How to prepare vegetable physalis at home and can it be frozen for the winter
Unfortunately, physalis in our country is not the most popular plant for growing on the site. Many do not even know what it is and what physalis berries are for. Although it is a very tasty and healthy plant. Well, those who know what physalis is, prepare it for the winter.
How to choose physalis for harvesting for the winter?
In agriculture, it is customary to distinguish two varieties of plants - vegetable and decorative. Only vegetable physalis is suitable for preparations for the winter. Before you start harvesting vegetables for the winter, you need to choose the right fruits.
Only ripe and healthy berries are suitable for blanks. There should be no traces of damage and from insects. The fruits are harvested after the “flashlight” in which the berry is located begins to dry out and becomes light yellow.
In most varieties, the berries that hang on the lower branches ripen first, and then all the rest. You can pick fruits that have fallen to the ground. Only they should be carefully examined. If it has been raining recently and the soil is damp, larvae will grow in them.
Physalis harvesting methods
Vegetable varieties of plants are harvested for the winter in various ways. It can be harvested by preservation, freezing in a freezer or drying. Each method has its own characteristics. It is necessary to choose a method of harvesting a plant based on the purpose of using the fruit.
Freezing
The easiest way to harvest for the winter is to simply freeze it in the freezer. To do this, you need to collect the berries, clean them of the "flashlights" and rinse in cool water. Spread out on a towel and wait until the peel is dry.
Then transfer the berries to a bag or container and put them in the freezer. You only need to get out the amount of workpiece that will be used. Re-freezing of fruits is undesirable.
Conservation
The second way to harvest them for the winter is to preserve them. To marinate, you need the following ingredients:
- ripe physalis berries;
- water (1-2 liters);
- a few carnation seeds;
- lavrushka;
- black peppercorns;
- 500 g sugar;
- 300 ml of 6% vinegar.
Pour water into a saucepan, peel the fruit and wash it. Banks are sterilized. Spices are placed on the bottom of a glass container. The second stage is the preparation of the brine. For this, sugar is dissolved in water and vinegar is added. Transfer the fruits to jars and cover with hot brine. Cover with a metal lid and tighten. Turn the jars upside down, wrap and let cool completely.
Another recipe for physalis is with salt. For cooking, you need the following ingredients:
- physalis;
- 1.5 liters of water;
- a tablespoon of salt;
- fresh currant leaves;
- lavrushka;
- dill;
- a few cloves of garlic;
- capsicum;
- two sprigs of mint.
Put spices, herbs, garlic and pepper on the bottom of the jars. Then lay out the fruits. Fill the jars with brine. Turn the finished preservation, put it on the floor and wait for it to cool. After the cans become cold, they are lowered into the basement until winter.
The fruits are also canned with other vegetables. And they even make delicious jam from them. Prepare berry jam in the same way as any other.
Drying
The dried fruit tastes like raisins. You can dry the berries in the oven or in the open sun. First you need to select the berries. Then preheat the oven to 40 degrees. Spread the fruit on a baking sheet and put it in the oven.
It takes several hours to dry, periodically turning the fruits over.
You can also dry the berries in the sun. For this, the berries are laid out on a baking sheet or newspaper and placed in the sun. You need to constantly move workpieces in the sun throughout the day. This drying method takes more than one day. And the taste of the fruits dried in different ways is no different.
Store dried physalis in glass containers or containers away from sunlight. If the house has an electric dryer for fruits and berries, you can use it too.
Candied fruits are made from berries. For this, the berries are poured with hot sugar syrup, covered with a lid and left in this form for six hours. After 6 hours, the fruits are put on fire, brought to a boil. Thrown back in a colander.
When the syrup drains, the candied fruits are laid out on a baking sheet and dried in the oven at 40 degrees. Ready-made sweets are stored in glass containers.
