salans that freeze well... help needed

hi everyone,

I am gonna be visiting pak for atleast 2 and half months (or even for a bit more timedepending on personal situation), and would like to cook and freeze a nice variety of salans/curries for my husband before i go… the problem is except for a short list of different salans, i am running out of new ideas… I really need to freeze a lot of food, because he does not like to eat outside at all, not even for a day (the problem is that the area we live in, in the US, doesn’t have any good convenient options for halal food for him plus he really does like home cooked food much better no matter what). it would be nice to give him some variety too.

so My question is, would you girls/guys like to give me a few ideas … few salan/dishes names etc, that in your expereince freeze well and dont get soggy or runied when defrosted/heated. if you have been in a situation like mine before, what were some of the dishes that you cooked and froze???

if you haven’t been in the same situation, have your, mom, sister, relative been? any suggestions from them? did your mom ever freeze some cooked stuff for you (for college or before a trip etc.)that was still yummy and intact when you heated it up?

so far i have come up with the following salaans
qeema mattar,
ghosht qorma
chicken palak
gobhi gosht
haleeem

that’s pretty much it
which vegetable salaans freeze well? forexample will a vegetable bhujia with potatoes and carrots in it,freeze well? because i dont know how well cooked potatoes and cooked carrots do when frozen.

also new ideas for meat (chicken, goat, lamb etc) related dishes would really help too, coz my husband is pretty much a carnivore, and only eats vegetables once in a while when he really has to.

will be waiting for your replies,
thanks in advance

would also be just interesting to hear how many of you have been in the same situation as me, and what kind of stuff did you cook.

Re: salans that freeze well... help needed

Once he eats salan that's been frozen for a month or so believe me he will grow up and start making his own food or at least buying it.

lol sara,
he wont ever make his own food.. thts for sure... lol

the whole freezing thing can work out, if the food is sealed in air tight containers properly and then frozen, plus every container neatly labelled etc.
just need to think of some new dishes!

a little help people!

Re: salans that freeze well... help needed

everything freezes well believe it or not. except for chawal. why would you freeze that?

you can also put masala on raw chicken and freeze that. otherwise when you're cooking for every day stuff, just cook extra and freeze the extra so you don't have to think of special foods.

Re: salans that freeze well... help needed

unfortunately potatoes and cooked gobhi etc do not freeze well...
i had frozen foods for my husband to last him for three months when i was visiting pakistan....
as you already said,keema freezes well...and so does mutton salan....
make some chicken salans and freeze them...like chicken korma and/or chicken karahi....or chicken achari ...chicken freezes well....
my husband loves daals,so i froze a whole lot of those too....both cooked with and without meat....
kababs are a great thing...u can make the kabab salan thing and freeze it cooked or make a batch of shami kababs and keep them in the freezer and they can be fried and used for a quick meal....

Re: salans that freeze well... help needed

I am same way , I cannot eat out more than one time a week. Fortunately I can cook anything or everything but hate it though. So my sughar wife when she goes for long time cooks lots of stuff and freezes it. Also she starts to freeze a portion of whatever she cooks two weeks before leaving.

Everything freezes and comes out right even chawal/rice ,if you , use microwave to reheat it. So let me give you some more ideas>
1. Chicken Karahi,
2. Stew of any kind.
3. All kind of Daals plain or with gosht.
4. Shami kababs
5. Chapli kababs.
5. Nihari.
6. Any kind of vegetable plain or with gosht.
7. Chicken jelfrazi ( shan has masala for it)
8. Various kinds of Biryanies , like sindhi, masala, bombay, etc.
This list should last for 12 weeks. I hope.

Re: salans that freeze well... help needed

potatoes..do not freeze well..rest of the stuff does..!
You can make meatballs..and freeze them..also baked fish..can be frozen too!

Here is the list of foods which I freeze in ziploc and tagged them when I went to Pakistan

Koftay
Niihai
Biryani
Achar Gosht
Stew
Qorma
Simple chicken/beef salan
Bhuna gosht
Karahi Gosht
Qeema Aalo mutter
Dum Qeema
Shaami kabab as for snack and he can make sandwich for lunch or breakfast
Chapli Kabab
steam chicken
Daal
Tahiri
Haleem
Pasanday

Hopefully it helps, Veges are not good after freezing so I cook mostly meat item to freeze.

thanks ppl.
cooking and freezing is going well