One of the few things growing well after our cool, rainy month of June is broccoli.  All ten plants started to flower (yep, you’re eating flower buds, folks) so I walked up to the garden and cut their little heads off.  Gardening can be cruel.

So, ten nice heads of broccoli on the counter.  Don’t think we can eat that much tonight, so we’ll blanch and freeze these.

Get a big pot of water boiling (this one is a 10 quart stock pot), and dunk the broccoli heads into the boiling water to blanch them.

Just so you know, blanching stops enzyme actions in vegetables which can cause loss of flavor, color and texture and it cleans them as well.

Because I’m contrary, here’s where I disagree with the “authorities”.  “They” recommend putting broccoli into boiling water, waiting until the water comes back to a boil, then boil for 3 minutes.  Sorry—even if I was cooking it for dinner, I wouldn’t cook it that long.

This year, we’re blanching about a minute to a minute and a half.  Swish it around with the tongs.  Boil the bugs.  It will turn a brilliant green color.

Green color (blanched) on the left and the blue-greenish (raw) broccoli on the right.  If you look closely, the yellow color on the flowers is the buds starting to open. I was lazy.  I probably picked them a day too late.  They will still taste better than the stuff in the supermarket.

When the blanching is done, immediately dump them into a big pot of ice water to stop the cooking and cool them off quickly.

Yes, I know that you “authorities” say that underblanching is bad, bad, bad.

Tough darts.

I’m doin’ this my way.  ‘Cause I’m the Gramma.
And we have to eat it—they don’t.  And I don’t like mushy vegetables.

Then we drain and lay them out on towels to dry.

We’re going to vacuum seal these for freezer storage, so we put the blanched, cut up broccoli on cookie sheets in the freezer. Let them freeze until they are pretty crunchy (and in our frost-free freezer, it also helps dry the surface even more).

Put the broccoli into bags and seal ‘em up.  Label and pop into the freezer.

After the harvest of the main shoots, the broccoli keeps trying to flower, as its main purpose in life is to flower and make seeds.

So we keep harvesting these side shoots as they appear.  They’re smaller than the main head, but they are great in stir fries, for cooking and on a fresh vegetable platter.

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