Ramadan Prep: A Freezer Schedule for Before the Month

The most tiring thing in Ramadan is not the fasting — it is cooking a full meal while fasting in the last two hours before sunset. And the answer is to do most of that work before the month begins.

The fundamental rule: raw or cooked

People confuse two entirely different kinds of freezing:

Fried things freeze raw and fry straight from the freezer. Sambousek, kibbeh, falafel and chips — fry them and freeze them and they will soften and soak up oil when reheated.

Things cooked in liquid freeze completely finished. Soups, stews, cooked stuffed vegetables and sauces — these genuinely improve with freezing because the flavours settle together.

The one exception: chips freeze after a first pale fry — half cooked, and they take their second fry at eating time.

Two weeks before the month

These are the preparations that take time and keep well:

• Crispy fried onions: two kilos covers the month. They go into fatteh, pasta, soup and koshari.
• Meat and chicken stock: in ice-cube trays. The base of every soup and sauce.
• The basic tomato sauce: tomato sauce cooked with onion and garlic, divided into bags.
• Sambousek pastry: rolled and cut with baking paper between the sheets.
• Boiled pulses: chickpeas, broad beans and lentils — boiled and frozen in their cooking liquid.

One week before the month

• Filled sambousek, raw: spread on a tray for two hours first, then into bags.
• Shaped kibbeh and kofta: the same method — spread, then bagged.
• Half-fried chips: after a first pale fry and complete cooling.
• Vine leaves and rolls: rolled raw and packed in boxes.
• Bread: baladi and sun bread portioned into bags.

Two days before the month

• Drinks: tamarind, carob and sobia concentrated in the fridge.
• Khoshaf: apricot leather and dried fruit soaking.
• Dry sweets: kahk, petits fours and ghorayeba keep for weeks in airtight tins.
• Chopped vegetables: onion and garlic chopped into boxes in the fridge.

Freezer keeping times

• Raw sambousek and kibbeh: two months
• Raw seasoned kofta and meat: 3 months
• Cooked soup and stew: 3 months
• Concentrated stock: 6 months
• Fried onions: 3 months
• Half-fried chips: 6 months
• Bread: 3 months
• Raw dough: one month

The freezing rules that matter

1. Freeze spread out first. Anything in pieces (sambousek, kofta, chips) is spread on a tray without touching for two hours, then transferred to a bag. Without that step you get one solid block that will not separate.

2. Push the air out. Air in the bag is what causes 'freezer burn' — the dry white patches that change the taste and texture. Press the bag or use a vacuum sealer.

3. Portion by meal. A large block forces you to thaw all of it, and refreezing ruins the food and makes it unsafe.

4. Write the name and date. Without dates the freezer becomes a graveyard of anonymous boxes.

5. Cool completely before freezing. Warm food raises the freezer temperature and thaws what is next to it, and forms large ice crystals inside the food itself.

Common Ramadan prep mistakes

Freezing fried food: it softens and soaks up oil when reheated. Freeze it raw.

Freezing whole boiled potatoes: they turn mealy. Potatoes freeze only mashed or half fried.

Freezing food containing yogurt or cream: it curdles and splits. Add dairy when reheating, not before freezing.

A Ramadan day with the prep done

With a stocked freezer, iftar takes 40 minutes instead of three hours:

• An hour ahead: move the soup and stew from freezer to fridge (or heat them straight over low heat).
• Minus 40 minutes: rice on the heat with the ready fried onions.
• Minus 20 minutes: sambousek from the freezer straight into the oil.
• Minus 10 minutes: the salad (the one thing made fresh).

Everything else was ready before the month began.