Blanching made easy

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Everyone knows that frozen vegetables, after defrosting, retain almost all vitamins, original color and even smell. And blanching - what is it? And why is it needed? Many housewives are still tormented by this question.

So, blanching is an operation that consists in preparing products for further processing.

Vegetables, berries are usually processed with boiling water, just hot water or even steam. Why is this being done?

The fact is that blanching is a kind of help for the further use of products. During heat treatment, air is removed from all tissues, microorganisms are destroyed, and some enzymes are destroyed. Most often this is done with vegetables that you want to save.

So, blanching a tomato is as follows. On each tomato, you must first make a cross-shaped incision. However, it should not be deep, so as not to cut the tomato itself. Try to touch only the skin. Boil the kettle and pour the prepared vegetables with boiling water. They must be completely submerged in water! If you plan to use the tomatoes for soup, soak them in boiling water for five minutes; for salad, the blanching time is reduced to one minute. As you can see, everythingpretty simple. Some advise adding s alt or citric acid to boiling water, but this is already a matter of taste. Now it remains only to remove the skin (it will come off easily) and remove the seeds. You will get excellent preparations for various dishes.

Can berries be blanched?

Yes, you can. Blanching is an almost universal process. The fundamental difference from the processing of vegetables is that the berries should only be lightly doused with steam, and not doused with boiling water. And even more so to keep in it. You can take an ordinary colander, pour clean berries into it and hold them a little over a pot of hot water. This is the blanching of berries. If they have a tender skin, then the processing time will be one minute. But as for, for example, cherries, you can steam them for about three minutes.

A little more about blanching

The term itself came to us from France. Now not only vegetables and berries are blanched, but also fish, and even greens. What are the goals of this process? First, the aesthetic side. Vegetables should retain a pleasant color. This is especially important for restaurants and cafes. But the meat after such processing becomes, on the contrary, white. As already mentioned, heat treatment helps the skin to come off the fruit more easily. At the same time, any bitterness and unpleasant odors, if any, are removed. As for berries, the removal of oxygen leads to the fact that the vitamins in them are preserved in their original form. If you are not a fan of asparagus or spinach, then try blanching theseproducts. Their taste will improve significantly. Knowledgeable housewives have long resorted to this trick to teach the family to eat he althy. It is only necessary to take into account the properties of the product and select the optimal processing time. Apricots blanched in forty seconds, but cabbages can take up to six minutes.