Prepping Carrot for Later Use

Ok, I was not thinking properly when I bought a packet of 5 carrots. I only regretted a bit when I reached home. Obviously I couldn't eat a carrot a meal. And I read and watched on some prepping videos. I decided to prep the carrot for freezing for use later. 

First, I cut the five carrots into pieces. 

clean and cut into pieces

Then, I put all the carrot pieces into a pot and poured boiled water into the pot. Set timer for 2 minutes. I read that it's called blanching. 

pour all the carrot pieces into a pot

boiled water

blanching

After blanching, have to put into the ice bath to stop the cooking. In metallurgy, similar activity, it's called quenching. LOL, finally something from what I learnt in Uni. I didn't have ice cubes. But I did have ice block that I kept inside a ice cream container. Well, I did that because I thought doing this could save electricity. However, there are other opinions that mentioned that in order to make it into ice, more electricity are being wasted, it's easier to make the air cooler again. Well, whatever!

ice

I removed the carrot after 2 minutes or slightly longer from the pot and put it into the plastic container with the ice block. Then I left it and ate my dinner. 

ice bath

Well, after that, I arranged the carrot pieces in a plate, bowl and container lid. and put that inside the freezer. I read that this is to prevent it to clump together, if it's frozen first, it will be individual piece. Anyway, I don't have the space and tools, so I use whatever I have. 

frozen in individual pieces first

After around 3 or 4 hours, well I had work to do, I slept on 3am that day I think, I put all the carrot pieces into the ice cream container and called it a day.

frozen carrot

Well, I think I didn't blanch it correctly. Although from appearances, it's still ok. But it's quick soft, not crunchy after cook. Nevermind, can try next time, at least I didn't wait until it's dried up before I do anything.

in freezer section after 2 days

Below shows cooking with fresh carrot. It's still sweet and crunchy.

dried mee with fresh carrot

dried mee with fresh carrot

Below is cooking with the frozen carrot, it's quite mushy.

frozen carrot and frozen edamame

cooked with frozen carrot

Cooking involved so much knowledge, I am learning and trying to become better everyday!