Would home shredded and frozen zucchini and summer squash still be OK for fritters or breads?

Robert B
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14 Comments

Nadia H. August 8, 2015
Yes you can. I freeze lots of zucchini like this every summer and I actually leave the shredded seeded zucchini undrained on purpose, as I pack them into cups. I just wrote a post on my gardening blog about this https://mygardenerstable.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/zucchini-handling/
 
mickle August 6, 2015
Please post the Hungarian recipe
 
Lynne W. August 8, 2015
mickle - if you click on the name and/or picture (avatar) next to her name, it will take you to her user page here on this site: https://food52.com/users/61651-windischgirl/recipes
From there, you can view her recipe posts... (there aren't very many there, so you should find it easily enough, but just in case -- here is the full direct link: https://food52.com/recipes/37566-hungarian-creamed-zucchini-anyu-s-tok-fozelek
 
boulangere August 5, 2015
Absolutely! I do this all the time, since friends routinely bring me their sues that accidentally grew to baseball bat sizes. I split the, down the middle, scrape out the seeded centers which are loaded with water, then grate and freeze them in 2 pound lots in ziplock bags. To bake with them, I thaw them overnight in the refrigerator, then dump them into a colander to drain the excess water and proceed from there. If you have enough friends with enough gardens, you can have zucchini breads and muffins and pancakes well into winter.
 
boulangere August 5, 2015
Okay to translate autocorrect, friends bring me their zukes and I split them down the middle. Sheesh.
 
boulangere August 5, 2015
P.s. I discard the seeded centers and just grate the remaining squash
 
Windischgirl August 5, 2015
My grandmother would make Hungarian-style creamed zucchini and freeze it. However, she eliminated as much water as possible prior to freezing. First, she would salt down the shredded zucchini and let it drain in a colander, then squeeze it dry. Next, she would sauté the zucchini in cooking oil to steam off the remaining water. She would then pack the cooked zucchini into plastic containers to freeze. I think at this point you could use it for bread; It would probably be too soft for fritters since it's already cooked.
I think she even froze some after adding the white sauce or stabilized sour cream. I'm guessing the milk fat coated the zucchini and limited the mushiness.
Maybe I can post her recipe this weekend.
 
Windischgirl August 8, 2015
Recipe just posted! You'll need a couple of bell peppers and a hot pepper too :-)
 
ChefJune August 5, 2015
You would have a better product if you baked the bread first and froze that.
 
Nancy August 5, 2015
ditto for the fritters.
but/and maybe the poster has the shredded zucchini & summer squash and wants to use it up...in that case I suggest making a pasta sauce or some kind of soup, where the mushiness will matter less or disappear into the dish as it's cooked.
 
jilhil August 5, 2015
It will work for breads and muffins, but you must remove as much water as possible before freezing it (otherwise you get the mush mentioned above.). The easiest way to remove the water is to let the squash sit for a couple of minutes after shredding, then wring it out in a clean cotton kitchen towel.
 
Smaug August 5, 2015
The problem would be with cells exploding- you'd have to draw the water from inside the cells with salt, then rinse off the salt, THEN dry as best possible. With squash available all year, it hardly seems worth it.
 
sexyLAMBCHOPx August 5, 2015
This article may be helpful: http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2007/09/how-to-freeze-zucchini-my-one-claim-to.html
 
Smaug August 5, 2015
I would try shredding some and freezing it for a couple of days, see what you get. My guess is mush, which certainly wouldn't work for fritters, probably not bread.
 
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