Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Holy Trinity

There are three ingredients that are a must for beginning any local New Orleans dish. From sauce piquant, greens to jambalaya, they all begin with sauteing onions, celery and bell pepper.

You can buy cute little containers of nicely chopped up trinity in the stores for way to much, or you can do what I do. Buy a bunch of each when on sale (preferably grow your own, buy from local farmer market, or buy seasonal). Then chop 'em up in the food processor, and freeze the chopped seasonings in little saved containers. I use different sizes so I can take out just enough for what ever dish I am making. Also, my seasonings are chopped fine because my family doesn't like chunks. After they freeze, pop them out of containers like ice cubes and store in freezer bags or containers. The bags and containers can be reused over and over.

See! Instant time and money saving seasonings at a tiny fraction of the prepared package cost. Saving time is a matter of preparation and planning.


Chop up the seasoning!
Chop it up further.
Pour seasonings in containers and freeze. This batch I made was about four times the amount you see in the pic.

2 comments:

sugarcreekfarm said...

I do the same thing when I have a slew of peppers ready in the garden. Chop 'em up and freeze them. It's unbelievable how much "fresh" taste they add to food in the dead of winter!

Egghead said...

I hope you talk more about some of the New Orleans dishes. I love to hear and see what others are cooking. My family doesn't like big chunks either but we don't chop it up quite as fine as your appears to be. I also love to freeze all kinds of produce from our garden and our local farmers in the summer.