Start with Fresh Green Beans from your garden or Farmer's Market
Using a "Frenching Tool" French-cut the green beans
All Frenched and ready to blanche
Boil some water with 1 tsp. salt
Add beans and blanche for three (3) minutes
(All fruits and vegetables contain enzymes and bacteria that, over time, break down the destroy nutrients and change the color, flavor, and texture of food during frozen storage. Green beans
require a brief heat treatment, called blanching, in boiling water or steam, to destroy the enzymes before freezing. Blanching times for beans is 3 minutes (the duration should be just long enough to
stop the action of the enzymes and kill the bacteria).
Drain and immediately plunge beans into ice-water bath
Blot beans dry with paper towels and place on a lightly sprayed baking sheet. Put them on the top shelf of your freezer, or the coldest most point, and let freeze for at least one hour, checking from time to time to break apart and keep separate.
Once frozen, pack into freezer storage bags and lay flat in freezer.
There's no need to French-cut the beans if you don't want to. Simply cut them into the desired size and proceed as above. $2 for 2 lbs. of fresh green beans from the Farmer's Market, one hour of time = one gallon bag French-cut green beans! Priceless!
Enjoy,
Mary
