way they were stored, but the onions definitely expelled more water during cooking. Once I knew they were both safe, I put them in my 5 quart pan with some chopped up garlic. They were still really watery, so my sous chef drained them in my new metallic strainer before I added a little olive oil and a handful of fresh parsley. He then cooked them down on the back burner while I turned my sights on the chicken tenderloins.

The chicken decided it didn't want to defrost, so it was time to bring out the big guns, also known as the microwave. Brian is in charge of cleaning the meat in our house because he's got the better knife skills (although that may be changing soon...) Either way, though, he's still the one of the two of us who actually knows what he's doing when he's cleaning protein, so he got that job. Once the chicken was prepped and cubed, I used my little sauté pan to cook 'em up. First I put some olive oil in with a nice heaping wooden spoon-full of garlic. (I used up the garlic I chopped on Saturday. There is something really awesome about using foods you'd prepped for yourself - it's like finding a really thoughtful note in your lunchbox and realizing you're the one who left it there to make you're life a little easier.) Once that got simmering, in went my chicken cubes. I seasoned them with salt, cayenne pepper, cumin, and a couple of squeezes of fresh lemon juice. I love cumin in Mexican-style dishes because it always smells so warm and inviting. A note on cooking meat: don't forget to season both sides! I've been guilty of this many times in the past, but it really tastes so much better when you remember. I had to do the chicken in two batches, so I threw my chicken and its cooking liquid into the veggies to finish while I did the second batch.

Here's what it looked like while we were cooking:

I was in charge of the chicken while my sous chef stirred the veggies. We make a great team!

Putting it all together

Finally we deemed it cooked down and together enough to start stuffing the quesadillas. I thought I had bought spinach tortillas, but it turns out they were spinach and pesto tortillas, so their flavor was a little stronger than I had hoped. After the initial shock of pesto, though, I was really able to taste the filling and the mexican cheese we added. And it tasted goooood.

Here's the final product:

His plate

My plate